Commack Graduate To Be Ordained As Priest

Four men will be ordained on Saturday at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre including Deacon Richard Mastrogiacomo of Commack and who is currently serving at in Kings Park.

The ordination will take place at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre and will be conducted by Bishop William Murphy.

Mastrogiacomo, former class president and graduate of , studied for the priesthood in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontifical University of Saint Thomas.

After graduation, Mastrogiacomo attended college at Salve Regina University but later transferred to Saint John’s University and moved to the Cathedral Seminary Residence in Douglaston.

“What a privilege it is for me to ordain four men this month,” Murphy said.  “I ask that this joyful occasion be a moment for everyone in our Diocese to renew their prayerful support and affection for all priests and to join me in daily prayer that the families of our diocese might encourage men they know to discern a vocation and respond to God’s call to be a priest of Jesus Christ in service to the faithful of our diocese.”

Murphy then sent him to Rome to study for the priesthood.  “I trusted that coming from my bishop, the Lord willed that I go to Rome to study,” said Mastrogiacomo.  After his ordination, he will remain on Long Island assisting at a parish this summer and then return for one more year of school in Rome.

When he realized he was being called to the priesthood, Mastrogiacomo said he spent “many hours in prayer and listening to Christ in His Eucharistic presence,” but in the end, the decision was easy. 

"The Lord Himself asked me if I would be His priest.  How could I say no?”

Deacon Mastrogiacomo will celebrate his first mass as a priest at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church on Sunday at 3 p.m. The mass will be a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving and will be followed by a reception on the parish grounds.