Los Angeles, Calif., Sep 28, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Reprinted with permission from Angelus News.
After being brought into this world against the odds, losing his father at 8 years old, and surviving a battle with cancer, Father Adrian San Juan knew one thing for certain: that he would “rather be with the Lord.”
That attitude — and memories of the young priest’s zeal for Christ — are what is left to console grieving parishioners, relatives, and fellow priests stunned by the news of the 43-year-old’s sudden passing Saturday, Sept. 19, after collapsing at the start of a wedding at St. Linus Church in Norwalk, California, where he served as administrator.
“He passed away doing what he loved: celebrating the Eucharist,” said Rafael Alvarez, a St. Linus parishioner and seminarian at the Queen of Angels Center for Priestly Formation. “That was one of his most joyful moments.”
Alvarez was there assisting Father San Juan as he entered the parish’s canopied “outdoor church,” kissed the altar, and waited for the wedding party to process toward the altar. But a few moments later, something “didn’t feel right”: to Alvarez’s surprise, Father San Juan went to sit in the presider’s chair before falling to the ground.
Paramedics were called and attempted CPR on Father San Juan, who had suffered an apparent heart attack, before taking him to PIH Whittier Hospital while another priest at St. Linus, Father Marco Reyes, stepped in to continue the wedding.
Father San Juan was pronounced dead a short while later. A small group of family members were briefly allowed into the hospital, and a priest was able to give him the last rites.
Despite the shock over the apparently healthy priest’s death, though, those who knew the priest told Angelus they were comforted that his passing came before the altar, after a “second life” in which he lived his vocation to the fullest.
Father San Juan was born the last of six children in 1976 in Valenzuela, Philippines, outside the capital city of Manila. His birth was welcomed as a miraculous surprise, coming 11 years after the family’s next oldest child.
“Because of my mom’s advanced age, she had a very critical pregnancy [with Father San Juan],” said Victoria Siongco, the late priest’s sister. “She almost lost him.”
His mother, Gloria, spent the final months of the pregnancy confined to bed rest, begging God for her son’s life.
“We would see her every day praying with her arms outstretched, like a manifestation of a sacrifice, praying not to lose him,” recalled Siongco.
Both Father San Juan and his mother survived what his family says was a complicated childbirth. Eight years later, hard times struck the family again when his father, Carlos, succumbed to lung cancer.
As Siongco remembers it, her little brother showed signs of a vocation even before starting elementary school. He was fascinated by religious processions and was already singing in church by age 3.
“He loved the saints, he loved praying, he loved singing, he loved everything about the Church,” said Siongco.
By the time he had finished high school in 1994, he had broken up with his girlfriend at the time with the intention of entering the seminary.
Those closest to Father San Juan say his life was marked above all else by a life-and-death experience during that time: a testicular cancer diagnosis in 2002 a few months before his ordination to the diaconate.
Chemotherapy left him hairless, pale, and thin, but he vowed to follow through with his ordination to the diaconate. Family, friends, fellow seminarians, and even professors rallied behind him in prayer, and the cancer went into remission in 2003. He was ordained to the priesthood the following year.
“This is my second life, no doubt,” Father San Juan told Manila’s Phillipine Sunday Inquirer Magazine in an interview after his ordination in 2004. “I see myself in the hands of a loving Father. A second life is his revelation to me that I have a mission to do in His Name.”
In the same interview, the new priest shared that the cancer battle had given him more joy and a stronger faith.
“Life will not always be a journey of certainty, of controlling it the way we plan it,” he continued. “Doubts and so-called trials will come. But if we seek God in all things, then we learn that God’s love is everywhere.”
The priest credited his “second life” in particular to Divine Mercy, the Virgin Mary, and the miraculous intercession of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, to whom he had a fervent devotion for the rest of his life.
After spending six years ministering in parishes and schools in Manila, Father San Juan transferred to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2010 to be closer to his family. He served in several parishes, and was officially incardinated as a priest of the archdiocese in 2015.
Among his brother priests, Father San Juan was known as a “holy priest who had a wonderful sense of humor, and always had a smile on his face,” according to Vicar for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Msgr. Jim Halley.
