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By Katie Vasquez and Paula Katinas

WOODSIDE — At first glance, working as a waiter in restaurants like Olive Garden might not seem like good training for the priesthood. However, Deacon Nelson Gerardo Tlatelpa said the two occupations have something in common. “When you work as a waiter, you have to create conversation with people,” Deacon Tlatelpa explained. “In order for you to be a priest, you need to talk to people. You have to create conversation.”

Deacon Tlatelpa, 43, is one of seven men who will be ordained as priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn at an ordination Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on June 28. He was ordained as a transitional deacon — a step men take a year before ordination — in 2024, and is now completing his studies at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts.

The Tablet met him on April 22 at St. Sebastian Church in Woodside. He chose that church as the place for the interview because that is where he spent his pastoral year. He admitted he is the last person he would have thought would wear a Roman collar. For one thing, he was never religious growing up in Mexico. And once he moved to New York City, he loved working and making money. Even after he decided to answer God’s call to the priesthood and entered the Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, he failed his first philosophy exam and was ready to quit.

Deacon Nelson Gerardo Tlatelpa recalls a homily Father Michael Perry, former pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush, gave at an Easter Vigil that inspired him. Father Perry later told him he enjoys delivering homilies because of how much he loves God’s people. (Photo: Courtesy of Deacon Nelson Gerardo Tlatelpa)

However, Deacon Tlatelpa said he had mentors who helped him and kept him on the straight and narrow along the way. Born in Chinantla, a small town 135 miles from Mexico City, Deacon Tlatelpa was one of eight children. “My life in Mexico was very joyful,” he said, noting that he was raised by his aunt because his parents moved to the United States when he and his siblings were young. “She really taught me good values, like not to steal, to behave, to respect elders, to come back home early. I always had chores in the house.”

Deacon Nelson Gerardo Tlatelpa comes from a large family. He is one of eight children. Many of his relatives from Mexico plan to attend his ordination in June.

Religion was not a big part of his life, he acknowledged. “I did my sacraments in Mexico, yes, but I didn’t practice,” Deacon Tlatelpa said. At age 20, he moved to Brooklyn with four of his siblings and worked in restaurants in Brooklyn and Manhattan, “working two jobs and making money.” However, Deacon Tlatelpa said he felt something was missing, so when two friends invited him to a religious retreat in the Bronx, he went. That led him to go to church at Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush.

He became an active parishioner, serving as an usher and working with young people, and drew the attention of the pastor, Father Michael Perry. At one point, Father Perry suggested he consider the priesthood. “I said, ‘Father, you know what? I do not speak English that much. Second, that’s for younger guys. Third, that’s gonna cost a lot of money,’” he recalled. “And I thought that was just for people who were really intellectual.”

But Deacon Tlatelpa heard God calling him and decided to answer the call. He entered the Pope John Paul II House of Discernment in Ridgewood and then enrolled in Pope St. John XXIII, a seminary for older vocations. At first, he said, he had trouble finding his footing. In a philosophy course, he failed his first test. He sat with his advisers and cried. They encouraged him to keep going, and he came to realize that while he didn’t have academic strengths, he had other gifts — like an outgoing personality — that he felt God wanted.

“He doesn’t choose because someone is more intellectual than other people. It is because he wants somebody to be a priest,” Deacon Tlatelpa said. “He has a purpose for each of us.”