Most stories that priests tell about seminary involve lots of study and reflection. Most priests don’t immediately remember how much it inspired distaste for tomatoes in them. Most priests aren’t Augustinian Father Luis Urriza.

“Seminary was ok. I was very picky about food. I’m not anymore but I was very picky then, and seminary food is not like your mother’s food. I hated tomatoes when I was little, and they ate so many tomatoes. I’m much better now,” Father Urriza said.

Father Urriza went to Calahorra Seminary in Logrono, Spain, at age 12 with the encouragement of his mother.

“I just felt called at 12. I told my mother, and she said, ‘Luis let’s go to the seminary.’ And there I was at seminary. It was not unusual at all for that to happen at that time,” Father Urriza said.

He is celebrating 65 years of priesthood this month. He was ordained on June 18, 1944. Father Urriza has seen a lot of change in the last 65 years, both in the worship and in the community of the church.

“I think the biggest change since I have become a priest is the morality. Children do not have the same worries as they did when I became a priest. We did not have the kinds of problems children have today when I was young,” Father Urriza said.

“Children deal with great pains. They deal with pregnancy, drugs, they are getting hurt in schools. It’s not at all the same,” Father Urriza said.

The changes in worship, especially the change from Vatican II, connected Father Urriza with his church more.

“The big change from Vatican II was the change from Latin to the vernacular of where you are. I have always been eager to follow whatever the church says. The church says do it this way, and I say ok. And this way I am facing them, speaking their language. It is a connection,” Father Urriza said.

Father Urriza came to Southeast Texas in 1951 as an associate at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Port Arthur. He split his time between that parish and the burgeoning parish of Cristo Rey which held its first Mass in the home of a parishioner before ground was broken for the church.

Father Urriza left in 1963 to serve in Waxahachie and later in San Antonio. He returned to the parish he helped found in 1977 and has been there ever since.

He said that being there for all those years has strengthened the church community because he has been a stable part of it.

“Being here for so long it feels like family. I love talking with the families and seeing the children grow up. Nobody complains, so I guess I’m doing ok,” Father Urriza joked.

Like anyone else Father Urriza has his own favorite times of the year. He joked that he wouldn’t discuss his least favorite time to be a priest, but he was very excited to talk about his favorite season.

“The best time of the year for me is Lent and Easter. The readings are wonderful, and it’s all about the mystery of Jesus. I do love the music at Christmas, but Lent is my very favorite time to be a priest and to worship,” Father Urriza said.

His main worry for the church, like most of his brother priests, is vocations, or a lack of vocations.

“I always ask the young ones, ‘Are you interested in vocations?’ and they say, ‘No Father, not really.’ But I always tell the church to pray, pray, pray for vocations. We pray at every Mass. I tell them to always pray for vocations because I am not going to be here forever,” Father Urriza said.

Father Urriza says he gets asked by worried parishioners if he will retire soon. He said that he never gives it much thought.

“I don’t know when I will retire. There is such a great need for priests, so I don’t know how I could retire now. I am going to stay here till I can’t work. I will stay until God says to me, ‘Luis, that’s enough’ Father Urriza said.