Auxiliary Bishop Alex Aclan remembered how shortly after arriving in the archdiocese, then-Msgr. Aclan relied on Father San Juan twice to write the music for two fundraiser musical plays benefitting the Filipino Priests Association of Los Angeles.
And during the annual Christmastime Simbang Gabi Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, it was Father San Juan who was charged with leading his brother Filipino priests in singing in Tagalog after Communion.
“That’s how he endeared himself to the Filipino priests here,” recounted Bishop Aclan. “He was an excellent composer, pianist, and vocalist.”
One of those priests, Father Rizalino “Riz” Carranza, spent four years with him at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley, where Father Carranza is pastor and Father San Juan served as associate pastor from 2015 to 2019. He said Father San Juan was the ultimate “people priest,” a gifted preacher whose enthusiasm while celebrating the Eucharist was infectious.
“He really appealed to a lot of people of different ages, from the older to the younger,” recalled Father Carranza.
In private, his former pastor says Father San Juan was a man of deep prayer. Walking past the door to his room, Father Carranza would sometimes catch a glimpse of Father San Juan on his knees with a lit candle burning.
“He always expressed that he would rather be with God,” said Father Carranza.
At St. Linus, where Father San Juan spent the last year of his life, parish business manager Ana Engquist said the impact from his short time there will be felt for a long time.
“He brought a strong spirituality to the parish,” said Engquist, including starting a Divine Mercy prayer group as he did at St. Peter Claver.
“When he came on board he made it very clear we’re going to be a family, and that was kind of a strange concept to me. I was used to just having a working relationship with my pastors.”
Instead, Father San Juan told parish staff that they would be eating, praying, and even fighting together, as long as it was followed, of course, by forgiveness.
“His goal was to get us to heaven and to really live our faith, not just on Sundays, but day-to-day, to do the little things to get to heaven,” said Engquist.
Engquist and Alvarez agreed that the new administrator was a unifying presence for the parish over the last year.
“He was able to bring healing to the parish staff, and restored the ministries that were broken,” said Alvarez, whom Father San Juan guided and encouraged in his decision to enter the seminary this year.
During the recent months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Father San Juan took a “hands-on” approach in bringing the sacraments to his parishioners, whether through organizing a team to livestream Masses or building a dignified “outdoor church” in the parish parking lot with a stage and canopy when COVID-19 restrictions forced religious services to be held outdoors this summer.
“He died doing what he loved to do, and I think that he came to our parish to heal us in a lot of ways. And he fulfilled that mission,” said Engquist.
Part of that mission was accompanying young people like Alvarez and the couple that he had prepared for marriage on that fateful day to embrace their vocations. Among them also was his own niece, whom Father San Juan was also helping prepare for marriage with her fiancé.
Siongco told Angelus that she and her sister “Fely” (both of whom live in nearby Walnut) will miss her brother’s visits on his days off to eat together, plan vacations, and take 6,000-step walks to help them stay in shape.
Even in the face of losing their little brother, family chaplain, and travel companion, Siongco said her family is consoled by the outpouring on social media about the lives Father San Juan touched, evidence of the good fruit that his vocation bore.
“It’s an honor for Father Adrian to be summoned by the Lord,” said Siongco. “When our heavenly boss calls us, who should say no?”
[…]
Of course, the TLM could be restricted out of existence. Administratively and bureaucratically. Traditional Latin Masses are places of great reverence and protection, through which young parents hope to protect their children from being influenced by the unhealthy aspects of the secular culture. One can say that children do not benefit from the Latin language in the TLM. Surely they may not understand Latin. However, they do not much listen to the vernacular either. They may sense a noetic presence more clearly in the solemnity of the traditional latin mass from which they may be better able to choose wisely out in worldy affairs. By writing this, I do not wish to disdain those who try their best in the Novus Ordo. Freedom to choose you know. The Catholic tent for welcoming is great.
So, parish Churches are not places for those who wish to attend the TLM? Where then? Dining halls? Homes? Outdoors? School cafeterias? Surely, the Church has some ideas? Pray tell! Nevertheless, the Guardians of the Tradition would not desire to be too exclusive in this matter. All are welcome.
