Ricky Malebranche to be ordained first Black American priest in Arlington Diocese

Richard “Ricky” Malebranche, a 37-year-old transitional deacon, will be ordained Saturday morning in Northern Virginia, becoming the first African-American Catholic priest for the Diocese of Arlington.

The livestreamed Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Michael Burbidge at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More, where Malebranche will be joined by 11 others being raised to the priesthood. He was ordained to the diaconate in April 2024.

The George Mason graduate and former Catholic high school counselor has said his journey to Holy Orders was not as direct as it is for many seminarians, but was ultimately a response to the supernatural call of God.

“My wonderful family raised me to want a relationship with Jesus. Although they never expressly said [to] consider the priesthood, they encouraged me to seek Christ,” he said in an interview with the diocese.

“Ultimately, Christ made it known that he wanted me to enter the seminary.”

Malebranche, a native of Dale City, Virginia, graduated this year from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg with his Master of Divinity degree in preparation for ordination. He also holds master’s degrees in counseling from Liberty University and Lamar University.

He first felt a call to the priesthood as a young child, later exploring the possibility during college—though without a firm decision. He served in youth ministry for a number of years at St. Philip Catholic Church in Falls Church, Virginia, while also working full-time at St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Dumfries. After completing a Marian consecration in 2018, he applied and was accepted for seminary in his home diocese.

Malebranche completed a Spanish immersion program in 2023 and has been active in diocesan events for vocations and the regional Black Catholic ministry. Saturday’s Mass will be particularly special for the Arlington Diocese, which was founded in 1974 but whose only ordained Black American men have been deacons.

“We finally will have our first-ever African American ordained priest,” said Jeffrey Corry on social media in anticipation of the ordination. Corry serves as a choir director at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Alexandria, the diocese’s only Black parish.

Malebranche has described his vocation and ordination as work of providence, coming together in a way only God could orchestrate—but on terms even his friends anticipated.

“Some that knew me when I said I was going to seminary, they were like, ‘Oh, finally!’… I have a hard time thinking that I came too late,” Malebranche said in a vocations video produced by Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in May. 

“Everything that happened in the past was necessary, because [God] wanted me to land here, in the year of Jubilee, to be ordained in 2025. It’s such a great grace.”

Malebranche served during his diaconate year at St. Louis Catholic Church in Alexandria, where he previously served on a summer assignment. His first assignment as a priest will be at St. Agnes Catholic Church, also in Alexandria.

Malebranche is one of roughly 30 U.S.-born Black Catholic seminarians, several of whom were ordained within the past year.

Duwan Booker became a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Little Rock in May, while Dcns Chukwuma Odigwe of Washington (June 21) and Justin Farr of Nashville (August 9) will be ordained priests this summer. Jessiah Rojas, also from the Archdiocese of Washington, will be ordained a transitional deacon on June 14.

Malebranche’s ordination Mass will begin at 11am ET on Saturday, and his first Mass will be celebrated on Sunday at his former parish, St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Haymarket, Virginia, at 12:30pom. He will preside at his family’s parish, Holy Family in Woodbridge, on Sunday, June 15, at 10am, and will celebrate a Juneteenth Mass at St. Joseph’s in Alexandria on Thursday, June 19, at 7pm.

Before officially starting his assignment at St. Louis Church, he will say the Sunday Masses there on Sunday, June 22, at 8:45 and 10:30am.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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