Pete Rossa

Press Room for the Diocese of Phoenix

Pete Rossa

“Becoming a priest wasn’t on my top 40 list of things to do,” laughs Pete Rossa, as he remembers his years in the Air Force. He was single, on a fast track for promotion, and his life was going well. But then, he reflects, “God had other plans.”

After the 38-year-old is ordained on June 7, he’ll become the newest associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Scottsdale, to the delight of his aunt.

“I couldn’t be more proud if he was my own,” exclaimed Carole Meola of Scottsdale, who says she feels almost like a second mother to her nephew. She marvels that he didn’t even know he had a vocation until later in life, adding, “it’s all in God’s timing.”

Rossa admits that while growing up, he may have seemed an unlikely candidate for priesthood. He was baptized Catholic, but his parents divorced when he was a child and he went to live with his mother, who was not a practicing Catholic.

In 1992, when he again walked through the doors of the church, he says he didn’t even have a basic understanding of Jesus. He went through the process of RCIA, and just a few years later, was in the seminary. It wasn’t always easy. “He struggled,” recalls Meola, “but he’s a very humble guy.”

Now that he’s about to begin his parish work, Rossa is most looking forward to the sacraments, “to help people encounter Christ.” Rossa admits this is may be a difficult time to enter the priesthood, but “every age has his own challenges, and we certainly have our challenges for today.”

Fr. Don Kline, diocesan director of vocations, agrees. He warns sometimes “guys might have an illusion about the life of a priest, which is not at all easy.” Fr. Kline says a candidate for the priesthood must have a life of surrender, “and that’s what Pete has constantly had.”

Fr. Kline notes that Rossa is typical of many new priests, who entered the seminary only after gathering some real life experience. He says many of these men say “I’m tired of living life just for me,” wondering if there’s more out there than money.

Rossa, who counts sports, reading, movies and computers among his many interests, says he’s eager for parish work because he’s “very much a people person.” His friend Elena Konerko admires that quality, adding “He really and truly appreciates family and friends.”

Konerko recalls a story Rossa told her about the days when he was still trying to learn more about the Church. She says two women from the Legion of Mary knocked on his door to chat “and to him, it was an enlightenment.” She says he never found out their names, but he felt they were “two angels” who came to visit him.

As Pete Rossa gets ready to embark on his new journey, he’s a long way from the time just a few years ago when he was sitting in church for RCIA nodding his head, pretending he knew what everyone was talking about. After 45 minutes, he says, he finally raised his hand and asked who Jesus was.

“Everybody laughed,” he chuckles, “but I was dead serious.”

Rossa was definitely serious — enough to dedicate his life to the Church, which doesn’t surprise his aunt in the least. Meola remembers that Pete’s grandmother used to say 15 rosaries a day for him. “I know her prayers were part of this,” she said.

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