To Be a Priest
From 1955 to 1959, Plácido attended Saint Jude’s, a high school seminary in Momence, Illinois, staffed by Claretians. He then entered the Claretian Novitiate at Los Angeles and made his first profession of vows in 1960.
Plácido continued his education at the Claretian College Seminary in Calabasas until 1964, the same year during which he became a U.S. citizen. From California he proceeded on to Washington, D.C. for theological studies at the Catholic University of America (CUA).
After finishing his third year of theology at CUA, Plácido Rodríguez made his perpetual profession as a Claretian Missionary and was ordained to the diaconate. In 1968, he completed his fourth year of studies and received his S.T.B. and S.T.L. degrees from CUA.
Then, on Ascension Thursday, May 23, 1968, Plácido Rodríguez was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood. “The lesson my father (had given) to me many years before was an extremely valuable one,” said Bishop Rodríguez. “If a young man wants to become a priest, he should go in that direction because of his own sincere, reasoned-out conviction, not for any other reason.”
After ordination, Father Rodríguez was assigned as an associate pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in South Chicago, the oldest Hispanic community in the Midwestern United States and home for the National Shrine of Saint Jude, founded by Claretian Father James Tort, CMF, in 1929.
While at Our Lady of Guadalupe, he undertook post-graduate work at Loyola University and earned a master’s degree in urban studies in 1971.
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To Be a Priest
