by Jennifer Szweda Jordan
July 18, 2020

It’s a good thing Paolo Puccini is a distance hiker. The last leg of his road to the priesthood is stretching out longer than expected. The Paulist Fathers scheduled Paolo’s ordination for May 2020. But, like so many events, it was postponed due to COVID-19.

Paolo’s taking it in stride, saying he’s concerned for the people experiencing much worse.

Perseverance through adversity has marked Paolo’s journey. In his seminary years, the Catholic Church faced significant crises. The institution was forced to confront leaders’ sexual and financial abuses. 

Then the two priests who first mentored him left religious life.

“It was tough,” he says. Yet, Paolo says, it forced him to think deeply about his commitment to the Paulist community, as opposed to friendships with individual men. 

Paolo continued moving forward–in many ways. Late in his seminary studies, he walked about 80 miles through Portugal–part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. The spirituality he experienced there, he says, “wasn’t as much the arrival, but the experience God would provide for me along the way.”

In September 2019. Paolo made his final promise to the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, and was ordained a transitional deacon. He will remain in that role until ordination this summer now scheduled to take place in Austin. 

Texas is where Paolo was raised and where his faith was shaped.

“When I was younger, something was attractive to me about Mass and the mystery of God–the Easter Triduum and the story of death and resurrection,” Paolo says. “For me it was the totality of the experience.”

Paolo’s family was full of active Catholics. He followed their lead, and kept going.

“There was always more to learn about being Catholic,” he says.

His relationship with God developed over the years, particularly while studying at the University of Texas.

“When I was younger it was deeply personal,” Paolo says. “In college, my faith pivoted. My faith was a way I could encounter people.” 

Those encounters included volunteering two months in El Salvador at a boarding school for 70 boys who were threatened by gangs. In the evenings, he helped them with homework so they’d have some supervision and encouragement while they were separated from their parents. 

“I’ve seen that kind of poverty they live in,” he says.

Paolo got to know the Paulist Fathers who were ministering at the Catholic Center serving the University of Texas at Austin. 

“I really appreciated the way they were accessible,” he says. “They would have daily mass, usually noon or 12:30 depending on the day of the week, and the priest would say, you know, I’m going to the food court next door to have lunch and people would just join him for lunch. And there was that sense of being able to dialogue informally. And that really opened my horizons, opened my eyes on a lot of theological issues. And a lot of social issues.”

After graduating college in 2009, Paolo followed his father into engineering in the oil industry. While work was relatively satisfying, Paolo says his relationships with colleagues left him longing for the deeper encounters with people that he experienced in college faith and service groups. 

The impact of studying science didn’t go completely by the wayside.

“He’s into the intersection of faith and science, particularly environmental issues,” says Fr. Stuart Wilson-Smith, whose years in seminary overlapped with Paolo’s. “He can speak quite intelligently on that from his background as an engineer… and a perpetual student of the encyclical Laudato si. He loves talking about Pope Francis in general.”

Paolo is also enthusiastic about Hispanic ministry. He’s fluent in Spanish. Paolo’s dad is from Colombia, and his great uncle is the bishop emeritus of Santa Marta. Paolo ministered to the Hispanic community while in seminary in Washington, D.C. He’s pleased the Catholic Church is trying to serve people fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.

“The first and most basic level is caring for the people in front of us, caring for their concrete needs,” Paolo says. “There also are questions of international policy–structural justice that need to take place. And also thinking about ‘How we can improve life for them in their own countries?’ So that way they can experience safety and prosperity as well, because the decision to leave home is always a very tragic decision. And I certainly know many families that are separated and have been separated for years, if not decades. So that’s one of the things that excites me about our Catholic teaching, is that we don’t just look for the simplest answer, but at the same time, we try to live and act with compassion.”

Paolo’s not the kind of person who accepts simple answers himself. 

“He had a good reputation at Catholic University of America as someone who would challenge assumptions and raise questions,” says Fr. Stuart. 

The world is certainly rocked with questions as Paolo moves to the next leg of his journey–questions about racial inequity, violence and public health. 

Paolo says that being a Paulist affords the opportunity for engaging in social issues in a way that isn’t always available to many diocesan priests.

“The fact that we live in community means that we can do the tasks of a normal parish, but by dividing the task between two or three other priests, Paulists are able to make special contributions to the dioceses,” Paolo says. “I hope to use some of the time that I have as a Paulist to do more study first of all. And then secondly, think about how I can be a better advocate for sustainability. And I know that there’s a lot of terrific programs that are out there already with the Catholic Church.”

And while he forges a path forward with God, he’s bound to influence others. 

“He is an excellent leader,” Fr. Stu says. “People are willing to follow him.”