Father Antonio Maria Diez de Medina, C.F.R.
Fr. Antonio Maria Diez de Medina, CFR has been a priest for 6 years and a CFR for 19 years. He comes from a diplomatic family, and was born in La Paz, Bolivia. His mother is Japanese, and his father, Bolivian-Lithuanian. With his younger sister, the four of them lived in various countries growing up: Bolivia, Maryland, Mexico, Japan, Chile. Fr. Antonio received First Communion in Maryland at Holy Redeemer Parish, and Confirmation at the Franciscan Chapel Center in Tokyo, Japan. While attending the University of Michigan to study aerospace engineering, he attended a student retreat and had a major conversion through his first confession in 4 years. A strong calling to the priesthood became apparent at this point (though there were seeds planted before this…the words of Jesus to want to be His disciple, and the life of St. Francis made an impression on him around 7 or 8 years of age). As he grew in his faith and vocational discernment, he encountered the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR) at the March for Life in Washington DC. After much discernment, testing, and healing, he entered the CFRs in September 2003.
As a CFR, he has lived mostly in Yonkers, NY and in the missions in Comayagua, Honduras, and helped to found the friary in Matagalpa, Nicaragua in 2008. Seminary years were 2010-2016, having studied at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers. His first assignment as a priest was at the new St. Mary of the Assumption Friary in Newburgh, NY. In 2020 he served as a hospital chaplain to Covid patients for four months during the first wave. He was then asked to come to London on short term, which eventually became a long-term assignment with many challenges and blessings.