There’s a good item in a recent Gregorius Magnus about the children respond to the TLM.
I would humbly suggest that the Traditional Latin Mass be celebrated only in suitable church buildings that have the proper orientation, high altar, the choir loft in the BACK of the nave rather than up front, an organ rather than piano (preferably a pipe organ, but these are incredibly expensive–I am an organist, by the way), enclosed confessionals, etc. Many modern (1950s and later) church buildings do not have the high altar, the stained glass windows, the beautiful paintings and murals, the images of the saints, the Stations of the Cross, and of the Blessed Mother and of Jesus Christ, our Lord, or of the Trinity. Many modern church buildings are “clam-shells,” or “circles” without a center aisle. The tabernacles in many modern church buildings look more like shiny safes than a place for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to be reposed reverently. The pulpits are thin little slabs of wood or even plexiglass. And the sound systems are “in-your-face”, with speakers hanging from the ceiling in a way that almost makes them look like a piece of modern art. Also, in many modern Catholic church buildings, the “foyer” is huge, sometimes as big as the nave, and is filled with booths promoting all the various programs in the church–I don’t see this as objectionable–I am definitely a “Novus Ordo” proponent and I love a foyer that has plenty of seating for older folks and young moms with babies, a coffee bar, and lots of room for tables where the laity can learn about and sign up for opportunities for study, service, and social activities in the parish! But I think that a small foyer is more “traditional” and helps people de-emphasize the “social” and concentrate on the actual Mass and on Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Also, it’s quieter, which is part of the tradition of the TLM. Many of these older church buildings are present in cities and small towns, and I think that they should be tapped for the TLM, as long as the people are still able to attend the OF Mass in their older church building if they prefer. In my former city (Rockford, IL), the ICK offers the TLM in a very old and historic church building in the downtown area of the city–the building is in need of various repairs and modernizations, but Praise God!–this ICK parish is growing by leaps and bounds–two Sunday morning Masses in the Extraordinary Form are now offered, and both are full! And during the week, daily Mass is offered and attended by around 60 people each day (some of these are homeless people trying to get off the street and into a climate-controlled place for an hour). A Chesterton School is loosely associated with the parish, and Latin is taught in this school from Pre-K through 12th grade. There is a wonderful fellowship hall and kitchen in the basement. The building has several historic features that are appealing to the city’s historians and other history enthusiasts. The parish includes quite a few wealthy people who have generously given to replace the aging roof, and one of these families told me that their next project is air conditioning, which will help preserve the wood and other structural features of the church as well as make today’s people more comfortable. There is plenty of parking, as the downtown area of Rockford is dead as a doornail on Sunday mornings! There is a crime problem downtown, but so far, I haven’t heard of any molestation of the parishioners or the priests. The priests live in a beautiful historic home right next to the church. Until ICK took over, this church was slated for the wrecking ball. I think that this is the best approach for the TLM and those who love it–making use of older churches that seem best-suited for the TLM and traditional Catholic “church life.”
It is not just the children who don’t understand the Mass in Latin. In the Mass on Sexagesima Sunday the Epistle was the Second Letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle (2 Cor, 11. 19-33; 12. 1-9)
It was a long reading and I noticed that for most of the congregation the priest’s words were inaudible. I doubt that many (or any?) of those who could hear the words were sufficiently fluent in Latin to be able to understand what was said.
While people become familiar with the Latin of the Liturgy of the Eucharist this is not the case with other aspects of the Mass such as the Epistles. This raises the question: what is the point of a priest reading a text that many can’t hear and of those that can, very few can understand its meaning? Some potential noetic benefit of an incomprehensible text seems impossible.
I have read in several articles that those who love the traditional Latin Mass will travel long distances to attend it. That sounds like they are not members of the parish where the Latin Mass is said. The Mass is the center and summit of Catholic life, but there is more to being a parish than the Mass. How do those who come from outside the parish for the Latin Mass strengthen the parish where it is said? Do they take part in any parish activities such as youth ministries, hospital ministry, catechesis, Bible studies? I honestly want to know because I have never seen this question addresses. I live in a very vibrant parish and I can’t see how people who live outside the parish can help build up a parish like mine.
