Pastor Assignments Take Effect July 28: Fr. Jose Santos

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Fr. Jose Santos

Fr. Jose Santos

Fr. Joshua Maria Santos, was born in Quezon City, the Philippines, and attended school there through college. He entered the seminary and studied at the Mater Dei College and the University of St. Thomas, and was ordained a priest for the Religious Institute of the Marian Missionaries of the Holy Cross, on June 26, 2008 by Bishop Vicente Navarra. He served in various ministries in the Philippines until 2014, when he came to the United States, serving for four years in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He came to the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 2018, where he served first as administrator of St. Ambrose Parish, then as parochial vicar of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and chaplain of St. Jerome Newman Center at Utah State University.

On July 28 he will begin serving as administrator of St. Joseph Parish in Ogden and St. Florence Mission in Huntsville.

What would you like your new parishioners to know about you?

That I am a simple friend who would like to enter into friendship with them and to make Jesus the center of that loving friendship.

What are you looking forward to most about your new assignment?

I look forward to helping our people rediscover over and over again the presence of the Lord present in each one of them through meaningful celebration of the sacraments and inspiring fellowships.

As a priest, what has been your greatest challenge?

The greatest challenge so far is to be able to dialogue and give advice to our dear parishioners who cannot understand English.

As a priest, what has been your most satisfying experience?

To hear from our dear parishioners that they see the image of a humble, loving and caring God in a sinful man like me. And that they feel they are close to God whenever they are near me. For me, there’s no more satisfying experience than that.