As the oldest son in a Peruvian immigrant family, Deacon Alfredo Tuesta did what his sense of duty and his culture compelled him to do.
“We came from very humble beginnings,” said Deacon Tuesta. “When I say I come from Lima, I don’t mean that I come from the elite, but from the outskirts. I knew I would need to provide for my family and help with our aspirations of buying a home and settling down. I was talented in the sciences and math so I figured this was a really good way to do that.”
Deacon Tuesta was 10 years old when his family of five arrived in Paterson, N.J., in 1995. He quickly learned English and excelled academically, entering the University of Notre Dame in 2003 and earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2007.
“It’s not that I didn’t feel attracted to the priesthood in high school. I certainly did,” said Deacon Tuesta. “But I also remember feeling like I’m the first-born male. We came to this country with the purpose of pursuing a better life. In our culture, we become the retirement fund for our parents and that’s a beautiful thing because it means that our parents are not tangential to our lives as we grow older, but (are) incorporated into them. They move into our home, help raise our kids and that’s the purpose of it. It meant these desires for the priesthood really need to be put to the side to pursue something that I know is good.”
So, Deacon Tuesta doubled down, spending the next seven years earning a master’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., in 2014, then landing a prestigious job at the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington where he worked for nearly five years.
“This was the job that I had worked for a long time to achieve,” said Deacon Tuesta, who will serve as parochial vicar at St. William of York Church in Stafford. “I was supporting my family and having fulfilled these desires, these noble wishes, there was still something left to explore.”
That something came into focus while living in Alexandria and attending Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary. “I got involved with the young adult community and my faith really took off,” said Deacon Tuesta. “It was a deeper immersion in a relationship with God in the context of community. I began having honest conversations with my spiritual director, and at the same time, my mom passed away, and my dad had already passed away years prior. So, now the goal of my pursuit wasn’t as clear.”
He was still open to marriage, but “nothing really flourished from those relationships,” he said. “I just had to give the priesthood a go. But it wasn’t immediately obvious. You don’t enter the seminary knowing that you’ll become a priest. You enter the seminary to answer that question.”
Deacon Tuesta, 40, entered seminary at St. Charles Borromeo in Lower Gwynedd, Pa., in 2019, and by the time he was ordained a transitional deacon by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge April 6, 2024, the question was answered.
“That was really the big step and I told Bishop Burbidge that my commitment has already been made. I belong to the Lord now. I am here to serve him and to die for him as a witness of his love and mercy for others.”
