By Katie Vasquez
After five years away Deacon Paulo Salazar is finally back on his home court, playing one of his favorite sports, basketball, near his childhood parish of St. Joan of Arc Church in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Deacon Salazar said that since he first got the call to become a priest at around six or seven years old, he’s had a team of people to assist him in fulfilling his vocation.
“Being on the team, you were always working towards a championship and realizing that we’re all part of in a similar way.. part of God’s plan, and we have to work at this together,” Deacon Salazar told Currents News. “There’s so many people that have been supportive, that have been praying for a priest to come from this community, and I guess it’s just that God happened to tap me on the shoulder.”
But what he never expected was for his studies to take him halfway across the world to Rome, and connect him to the universal church.
“That’s what Rome teaches us, that as much as we are universal, as much as we are many members, we are one in Christ,” said Deacon Salazar.
While in the Eternal City, Deacon Salazar also got an extraordinary coach from one Holy Father: the late Pope Francis.
“He always told us, remember to pray, to get a good night’s sleep and play sports,” the deacon recalled. “For all of us, we really took that to heart.”
Deacon Salazar saw the historic announcement of another pontiff. He was was one of the thousands in St. Peter’s Square when Pope Leo XIV was announced the next successor to St. Peter.
Already he has felt inspired by the first American pontiff, who recently spoke to those studying in Rome.
“He spoke about the love of the priesthood and, the power of the priesthood and how it changes and is able to transform,” Deacon Salazar told Currents News. “[It] transforms other lives, but at the same time allow your priesthood to transform your own life.”
He hopes to carry these lessons with him into the priesthood where he’s focused on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
“The very fact that you are acting in the person of Christ, you’re able to bring the soul back to life imparting that grace to be healed,” is something Deacon Salazar has thought about many times.
And now that he’s back in the Diocese of Brooklyn, he’s hoping to make a slam dunk in the lives of the faithful.