Mathew Vettath Joseph

Father Mathew Vettath Joseph wants people to know that he is always available to them. And if you happen to bring a good joke, even better, because he loves them.

That easy warmth is the first thing people notice about him, and it sits on top of a faith that runs deeper than most. Father Mathew comes from Trichur, in the Kerala state of South India, where his family has been Catholic for more than two hundred years, in a part of the country that has been Catholic for nearly two thousand, going back to the apostle St. Thomas. He is the seventh of eight children, an uncle to fifteen nieces and nephews, and the cousin of several priests and nuns, with two more cousins in seminary today. Surrounded by that kind of faith his whole life, he says he simply received the "feeling" to become a priest at the age of twenty, and he followed it.

Following it took him a long way from home. He is a Vocationist, a member of the Society of Divine Vocations, a religious community founded to foster vocations, especially among the poor, and he has carried that ministry across three continents. He spent his early years as a priest in India and then in Argentina, where he grew fluent in Spanish and fell in love with the asado, the Argentine barbecue of seared meat and open flame that is still his favorite meal. From there he served in New Jersey before arriving at St. Francis of Assisi in Apopka, where he leads a busy, bilingual English and Spanish parish and has stayed ever since.

Away from the altar, Father Mathew keeps a quiet, ordinary rhythm. He reads, he watches a little television, and he takes long walks or goes jogging, though he will admit he has hung up his volleyball, basketball, and badminton days, joking that he is getting too old for them. His parents, Joseph and Mary, and all of his siblings are still back in India, and he remains their very proud brother, son, and uncle from across the ocean. Through it all he keeps a steady gratitude, the kind that surfaced during the hardest stretch of the pandemic, when he reminded his parishioners that they were still alive by the grace of God, and that a hard year was really a second chance to do better. "It is a call for us all," he said. Then, most likely, he asked if anyone had a good joke.