José de Jesús Ramirez
José de Jesús Ramirez
The Reverend José de Jesús (Chuy) Ramírez, a senior priest of the Diocese of Yakima in residence at Our Lady of the Desert Catholic Church in Mattawa, died Thursday, Dec. 3, after several weeks in hospice care in the parish rectory following a cancer diagnosis. He was 69.
Fr. Chuy had been one of the first priests in the United States diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this year, but had made a quick recovery and was of great help to the pastor, Father Alejandro Trejo, during his lengthy recovery from the coronavirus. Fr. Chuy’s sister, Martha Ramírez, had traveled from Mexico recently to help care for her brother and was with him when he died. Many others from the Mattawa parish and from St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Royal City, where Fr. Chuy last served as pastor, also assisted the staff of Central Washington Home Health and Hospice in providing care.
Father Chuy was born Feb. 11, 1951, in Santiago de Ixcuintla, Nayarit,
Mexico, to Filiberto Ramírez and Raquel Curiel Bernal, the oldest of 10 children.
For many years, Fr. Chuy’s father lived with him until his death in 2018. Fr. Chuy was preceded in death also by his mother and younger brothers, Gilberto Ramírez Curiel, Javier Ramírez Curiel and César Geusepe Ramírez Peraza.
After attending primary, secondary and preparatory school in Nayarit, he attended the Instituto Tecnológico de Culiacán in Sinaloa, Mexico, from 1968 to 1973, where he received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering.
After discerning a vocation to the priesthood, Fr. Chuy attended the Seminario de Monterrey, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, from 1977 to 1981. Discerning a call to serve the immigrant community in the United States, he studied at
Bishop White Seminary in Spokane, then the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1986, where he met a younger student, now Yakima Bishop Joseph J. Tyson. Fr. Chuy received a Master of Divinity degree from Catholic
University and was ordained for the Diocese of Yakima on Aug. 29, 1986, at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Grandview by the Most Rev. William Skylstad.
Fr. Chuy served as parochial vicar in Grandview after ordination until January 1990, then as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Moses Lake until July of 1992, when he was named pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catholic Church in Granger. In July 2000, he became pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Royal City until 2019, when he moved to Mattawa as a senior priest. He was very active as a presenting priest in Encuentro
Matrimonial, the Spanish Marriage Encounter ministry.
Fr. Chuy is survived by siblings Martha Elva Ramírez Curiel, Raquel Ramírez Curiel, Irasema Ramírez Curiel, Lourdes Ramírez Curiel, Patricia Ramírez Peraza, and Jorge Octavio Ramírez Peraza.
Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m., Dec. 9, 2020, at Our Lady of Fatima in Moses Lake. Due to COVID restrictions, in-person attendance in
Moses Lake will be limited to immediate family and priests. Mourners will be able to gather at the parishes in Royal City, Mattawa and Quincy, and to receive communion with the assistance of attending clergy, subject to state guidance for funeral services. The Mass will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/olf.moseslake. Burial will take place in Nayarit at a later date.
Funeraria Providencia of Quincy is entrusted with the arrangements.