Rafael José Barrientos Cárdenas

Formation Stage: Propaedeutic

Diocese: Laredo

Hometown: Laredo, TX

Home Parish: St. Patrick, Laredo

As a child, I loved the idea of being a priest when I first met Laredo’s vocation director. The world distracted me for a while, but in high school I began to serve daily Mass. One day as I was assisting an older priest, he told me, “Ralf, I was praying to God today, and he told me you would replace me.” After learning about the seminary from my vocation director, I began to see how I could respond to these signs and seeds planted in my heart by God and his people.

When I first met my bishop as a small child, my diabetic grandmother had just explained to me what diabetes was. So, my first words to the bishop were: “Do you have diabetes?”