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Nicaraguan’s dream of ordination leads him to Arkansas

Ramsés Mendieta felt calling to priesthood at 15 years old during a retreat

Published: May 29, 2016   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson
Ramsés Mendieta, 26, laughs and claps along with cheers from his fellow seminarians, deacons, priests and Bishop Anthony B. Taylor following his diaconate ordination Mass May 20 at Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock.

At 15 years old, Ramsés Mendieta attended a retreat and found the words in Jeremiah 1:6 to take on a very personal meaning: “‘Ah, Lord God!’ I said, ‘I know not how to speak; I am too young.”

“I saw myself with a question to God, ‘Why are you calling me? I don’t have this talent; I’m terrified to speak in public,’” Mendieta said. “I felt God was calling me to serve him in the Church as a priest even though the many imperfections and insecurities I may have. That was probably the beginning of my discernment to the priesthood.”

On May 20, Mendieta cried, laughed and kept a beaming smile across his face during his ordination as a transitional deacon at Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock, a step closer to his priestly ordination next year.

“I am very grateful first of all of course to God. He provided the diocese, he provided the people, great brothers who have helped me become the person I am right now, Immaculate Conception, my home parish” for support, Mendieta told Arkansas Catholic ahead of his ordination. “I am very excited.”

Mendieta joined the seminary in 2010, traveling more than 2,500 miles from his native Nicaragua. On his ordination, he again heard the words of Jeremiah, and Bishop Anthony B. Taylor emphasized Mendieta’s calling as a minister of the word.

“Today, you become an ordained minister of the word, which is another way of saying an ordained minister of God’s will,” the bishop said. “His will, not yours.”

 

A childhood dream

Mendieta, 26, was born and raised in Managua to Roger Mendieta and Sandra Lacayo Mendieta. The younger of two sons, Mendieta said he grew up in a “devotional environment.”

“I lived around processions, altars,” he said. “For instance, the devotion to the Immaculate Conception; I remember since I was little my parents took me to the vespers; (people) set up altars outside their homes, people go as a family and friends to sing to Our Lady.”

Mendieta said his discernment has been “roses and thorns” particularly his parents’ initial rejection to his call. Initially, his mother said she wanted him to get an education, but eventually had to “cave in,” she said.

“It’s a great blessing for the whole family, and it’s a beautiful dream come true for him,” his mother said.

His godfather, Javier Bonilla of Orlando, said Mendieta, starting at just 7 years old, always carried a rosary with him.

“I’m still in awe of God’s work,” Bonilla said. “I would never have imagined this day … I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

 

Never too young

Mendieta entered the seminary of the Archdiocese of Managua at 17 but a year later, left to study at the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua to grow his knowledge and social skills. However, Mendieta said he learned his best laid plans “do not compare with God’s; never.”

“I was finishing my second year I came across a good friend of my mother’s, Matilde Crutchfield, a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary in Marche,” who was visiting Nicaragua. “She said, ‘We need priests, especially those can speak Spanish.’ I said, ‘First of all where’s Arkansas in the map of the U.S., I’ve never heard of it,’” Mendieta laughed.

Because God’s call never left, he sent in his application to the vocations office at the Diocese of Little Rock and a year later, in May 2010, he was accepted and arrived in Arkansas in August.

Since then, his life has been a whirlwind of loving people like Crutchfield, who he called “a little angel God put there,” Vocations director Msgr. Scott Friend who “was a father in the whole sense of the word” and Immaculate Conception Church that “adopted me as their son.”

Mendieta, who has been attending St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, will serve as a deacon at Immaculate Conception this summer and is looking forward to “making Christ present to the world” through the word.

“I really love the youth; I was very active in the youth ministry in my home parish so that’s one of the areas I would love to serve this summer and of course as a priest. Being young at that moment, I felt that same hunger that other youth can experience right now” for Christ, he said.

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