Father Dennis Aréchiga said he first felt a desire to be a priest while playing the piano for the Laredo Little Theater at 16.
His boyhood impression of religious brothers was that they were strict, but Marist Brother Robert Warren, the theater director, “was just the opposite— very outgoing and engaging on the stage, and very warm and friendly,” Father Dennis recalled. Curiosity about Warren’s vocation to religious life led him to question whether Aréchiga had a calling.
While pursuing a music degree at the University of Notre Dame, he visited the Marists in New York, but said it didn’t feel right. He joined the Congregation of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame. Graduating in 1985, he entered the order’s novitiate in Colorado Springs and spent two years at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., but he wasn’t ready to be a priest.
He taught at San Antonio’s Holy Cross High School, then did a variety of jobs between 1989 and 1996.
Finally, a responsorial psalm, “I rejoiced when I heard them say, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord,’” that prompted Aréchiga to pursue the priesthood. “I broke down in tears. There was sacrifice in this calling; it’s a beautiful way of life, but it’s also difficult,” he commented. He enrolled at Oblate School of Theology and spent a short time in the Holy Cross Southern Province, but he left the Holy Cross order in 1997.
He said he found stability staying in one geographic region and more independence in the diocesan priesthood. Aréchiga worked at St. John the Evangelist Parish until Assumption Seminary accepted him in January 1998.
Fr. Dennis served first at San Fernando Cathedral, pastored at St. Monica Parish in Converse and was appointed pastor of St. Matthew’s Parish in 2010.
“I knew it would be a learning experience. This is a very active parish and was three times as large as St. Monica’s when I arrived here. It’s forced me to be much more decisive. It makes me reflect on what it means to be a leader and how I can be a better one,” he said. However, Fr. Aréchiga is certain about one thing: He’s happy serving people as a diocesan priest.