My wife, my son (14) and my daughter (21) and myself all travel over 2 hours to attend the most local SSPX Chapel to our location. We attend the holy mass, then, because we are of life mind, spirit and comportment as those in the local area that attend also meet with the Parishioners for coffee and fellowship. Because we are “long-distance”, weekly we attend Adult Catechism live via streaming online. I can engage the Priest offering instruction and request clarification of any of the material. My daughter attends the young adult group as often as possible. They meet once a month and most of the time she is able to attend. This Spring we are traveling to St. Mary’s Kansas for the dedication of the New Immaculata. There, we will continue to meet Catholics for whom we share much more than the Mass – although, undoubtedly, the Mass is the source and summit of our commonality. It works because it is well worth the effort.
There are many parishes that have members who do not live within the parish boundaries. There are several in my diocese. The days are long gone when people walked to Mass at the parish on the next corner. In my diocese there are some parishes which have Mass said in a way that is so shallow and Protestantized that it’s unbearable in the way that it interferes with being recollected. My territorial parish is one of these so I belong to another parish which is a 12 minute drive away.
Thank you for your reply. I understand the territorial question. What I would like to know if how much do those who do not live within the parish limits contribute to the life of the parish? Do you take part in parish activities: helping the home-bound, youth ministry, Bible study? These are part of a vibrant parish!
Anne Marie, so you do see the problem of taking the Mass out of the parishes? Not only are you yourself are deprived of access to the Mass, those that are forced to travel a distance are deprived of participating in parish life. Furthermore, even if everyone in the pews at your parish’s TLM traveled from afar, your parish benefits: More than one pastor who hosts a TLM in his parish says that the TLM is the only thing standing between the doors remaining open and financial insolvency, the only ones energetic enough to take on projects in the parish. Now how foolish is this Cardinal Roche to cause the closure of more parishes and deprive the NO and TLM communities to benefit from each others time, talent, and treasure?
About 4,500 people attend the Traditional Catholic Latin Mass in St. Marys, Kansas on Sundays (5 Masses every Sunday). We have about 1,000 students in our schools. My family has been attending Mass here for about 42 years. We are building the largest Catholic Church in a 350 mile radius. It should be ready for use in early May. I toured the new Church last evening. Absolutely beautiful.
I read that Nigeria has the highest Mass attendance in the world, 85% of Catholics go to Mass at least once a week. But I just checked the Latin Mass Directory and there are only 2 Latin Mass venues in the country. Do all the Catholics go to those 2 venues? If not, how do they have such a night attendance at Mass if they go to the Novus Ordo Mass?
Correction: How do they have such a HIGH Mass attendance at Mass if they go to the Novus Ordo Mass? (I apologize: my typing is not accurate.)
I have not attended a Latin Mass since I was a child,so I have no dog in this fight, but I would be curious to attend a Latin Mass after all these years and see what it is like. I dont have a problem with the well done Novus Ordo Mass done in my parish, so no personal agenda there. However I have found the Pope’s attempt to stamp out and restrict the Latin Mass petty and unseemly in the extreme. I am sorry to see Bishop Barron, whose work I have up to now admired, go down this road. Removing the Latin Mass from a parish church serves what purpose? Exactly? If anything it creates more of a separation between the Latin mass folks and those who attend the parish mass. What purpose does that serve? If anything it creates a dangerous opportunity for more separation. As someone else asked, where will these Latin masses now take place? At a cafe, at a workout center gym? Certainly this would not be respectful of the Mass.And who will be expected to pay for this “non parish” space, in a era when one diocese after another is going bankrupt? Why even expend cash needlessly like this? Or is the Pope hoping to force these Latin Mass fans to pay for it themselves, and thereby lesson support for the Latin Mass?? Again, inviting a further breech? Because my guess will be once they feel even LESS a connection to the parish, why NOT go off on their own?? Since the Bishops and the pope groveled to the secular authorities who wanted the churches shut down during covid, its no secret a large number of Catholics have FAILED to return. I would think the Bishops would be thrilled that ANYONE is entering a Catholic church for Mass now at all. Whether that Mass be Novus Ordo or Latin. Someone needs to tell them that by making the Latin Mass especially unwelcome, the Bishops are shooting themselves in the foot. Surely the church is facing larger problems in society than this? Like the likely schism brewing in Germany that this same synod-minded Pope initiated? The sexual revolution and its aftermath? The sex abuse scandal? The secularization of the West and the US?
