Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, anoints the hands of Father Porfirio García Rodriguez, OMI, during his ordination Mass. Ruben Alfaro | Today’s Catholic

SAN ANTONIO • The Immaculate Conception Memorial Chapel of Oblate School of Theology was the setting for the ordination of two new Oblate priests on May 17 — Marco Antonio “Tony” Ortiz Gutíerrez, OMI, and Porfirio García Rodriguez, OMI. Performing the rite of ordination was Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska.

Father Ortiz, born in San Antonio in 1981, is the son of Carmen and Jorge Mota. His early years were spent in Mexico City and he went on to attend St. Anthony High School here, graduating in 1999.

It was at St. Anthony that he became acquainted with the Oblates, under whom the school was then administered, and made the decision to become an Oblate himself, noting it was their sense of community and inner happiness that drew him to the order. He entered the pre-novitiate at the Oblate seminary in Miramar, Fla., and in 2002 entered the novitiate in Godfrey, Ill., taking his first vows there in 2003 and serving in St. Louis, Mo.

He returned to San Antonio for a year of studies at Oblate School of Theology, during which time he also helped out at St. Anthony’s, helping found the Young Oblate Associates there, a high school organization that focuses on living out the Oblate charism through prayer and good works. It is modeled after the guidelines of the adult Oblate Associates.

He studied further in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University and pronounced his perpetual vows as an Oblate there on the feast of the Epiphany in 2007, receiving the Oblate cross of the late Father José Azpiazu, a long-time missionary in the Rio Grande Valley, who died in 2004 at the age of 100.

This past year was spent in International Falls, Minn., where he served as deacon for St. Thomas Aquinas Church.
His first Mass, following his ordination, was celebrated May 18 at the Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, due to its Oblate ties. The pastor there, Father Arthur Flores, OMI, had served as his confirmation sponsor and been an inspiration to Father Ortiz’s vocation to the priesthood. Others had a role in his vocation as well.

“I guess the people who played the strongest part of my whole vocation have been, in my childhood years, my great grandparents and my aunt,” Father Ortiz related. “And in high school it was the Oblates — and my friends.” He added, “I have to say my friends have really been a great support to me in my vocation; they never tried to discourage me. I’m very blessed with my friends.”

Father Ortiz has been assigned as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish in Houston.

Father Porfirio García, the son of Benita Rodriguez and the late Ernesto García, was born in 1970 in Santa Ana, Veracruz, México, and grew up in the city of Cardel. The seventh of 10 children, he attended school in Mexico, completing his studies in Guadalajara and Tijuana, and originally worked in the public hospital in Verac¬¬ruz. It was here that he first began to discern his vocation to the priesthood, while assisting patients.

He attended a diocesan vocational retreat in his parish, learning of the Oblates through their literature, his first connection with them being through Youth Congress missionaries in Veracruz in 1990.

He began his formation program with the Oblates in 1996 and entered the pre-novitiate in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2000. His novitiate was spent in Godfrey, Ill., where he took his vows in 2002.

His internship was in Tewksbury, Mass., followed by studies at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio as a member of the George Sexton House of Studies.

Father García is celebrating multiple Masses of thanksgiving, with the various communities of which he has been a part. On May 18, he celebrated his first Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church here, where he served as deacon, assisting the pastor, Father Stuart Juleen.

He subsequently celebrated Masses of thanksgiving in California and Massachusetts as well, where he had also served, with his final Mass in celebration of his ordination scheduled to take place in his home parish in Veracruz on June 14.
After that, he will be heading for his assignment in Buffalo, N.Y., as parochial vicar at Holy Angels Parish. Father García noted the strong connection between the Oblate charism and the economically disadvantaged background from which he came. This has especially helped him to identify with the poor in his work with them, he said. “I’m really open to accept whatever is coming,” he added. "I’m accepting the challenge to be a priest and to be responsible for a community and to be open for the people."