Angelus News | May 31, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 20

Luther Diaz
Age: 47
Hometown: Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley)
Home parish: St. Didacus Church, Sylmar
First Mass: 6 p.m., Saturday, June 1, at Our Lady of
Loretto Church, Echo Park; 8 a.m., Sunday, June 2,
at St. Didacus
First parish assignment: St. Anthony of Padua
Church, Gardena
Favorite hobby: Exercise (weights and swimming)
VICTOR ALEMÁN
For Luther Diaz, the call to the priesthood came not in
the form of “sudden bursts” but a persistent, patient
invitation from the Lord — much like the calling of the
prophet Samuel.
“There are multiple signs the Lord gives you, but it takes
time and the wisdom of one who knows to guide you, just
like Eli guided Samuel,” Diaz observed.
Diaz grew up in the San Fernando Valley, one of five
brothers. After high school, he worked in several positions at
Pacoima Elementary School before working in the accounting
department of a medical billing company.
He thought about the priesthood in his teenage years, but
eventually ended up dating a girl for a time. Still, the calling
didn’t go away.
“The calling was just a continual desire and a continuous
thought of wanting to be close to God in any way possible,
and in doing God’s work.”
Diaz went to inquire about his possible vocation to the
archbishop at the time, Cardinal Roger Mahony. He was surprised
to find that rather than send a secretary, the cardinal
met with him personally.
“He welcomed me with warmth and with the dignity one
would give a foreign minister,” said Diaz. “I approached him
directly and he responded to me directly and in kindness.”
The cardinal’s encouragement started a vocation journey
that has taken more than a decade. Now, Diaz is ready to
be a priest in the city that he calls home, but that where he
knows that secularization has caused “a great void in people”
and can be very lonely.
“Where loneliness exists, God needs to be there, and God’s
workers need to make sure the people have access to God’s
saving love made flesh, Jesus Christ. That is why I want to be
here.”
Luther Diaz with family members at his nephew’s First Communion.
Diaz says he knows from his own youth that young people
have a need to be listened to as part of their search for God,
and that a priest should listen to them “as if Jesus was doing
the listening.”
One of the aspects of the priesthood that he most looks
forward to is the sacrament of reconciliation, which he sees
as “an incredible grace” and “an awesome privilege” to bring
people forgiveness and healing.
LUTHER DIAZ
12 • ANGELUS • May 31, 2019