By Father Michael Mendl, SDB
HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — Brother Timothy Hughes, SDB, formerly a member of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Carlsbad, recently made his first profession as a Salesian of Don Bosco.
“I am thankful to God for this vocation and that he has brought immense joy to my life,” the 28-year-old said. “I hope that my simple living out of my Salesian life may be a testimony to the young that they may encounter Christ’s love and receive the joy he calls them to in their vocations. My advice to young people is, ‘Let God surprise you.’”
Brother Hughes was joined on Aug. 15 at the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Haverstraw by Brother Francis Chazhikattu, SDB, of Florida, who also made his first profession that day. Father Dominic Tran, SDB, provincial, presided at the Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, received the brothers’ vows, and preached.
Born in Mission Viejo, California, Brother Hughes is the youngest of the four children of Patrick Joseph and Ann Regina Hughes, members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carlsbad.
He first encountered the Salesians through Father Steve DeMaio on a FOCUS mission trip to Lima, Peru, and later accepted Father DeMaio’s invitation to apply to the Salesian Lay Missioner program.
Through the program, he served at Casa Hogar del Nino Colimense in Colima, Mexico, from 2022 to 2023, experiencing the impact of St. Don Bosco’s mission to the young. That experience induced him to apply to become a Salesian.
He entered the Salesian pre-novitiate program at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey, in 2024. Admitted to the novitiate in August 2025, he moved across the country to Richmond.
Following his religious profession, he will become part of the Salesian formation community at Orange, New Jersey, and will study philosophy at Immaculate Conception Seminary-Seton Hall University in South Orange.
Brother Hughes hopes “to hit the ground running and truly discern how I can serve in the mission and encounter the young that God sends to us. I want to take seriously my Salesian identity and truly embrace this total self-gift that God is calling me to.”
In the longer term, he aspires to ministry in media. Even before discerning the Salesians, he said, he “was about to begin pursuing a career in acting,” with which he already had experience.
“After having read about the realm of communications within our mission as laid out in our Constitutions,” he said, “it makes me see more the fertile ground there is here for evangelizing and educating young people within our provinces utilizing all forms of media and storytelling arts.”
He added, “I would be honored to utilize my gifts and the skills I’ve acquired in theater, film and storytelling to help grow this key sector of our mission to the young for our province and the Congregation.”
