(Assigned as Parochial Vicar, July 2022 by the Archbishop; appointed Pastor July 2024)

Our pastor, Fr. Felipe, was born and raised in a suburb of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. He is the only child of a single mother, and the 4th of his father. Even if his father was not at the house, he tried to be present as much as possible. His mother always taught him the importance of going to Church, and he participated in different groups in his parish. During his adolescence, he had a foot in the Church and a foot in the world. When he was 18, a friend invited him to a series of catechesis for Youth and Adults in his parish, where he heard that he was not abandoned and that God cared for him (even if he was a mess). He joined a Neocatechumenal community in his parish, where he started an ongoing itinerary to rediscover his Baptism, step by step. Through this little community of normal brothers and sisters, God started a revolution in his life. In 2012, during a retreat in Brazil, he was finishing college, dating a girl from his parish, and already considering marriage, but he felt the Lord calling him to a different vocation. After some resistance, he accepted the Lord’s invitation out of gratitude. During another retreat with aspiring seminarians, he was sent by lottery to be formed as a priest at the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Denver. He arrived in Denver in March 2013, and after 6 years of studies, one year of mission in the Holy Land, and two years of mission in between Alabama and Bermuda, he was ordained a priest on May 14, 2022.

Fr. Felipe feels Christ has given him the opportunity to have a new life by welcoming the announcement of the Good News, and he is grateful that Christ has called him to bring to others the announcement that has been changing his life, so that others may encounter Christ as He encountered Fr. Felipe.