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John Valdez graduated from West Texas State University in May 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. He taught second grade for Groom ISD in 1984-85. He began to answer the call to priesthood and entered Assumption Seminary in San Antonio the fall of 1985 to study for the Diocese of Amarillo. In 1988-89 he came to Hereford and did his internship at St. Anthony's under Msgr. Orville Blum. He was ordained a transitional deacon on May 18, 1990 at St. Anthony's Church. |
So Deacon John, in a sense came home to Hereford and many fiends who served on his Seminarian Internship Committee and helped him in his vocation. He was ordained a priest on January 19, 1991 and celebrated his first Mass the next day at St. Anthony's in Hereford.
He was then assigned as Parochial Vicar (assistant) to St. Vincent de Paul Church in Pampa. In may that year Fr. Valdez graduated from Oblate School of Theology with a Master of Divinity.
Fr. John was named pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Amarillo July 1992 and later was assigned Pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Pampa in August 1997.
He graduated with a Master of Arts in Christian Spirituality from Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska in December 1003.
Fr. Valdez was named pastor of St. Anthony's, Hereford, in January 2004. He has become known for his "There once was a King" and other parabolic stories as part of his homilies during Liturgies. He celebrates a 'Friday morning liturgy with the school children each week; on Saturday evenings he presides over a 6 p.m. liturgy and on Sundays 9 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. (the Life Teen liturgy.
His parents live in Slaton; he has one brother and one sister.