By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Angelo Centeno always knew. It was just a matter of when and how.
“I always wanted to be Catholic,” the 18-year-old first-year student at Thomas More University, told the Covington Rotary Club the other afternoon over lunch at their new home – The Metropolitan Club.
“I told my parents I wanted to be a Religious Brother. The response: “What the hell does that mean? My family isn’t Catholic,” Centeno told the Northern Kentucky Tribune, “But I have long
identified with the church.”
A graduate of Louisville’s St. Xavier High School — a Xaverian Brothers school – he was baptized March 31, 2024 at St. Martin de Porres Church. And he was one of more than 350 people who entered the Archdiocese of Louisville Catholic Church a year ago.
“When I learned about the Xaverian Brothers’ charism and service,” he said, “I began my journey.”
Xaverian spirituality calls for individuals to give the gifts they’ve received, he told the group, from a piece entitled, Teen enters church with Hopes to Serve, penned by Ruby
Thomas. “The gifts started pouring in when I became a St. Xavier student.”
Those gifts, he says, were the gift of Catholic education, the gift of love, the gift of community and the gift of religion.
And Centeno wanted to give these gifts back to the world.
“The act of servicing others has always been instilled in me,” he said. “My grandmother had a heart for giving. Through her teachings sand her giving, I picked up on it.”
Boy did he ever.
Last year – following a retreat and conversation with a brother serving in Africa – his will to give grew even stronger.
“That’s when I knew I was going to become a brother and I was going to Africa,” he told the stunned Rotarians. “I’ve always had a deep connection to different cultures and languages.”
Centeno taught himself the language widely spoken in East Africa – Swahili.
Why East Africa?
The Xaverian Brothers have been serving there for seven decades, according to the order’s website. He made the trek to Bungoma, Kenya, after his high school graduation last spring, where the brothers have a high school.
“I met the people who needed to be served,” he said, hoping his religious love will inspire their youth. I worked at The Ryken Center for Hope in Bungoma, Kenya. It’s a rescue center for street boys who are struggling with addiction or who have no family.”
He spent several weeks teaching English and building relationships with the young men at the center. He also taught English at Saint Xavier Bungoma, a secondary school founded in 2018 by the Xaverian Brothers.
At Thomas More University, he is a double major – in Educational Studies and Theology, with a minor in English. He serves as a personal assistant to longtime Professor and TMU alum – Dr. Ray
Hebert.
“Angelo is a remarkable young man,” Dr. Herbert said upon introducing Centeno as the club’s guest speaker.
The support he’s received from the Xavierian’s in the United States and in Africa and from the Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Louisville has helped strengthen his vocation, he said.
M. Annette Mandley-Turner, Executive Director of the Archdiocese’s Office of Multicultural Minority, is part of the community supporting Centeno’s faith journey. She is his confirmation sponsor.
She said she met Centeno when he and his classmates attended a “Symposium on Racism” sponsored by the archdiocese last year.
“I was looking for the voice of the students. I invited him to present for his group and
after hearing him speak I said, ‘This kid is special,’” Mandley-Turner said in The Record. She noted that his story resonated with her because she, too entered the Catholic church as a teen, according Ruby Thomas, in The Record.
She said, “His understanding of his relationship with God is so propound. His belief is a
common thread throughout whatever the conversation is and whatever he’s doing.”
After his graduation from TMU, Centeno plans to return to Kenya and work full-time to enter formal formation with the Xaverian Brothers and continue missionary work.
Now, for sure, his parents understand.