Pope ordaining 13 priests on World Day of Prayer for Vocations on Sunday

May 10, 2014: Pope Francis will mark the Catholic Church’s 51st World Day of Prayer for Vocations on Sunday, ‎exercising an episcopal function as Bishop of Rome by ordaining 13 new priests at a Mass in Rome’s St. ‎Peter’s Basilica. 11 of the deacons to be ordained belong to the Diocese of ‎Rome, and two others are ‎from Asia – Javed Raza Gill a Discalced Augustinian from Pakistan and Tao ‎Paolo Nguyen Thien from ‎the Vietnamese Diocese of ‎Vinh. Concelebrating Mass with Pope Francis at the altar will be among ‎others, his vicar of ‎Rome diocese Cardinal Agostino Vallini.‎
In order to know them personally, Pope ‎Francis had called all the 13 to the Vatican earlier in April. Of ‎the 11 to be ordained for Rome Diocese, 5 are non-Italians. Sang ‎Heum Park is from South ‎Korea, ‎Juan Pablo Fernandez Egas is from Ecuador, José Gregorio Alvarez Yepez is from ‎Venezueala, ‎Eduardo Andres Contreras ‎Valladares is from Chile and Rodrigo ‎Paiva dos Reis is a ‎Brazilian. ‎ ‎
The theme of this year’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations is, “Vocations, Witness to the Truth.” In a ‎message for this observance, Pope Francis had issued a message earlier on Jan. 16, saying, "The more ‎we unite ourselves to Jesus through prayer, sacred Scripture, the Eucharist, the sacraments celebrated ‎and lived in the church and in fraternity, the more there will grow in us the joy of cooperating with God ‎in the service of the kingdom of mercy and truth, of justice and peace." ‎