By Michael Gresham
The Texas Catholic
In a retreat hall in Porto San Giorgio, Italy, baskets sat at the front of the room — one filled with the names of Catholic dioceses around the world, the other with the names of aspiring seminarians willing to go wherever the Church sent them.
Father Matthew Biaggi, a young man from New Jersey, listened as names were called and seminarians were assigned to places as far away as Vienna and Congo.
By the time his own name was drawn, the reality of the moment had set in.
“This is really serious,” he remembered thinking. “They really mean anywhere.”
Then came the assignment: Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dallas.
“I said, ‘Yes,’” Father Biaggi recalled, “and I ran to the stage.”
More than a decade later, that moment of surrender culminated May 23, when Father Biaggi was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Edward J. Burns at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in McKinney. He was one of three men ordained that day for the Diocese of Dallas. Father Biaggi will begin his first priestly assignment for the diocese on July 1 as a parochial vicar at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Parish in Plano.
A family of faith
For Father Biaggi, the road to ordination stretched from a faith-filled childhood in New Jersey to missionary work across the Pacific Islands, through seasons of doubt, and ultimately toward what he described as a deeper understanding of God as the Father.
Growing up at St. Mary’s Catholic Parish in Plainfield, New Jersey, Father Biaggi said faith was woven naturally into family life. His parents, Carmen and Pedro Biaggi, met at the parish, were married there, and baptized their children there. Every Sunday morning, before Mass, the family gathered to pray together.
“They would sit us down, read a Gospel, and help us see where the Gospel impacted our lives,” Father Biaggi said. “It was a time where we were able to share, speak about God, and reconcile with brothers and sisters.”
As the oldest of six children, Father Biaggi said those moments often included working through ordinary sibling rivalries and learning forgiveness at an early age.
“It helped me see, ‘OK, you’re struggling accepting me; I’m struggling accepting you — let’s reconcile together and put God first,’” he said.
Father Biaggi’s younger brother Timothy Biaggi said that morning ritual helped build a foundation of faith among the Biaggi children.
“It was a cornerstone of our lives,” he said. “Everything revolved around our faith life.”
Timothy recalled that Sunday morning prayer often turned into an impromptu family jam session, with Carmen playing guitar while the children used kitchenware as instruments.
“We would grab pots and pans, forks and spoons, and bang away,” he said. “It would sound horrendous, but my parents would just love it because we were participating in the prayer in any way we could.”
“It wasn’t perfect, but it was what we needed,” Carmen agreed. “It was really important for us to make sure that they see God in their lives every day.”
Though deeply involved in parish life, Father Biaggi did not initially picture himself becoming a priest. In school, he gravitated toward math and science and planned to study engineering or architecture.
The call to priesthood, however, continued to surface throughout his teenage years.
One of the defining moments came when Pope Benedict XVI visited New York in 2008. As a youth, Father Biaggi traveled with his parish to see the pope and found himself unexpectedly moved by the encounter.
“I saw him greeting the people, and I felt the call,” he said.
That sense of calling deepened through World Youth Day pilgrimages and vocational discernment groups in high school. Again and again, Father Biaggi said, he found himself responding when young men were invited forward to consider priesthood.
“Every time, I found myself running to that stage,” he said.
His mother knew early on that her son was being called to the priesthood.
“Little by little, he was going towards it,” Carmen said. “He told me he had this feeling that God was calling to him. I was happy for him that he had found his vocation.”
Certainty, however, did not come all at once for Father Biaggi.
Years into formation at Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dallas, Father Biaggi said he began wrestling with doubts while watching friends back home move into careers, engagements, and family life.
“There was a small doubt,” he said. “What if God was not calling me?”
The turning point came during a three-year missionary assignment in the Pacific Islands, where Father Biaggi helped oversee evangelization efforts in and around Guam.
During the assignment, he said he experienced a renewed sense of clarity.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, God, you have given me the best. You have given me everything,” he said. “This is what God is calling me to do.”
The experience, Father Biaggi said, transformed his understanding of vocation from sacrifice into freedom.
“That was the moment the Lord really sealed this vocation,” he said. “This is what God is calling me to do.”
Over the past year, Father Biaggi served as a transitional deacon at Nuestra Señora del Pilar Catholic Parish, where he preached, served families, and prepared for priesthood.
As his ordination approached, he said the emotions were difficult to describe.
“There’s joy; there’s nerves, being scared, being happy,” Father Biaggi said, “but more than anything, I think is seeing the faithfulness of God.”
Father Biaggi said the most memorable moment of the ordination Mass came while he lay prostrate before the altar, when, just as a priest once described to him, the only words on his heart were: “I love you, Lord.”
“I think that’s one of the things I experienced as well,” he said.
Now ordained, Father Biaggi said he looks forward most to celebrating Mass and accompanying people in their faith.
“Offering them the same experience of the love of God that I’ve had in my life,” he said, “and seeing others have that same experience and seeing it transform their lives.”
Cutline for featured image: Father Matthew Biaggi, center, smiles after being vested during a Mass celebrated May 23 where Father Biaggi was ordained to the priesthood alongside Father Jeremy Maness and Father Nicholas Weiss at St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Church in McKinney. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
