My name is Roberto José Rodríguez Cruz. I was born in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic on May 3, 1980. I grew up in the city of Santo Domingo Este. After finishing high school, I studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, in Santo Domingo de Guzmán, Dominican Republic. I got my law degree in March 2003. I worked as a lawyer for 5 years. My life in the faith up to that point was that of a cultural Catholic. I studied at a Catholic school and university, and my parents are Catholic. This made it easy for me to receive most of the sacraments at the right age, but my involvement in church was virtually non-existent. I only went to Mass on Ash Wednesday or Palm Sunday, as I had a vague idea that those were important dates in the Church. Also on other occasions like weddings or funerals, but nothing more than that.
One year after graduating from law school, I was invited to the catecheses of the Neocatechumenal Way at Santa Mónica Parish in Santo Domingo Este. The life of faith in my community helped me to begin to enjoy the richness of the Eucharist and to live the sacraments of the Church, especially the sacrament of reconciliation. A few years after, as I was starting to walk in my community, I received the sacrament of Confirmation.
After starting to attend the Sunday Eucharist on a regular basis, a priest invited me to serve there. This helped me pay more attention and to participate more closely in this sacrament. It was at that time and with the help of a vocational meeting in 2007 that I discovered a vocation to the priesthood. After discovering this vocation, and after a time of accompaniment by the Church through my catechists, in 2008 I was sent to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado in the United States. During the years of preparation in the seminary, there were periods of philosophical and theological studies. In addition to that time of studies, I had the opportunity to live a time of mission. I was assisting a priest in the Pacific Island of Guam, and then I was on an evangelization team in Florida and then in St. Louis, Missouri and surrounding states like Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas.
After that time of mission, I returned to the seminary. In February of 2017, I was ordained a Deacon and assigned to St. Anthony of Padua Parish, in the city of Denver, Colorado. On May 19, 2018, I was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Denver, Samuel J. Aquila. For four and a half years, I served in the Archdiocese of Denver at Ascension of the Lord Parish in Denver, at St. John the Baptist and at St. Nicholas Parish in the cities of Johnstown and Platteville, and at St. Francis of Sales Parish in the city of Denver.
In the year 2022, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila sent me as prefect of studies to the Redemptoris Mater Diocesan Missionary Seminary of Esmeraldas in Ecuador. I have been sent by my bishop to serve the church. Please keep Esmeraldas' Redemptoris Mater Seminary in your prayers.
