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Seminarian Spotlight: Noé Sifuentes

From: Salisbury

Age: 23

Home parish: Sacred Heart Church, Salisbury

Status: Started Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Cincinnati, in August 2022

Favorite Bible verse: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior,” an excerpt from the Gospel of Luke and part of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s greeting to her cousin Elizabeth. Our Lady’s words here are known as the Magnificat, where she gives praise to God for all of His blessings.

Favorite saint: St. Dominic Guzman, founder of the Dominican Order. He has the same last name as my grandfather. I love that, and the fact that St. Dominic helped bring about devotion to the rosary.

Interests (outside of faith): Watching sports and attending theater and concert performances.

CHARLOTTE — Noé Sifuentes grew up like many boys: playing video games, reading comic books and fishing – a “normal” childhood.

In his teens he learned the value of hard work alongside his uncle, hauling wheelbarrows full of heavy debris from construction sites. During these years he also began serving as a sacristan at Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury, preparing the sacred vessels for Mass, where the seeds of his vocation were planted with the encouragement of his pastor.
Sifuentes credits attending Quo Vadis Days and the Bishops Youth Pilgrimage, annual youth retreats held at Belmont Abbey College, as well as the Diocesan Youth Conference, as events that opened up his heart to hear God’s call to study for the priesthood.

His “new normal” of life in service to the Church began when he entered St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly in 2017.

He graduated in 2021 and served a pastoral year at St. Ann Church in Charlotte. Last August he and nine of his fellow seminarians began studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati. They are among 49 men currently in some stage of formation to serve as priests in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Sifuentes reflects on his journey to the seminary in a conversation with the Catholic News Herald:

CNH: Can you tell us about your life before you entered seminary?

Sifuentes: I was born in Salisbury but grew up in Mexico until I was 8 years old. I am the oldest of four siblings. I went to Catholic school in Mexico, then attended public school when I moved back to the United States. My friends at school did not go to church, and they did not understand my interest in my faith in my teen years.

CNH: When did you hear the call to a vocation to the priesthood?

Sifuentes: There were two times. My mom says when I was in Mexico in Catholic school, I first learned about the Eucharist and went home that day and told her I wanted to be a priest. In eighth grade, Father John Putnam, my pastor at Sacred Heart Church, encouraged me to attend a confirmation retreat, even though I had made my confirmation in Mexico. On that retreat I was in Adoration praying before the Blessed Sacrament and interiorly I heard a voice say, “Follow Me.”

CNH: What helped you discern your possible vocation?

Sifuentes: Besides attending diocesan youth events, just being at Mass with my parents and siblings, getting close to the priests at my church, and being around seminarians helped me see the priesthood as a possible vocation. Our priests and seminarians are normal people. Their example and mentoring helped me see they are genuine people I can look up to.

CNH: What is a fun hobby or skill you have acquired since attending major seminary?

Sifuentes: Pizza making! At Mount St. Mary’s we have house jobs, or duties we fulfill at seminary. I was the “pizza master” and learned how to make pizza from scratch. If you had asked me five years ago if I would learn that skill in seminary, I would have said, “No way!” We have pizza nights some Wednesdays during the semester. I love to make a chicken and pesto pizza in the pizza oven we have there. One of our Charlotte seminarians makes the sauce and the dough, and we get to create our own pizzas. I really enjoy our pizza nights!

CNH: What advice do you have for a young man discerning a call to the priesthood?

Sifuentes: I’m borrowing my advice from the book “To Save a Thousand Souls: A Guide for Discerning a Vocation to Diocesan Priesthood,” by Father Brett Brannen.

He writes: “God cannot drive a parked car, so just go.” He means, just do something about it! If you think you have a vocation, talk to a priest, to your parents, to a friend – do something about it. That’s what helped me and continues to help me. It’s not a matter of waiting. Go and do something about it.

— SueAnn Howell

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