As Father Jason Pettigrew reflects on his first year as pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in Questa, he said one thing stands out above all: the community has welcomed him. “This year has been the best of all nine of them,” Pettigrew said, referring to his years in the priesthood. “Very welcomed and very well fed.” Pettigrew said becoming part of a new parish is never without its challenges, but he has found a strong sense of community at St. Anthony’s and throughout northern Taos County.
His first year has also brought an encouraging sign for the parish: More people are returning to Mass. “Thanks be to God that people are coming back to Mass,” Pettigrew said. Pettigrew said attendance has increased at all of the parish’s Masses. The noon Mass, which had been discontinued, has been brought back and is now filling up as well. “All of our Masses are getting more attendance,” he said. “All the communities are coming back.”
Pettigrew is quick to deflect credit for the growth. “I can’t take much credit,” he said. “Any good I do is the Lord, and any bad I do is me.” He credited God with moving people’s hearts and praised the parish’s choirs and altar servers. For Pettigrew, the growing attendance is a source of gratitude and happiness.
Pettigrew’s path to St. Anthony’s and the priesthood began long before he arrived in Questa. Born in Clovis, he grew up in New Mexico and Arizona, attending elementary school in Texico and junior high school in Roswell. His father had a ranch in Santa Rosa, and as a teenager Pettigrew was homeschooled. He also spent time catching wild cattle, donkeys, burros and mustangs. Those experiences, he said, gave him profound encounters with people and the land.
His eventual path to the priesthood came through an unexpected spiritual journey. Pettigrew was not raised Catholic and described his younger years as pagan or agnostic. He said devotion to the Blessed Mother and praying the rosary eventually led him toward Jesus Christ. “I prayed the rosary, and she led me to her son, and they led me to the priesthood,” he said. Pettigrew was ordained in 2018.
His connection to Questa also has roots that predate his arrival at St. Anthony’s. He recalled a visit to the home of his close friend, Father Chris Martinez, while returning from seminary. Martinez’s grandmother, Eloisa Rael, was sitting at the table eating red enchiladas when she looked across at Pettigrew and told him he looked like a priest. About 10 minutes later, she looked at him again and said, “One day you’ll be our priest here in Questa.”
Eloisa did not live to see Pettigrew become the priest at St. Anthony’s as she passed away in 2021, but he said her words have remained with him. “She sensed it,” he said.
Asked about his most memorable experience during his first year at St. Anthony’s, Pettigrew pointed not to a single event, but to the way parishioners respond when someone in the community needs help. He said the parish is much like a family. Members may disagree or “bicker and fuss,” he said, but when someone needs help, they come together. Pettigrew said he has seen that spirit repeatedly during his first year. “The community loves this church,” he said. That love is rooted in generations of history, he said. Parishioners’ ancestors brought the Catholic faith to the area, and the church remains an important part of the community’s identity. Pettigrew said he is grateful that residents fought to preserve and rebuild the church. “It fits here,” he said, describing St. Anthony’s as both distinctly New Mexican and Catholic. From the church, Pettigrew said, he can look toward the mountains and see the connection between the parish, its history and the surrounding community.
As more people return to Mass, Pettigrew said he hopes others who have fallen away from the Catholic Church will consider returning. His message is simple: Come home. Pettigrew described the confessional as a place of mercy, love and forgiveness and compared it to a shower for the soul. “It’s an easy remedy,” he said. He encouraged Catholics who have stopped attending Mass to return, while also extending the invitation to those who are not Catholic. “This is the church founded by Jesus Christ,” he said. For Pettigrew, the return of parishioners is one of the most rewarding parts of his first year at St. Anthony’s. “I am grateful to be a priest,” he said. “I love the priesthood.”
The parish’s first year with Pettigrew has also included work to improve the St. Anthony’s Parish Center. The parish received an LOR grant that helped fund renovations, including a new refrigerator and stove. Pettigrew said removing the old stove revealed that it had been a fire hazard. The broader goal is to restore the parish center as a gathering place for the community. Pettigrew said the parish has received nearly $43,000 in assistance to help with community needs and renovations. Work is continuing on the building, with plans to make it more useful for fundraisers, gatherings and other parish activities. The project is also intended to help fill the void left by the VFW as a community gathering space. “We’re still a ways from having it done,” Pettigrew said, “but soon it will be great.”
As he looks back on his first year at St. Anthony’s, Pettigrew said he is grateful not only for the opportunity to serve but for the people who have welcomed him. Whether watching Mass attendance grow, seeing parishioners return to confession or witnessing the community come together when someone needs help, Pettigrew said the past year has reinforced why he loves being a priest. And for a priest whose connection to Questa was foreshadowed years ago by a grandmother at a table of red enchiladas, his first year at St. Anthony’s has been a homecoming of its own.