I don’t get it. All Muslim children learn enough Arabic to pray the Quran, Russian Orthodox learn
Old Slavonic for liturgies, High Anglicans use Old English, every Jewish kid learns Hebrew starting at Bar Mitzvah, and I’m sure Buddhist and Hindu kids know some of their sacred prayer languages (All Thai boys spend time living in monasteries learning the sacred texts and chants). So why is it so oppressive to learn the limited Latin vocabulary used at the TLM… especially when the translation is facing them on the opposite page!! Any Catholic who claims to darken the door frequently at mass should after a few years be able to recite everything with no problem simply by auditory osmosis. Stop feeding the furnace of secularization and teach your kids their spiritual patrimony.
It seems his intention for moving the mass might have been out of a desire to preserve the TLM for the younger, college Catholic. Moving the Holy TLM to a college Chapel I suspect is neutral enough a location to extend an invitation to even the SSPX to offer the mass. So, while he might HAVE to shut down the TLM for his diocese, by inviting the SSPX to offer it, he ensures its continued existence – at least until better times than these “modern” ones prevail. Hats off to Shia LaBeouf for giving no pretense about his preference for the Holy TLM as opposed to the Missae of Paul VI. It was amusing seeing Bishop Barron fidget in his seat when being confronted by this obvious impossibility.
The Francisan papacy’s perspective on the Latin Mass: Somewhere, at some time(s), some rigid Catholic people are deeply involved in worshipping in this form. And it must be squelched! Unity above all! They must worship only in the now approved way.
I don’t trust him.
One of the things that I remember from my Jesuit education is that there is form and essence. Here we are dealing with form and policy. So then, what is of essence? The answer involves the statement “The priests did not ask ‘Where is God’?” as noted by the prophet Jeremiah. The answer is that what is of essence is that we seek to know God. How is God known? God’s presence is revealed through signs. (Acts 2.22,43)
Not long ago I had written to the webmaster of the Douay-Rheims Online Bible — the excellent old Early Modern English Catholic Bible. A discussion ensued concerning the Shroud of Turin, and then some mention of my having grown up in St. Louis followed. He responded that he did, too. I mentioned that I grew up in Normandy, which is a suburb of St. Louis. He mentioned that so did he. I mentioned that I attended St. Ann’s grade school. Paul Mann did, too, and graduated the year before I did. ???
I mentioned having been given a tour of the Hunt Mansion, in Normandy, when I was a child. Paul responded that his family had lived in the Hunt Mansion for a time. ???
So then, these “coincidences,” or “synchronicities,” represent the revelation of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. That is of essence. If the form brings us closer to the will of God, then that becomes relevant to attaining our goal.
Speaking of goals, thanks, Harrison, for kicking that game-winning field goal. I attended college, and was married in Kansas City.
We are TLM Catholics, drive a bit over 100 miles round trip to Mass on Sunday each week and have done so for over five years. Whenever out of town we attend a TLM elsewhere so have attended all over the country. Addressing a couple of misconceptions voiced here: (1) At every Mass, the priest says the epistle and gospel in English after he says it in Latin and before his sermon. There is no issue whatsoever with not understanding those readings. (2) It doesn’t take a genius to learn and understand the common prayers of the Mass in the language the Latin Rite Church has preserved for addressing our Lord. The Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus, etc. You would be shocked to find how many and how young children who attend and are taught by their parents have proficiency in the Latin of the Mass. It takes some time and effort but more for the stuck-in-the-70’s adults than for the young who seem to be more willing to do something special for our Lord.