CHARLOTTE — Father Julio Domínguez has been appointed vicar of Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Charlotte, Bishop Peter Jugis has announced.
Father Domínguez succeeds Father Fidel Melo, who has been granted a sabbatical for a year to participate in a Purépecha language and culture immersion in the Archdiocese of Morelia in Michoacán, Mexico, in order to minister to the Purépecha immigrant community here in the diocese.
Father Domínguez’s appointment was effective Feb. 1.
The new role caps more than 16 years of ministry in the diocese for Father Domínguez, who was ordained for the diocese in 2003.
A native of Tamaulipas state, Mexico, Father Domínguez knew he wanted to be a priest since he was 8 years old, he says. Yet like many young people as they grow up, he left the Church for a time in his teenage years and had doubts about his faith. But a conversation with his mother, Esperanza Prieto, impelled him to return to his faith when he was in high school.
He recalls his mother telling him, “Look, César (that is what his mother calls him), I’m just going to tell you something. I already showed you the way of God and you had taken it very well, but you left it. I just want you to know that there is a heaven and a hell, and you are on the road to hell. It depends on you, I already gave you the basis, and you are going to take the path you want.”
He began to take a more active role in the Church after a missionary priest urged him to receive training to become a catechist. What he learned about his faith, he says, filled his heart.
“The missionaries explained everything so well that it made sense,” he says.
He left his secular studies and a girlfriend at the time, and enrolled at the Religious House of the Missionaries of Christ Mediator. He remained in religious life for the next 10 years, but he felt God was calling him to work more closely with people at a parish, in a community.
While studying his third year of philosophy and theology in Rome, he made plans to enter the diocesan priesthood in Jalisco, Mexico. But before returning home to Mexico from Rome, he stopped over in Gastonia to visit relatives.
That visit to Gastonia changed his life, he says. There he met Father John Allen, who at the time was pastor of St. Michael Church there. Father Allen encouraged him to consider studying for the priesthood for the Charlotte diocese. He had doubts about leaving his home and family in Mexico and he wondered about the challenges of learning a new language and serving in an unfamiliar area, he recalls, but his mother encouraged him again to follow God’s will.
“God does not work by chance,” she told him.
After his ordination, Father Domínguez served at Sacred Heart Parish in Salisbury, where his mentor was Father John Putnam, formerly pastor there. He then served at St. Aloysius Church in Hickory, and for the past seven years he has served as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Lenoir.
His secondary assignments have included serving on the Presbyteral Council, overseeing the Hispanic Track of the annual Diocese of Charlotte Eucharistic Congress, serving on the diocesan vocations team and, most recently, serving as Hispanic Ministry coordinator for the Smoky Mountains Vicariate.
— César Hurtado, Catholic News Herald
ROME — Just as Christ spent his ministry healing and comforting the sick and the needy, bishops also must be a sign of charity in their dioceses, said Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Celebrating an early morning Mass Feb. 10 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Bishop Jugis said, "The love of Christ impels us to be examples of that charity to our local churches."
"It is a great self-giving in love to which we are called as bishops and the model to which we always look to is Jesus, who loved us to the end by his suffering, death and resurrection," he said.
Bishop Jugis was the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass the bishops of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina celebrated during their visit "ad limina apostolorum" -- to the threshold of the apostles -- to report on the status of their dioceses.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis reflected on the day's Gospel reading from St. Mark which recalled the many people who brought their sick loved ones to Jesus in hopes that he would heal them.
Jesus' charity, he said, "transformed every place where he went," and by his very presence, he moved others "to works of charity, to help the needy, to help the sick."
The church, he added, "continues unabated that great mission of charity and will to the end of time."
Bishops must "do all with charity, whether it is to teach -- in virtue of our teaching office -- the truth in love or even to correct or to admonish others, but always in love," Bishop Jugis said. "We do all in charity, even to govern with the heart of a pastor, and to sanctify and make holy those under our care to assist them in charity on their pilgrim way to eternal life."
Citing Pope Francis' talk to new cardinals during the 2015 consistory, Bishop Jugis reminded his fellow bishops that in the church, "all presiding flows from charity, must be exercised in charity and is ordered toward charity."
"This pilgrimage 'ad limina apostolorum' is a sign of our communion and unity with the chair of Peter. May these days renew in each of us a spirit of Christ-like service to our local churches to build up the whole church in unity and love," he said.
— Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service
Pictured: Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte, N.C., center, concelebrates Mass with U.S. bishops from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome Feb. 10, 2020. The bishops were making their "ad limina" visits to report on the status of their dioceses to Pope Francis and Vatican officials. (CNS photo/Stefano Dal Pozzolo)
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