I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, MX, 1983. I am the first of three children by my parents Pedro Ortiz and Rosa Casillas; raised in El Tepehuaje de Morelos, Jalisco where I enjoyed growing up among family and friends. At age 15, I moved with my family to Santa Maria, CA USA. I worked in the fields for a year and a half until I was given the opportunity by my sister to finish High School at Santa Maria High School. I graduated from SMH in the year 2001. Immediately began my higher education at Allan Hancock Community College where I got my AA and Transfer degrees in the year 2004. I transferred to UCLA in Los Angeles as a Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics major.
While in community college, I was invited to a youth group called "Anawim" from St. John Neumann Catholic Church. Throughout my formative years in Santa Maria, I discover and approach the light of my priestly vocation, yet I decide to live it secretly. Five times the Lord called me but it was until 2005 that I decided to surrender my will and follow Christ. I began as a religious brother in the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit for seven beautiful years. It was then that I heard, what I consider, my "call within my call", to come back home: the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
After seven years of formation at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, I was ordained a priest in the year 2019 for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. My first three years as a young priest were assigned as an Associate Pastor at the twin parishes of The Nativity of Our Lord and St. Columbkille in South Los Angeles, where I met and served many wonderful people. I am currently on my second assignment as an Associate Pastor at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in East Los Angeles.
"Christ, through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God" (Heb. 9:14)
