PHOENIX – Two Bourgade Catholic High School graduates are among the record number 50 seminarians in the Diocese of Phoenix who are currently discerning the priesthood.
Christopher Lukaszewski ’19, and Mark Salgado ’24, are at different stages of the formation process but the intrigue of the priesthood began early in their lives.
“My dad was very big on teaching us how to pray the rosary. How to pay attention in Mass,” Lukaszewski explained. “He also taught us how to have a dialogue with Jesus, actually talk to him, more than just recite the prayers.”
Born and raised in Phoenix, Christopher is the middle child of nine siblings and attended Catholic schools his whole life. “One of the biggest reasons I was even attracted to the priesthood at all was because of the priests I knew growing up. They lived their lives so virtuously and so joyfully that I could see it as something very attractive to me,” he said.
Mark Salgado is the youngest in his family. Born in California, his family moved to Arizona just months after he was born in 2007. His family comes from Mexico and he explained that they were devoutly Catholic and grew up surrounded by the imagery of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. “I’m very grateful that my family raised me Catholic because it sowed those virtues in me when I was very young,” Salgado said.
With those early foundations in their journey laid down, both recall that there were a series of moments that led them to further consider entering the seminary.
Mark’s pivotal moment was when he was reading a pamphlet called, Is Jesus calling you to be a Catholic Priest? In it, there was a line that said, ‘you will know God’s will for your life in moments of consolation’. “That was a lightbulb moment for me. When I’m in consolation the desire for priesthood is on fire in my heart.” Salgado said.
Christopher and Mark credit their time at Bourgade Catholic with furthering their interest in the priesthood. Both embraced all the options available to them and were heavily involved as students, but they had one common experience: serving in BCHS Campus Ministry as part of the Core Team. That experience included leading Kairos retreats with their peers.
Christopher spent his first two years at BCHS in sports, theatre and clubs but that changed when he became an upperclassman and began to pour a lot of time into Campus Ministry. “We had the ABC club, Active Bourgade Catholics. It was partnered with Campus Ministry. I was also on the Core Team for Kairos retreats and our Mexico mission trip,” he said.
For Mark, his desire for the priesthood really started to grow after leading his first Kairos retreat. “That’s where I really got to have a personal dialogue with Jesus and that’s where I felt called like, this could be you, you could be the one doing this,” Salgado said. “On the Kairos retreat you receive a fire for God’s love that’s so all consuming. God’s love is really beautiful. Through that experience it makes you overflow with his love.”
It is the mission of Bourgade Catholic High School to assist students in discovering and developing their God-given potential through a college preparatory curriculum and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Both Christopher and Mark agree that Bourgade Catholic was instrumental in stoking the fire and influencing their decision to enter the seminary after graduation.
“My brother, who was two years older than me, was going to daily Mass and I was like ok, I’ll do that,” Lukaszewski said. Soon, daily Mass started turning into a partial competition for Christopher and his brother. “There was always a Christian culture surrounding the school and campus. Even now, I see now how all the administration and teachers have that fire for bringing all the kids to Jesus to experience that relationship and that’s been really beautiful to see.”
Both young men are now part of a brotherhood considering a lifelong commitment to serve Jesus, our Heavenly Father and the Church. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), there are over 4,800 seminarians enrolled in the United States.
This week the USCCB and the Catholic Church are celebrating National Vocation Awareness Week. The week-long celebration (November 3-9) is dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education.
“There’s a saying by St. Ignatius: ‘ask God for the grace to choose your vocation’,” Lukaszewski said. “What struck me about that was I didn’t feel like I was supposed to choose my vocation, I thought God was supposed to choose it for me and let me know.”
Depending on where a young man is when entering the seminary, the process can take anywhere from 6-10 years. The first three years are focused almost solely on human and spiritual formation. This is called the Propadeutic stage. The next stage is called Discipleship which can take two to four years. This is where seminarians take philosophy classes, working towards earning their Bachelor’s degree. “It’s learning how human nature works,” Lukaszewski said. “Understanding the way we work as human beings helps us to understand the way that God works on us because he’s not in combat with our human nature, he’s working with them in tandem.”
Christopher entered the Discipleship phase earlier this year after taking two years off. During the Propadeutic stage, he spent two years at Nazareth House here in Phoenix and spent the third year at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado.
Before the Diocese of Phoenix opened the Nazareth Seminary in 2023, young men from Arizona considering the priesthood attended St. John Vianney.
“The goal of the seminary is to find out what the Lord’s will is for you,” Lukaszewski said. “However you come out of seminary, it will be for the better. You will have grown in a lot of ways that you often won’t grow outside of seminary.”
Mark, who graduated from Bourgade Catholic in May 2024, is at the very beginning of his formation journey but he believes that formation is a lifelong process. “We don’t stop getting formed by Christ,” Salgado said. “Seminary is to find out if you are or are not called to the priesthood. There’s a very good chance that maybe half of us in the Propadeutic stage right now are being formed in the seminary to be good husbands but we don’t know and that’s why we need our mother the Church to really guide us in that process.”
Mark is still involved in Campus Ministry at Bourgade Catholic, returning to campus as an altar server for a few of the all-school Masses held so far this year.
While Christopher and Mark are at different stages of their formation and seminary journeys, they both continue to encourage the next generation who may be hesitant or unsure about becoming a priest.
“Do not be afraid. God knows what you want to do. God’s will for your life is what’s going to make you happiest because he knows your desires and he knows what sort of life will make you happiest,” Salgado said.
“If you think of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, as a GPS system, there’s two main points: it’s not going to be able tell you anything if you’re not moving. So if you’re on the fence and you’re not sure which way God wants you to go, you’re in the same place I was,” Lukaszewski said. “You just have to pick a direction and if you’re going the wrong direction the GPS will maneuver you and you will be on the right track.”
“If you have that desire on your heart, just come and see,” Salgado added. “That’s what Jesus said to his disciples, ‘come and see’, so I invite you to just come look at what the seminary life is like.”
The Diocese of Phoenix’s Nazareth Seminary offers many opportunities to young men discerning the priesthood. To learn more about the Nazareth Seminary visit https://dphx.org/nazareth-seminary/