Jorge Ortiz-Garay

Jorge Ortiz-Garay was the pastor of St. Brigid's Church in Brooklyn, New York and the diocesan coordinator of the ministry to Mexican immigrants. On March 27, 2020 he died at Wyckoff Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn from complications due to the coronavirus. It is thought that he is the first Catholic priest in the United States to die because of COVID-19.
Otiz-Garay was born in Mexico City on October 16, 1970 to Jorge and Estela Ortiz, and was one of five siblings. He became a practicing lawyer and was engaged to be married. In 1996, during a vocational meeting organized by the Neocatechumenal Way he felt a calling to join the priesthood and left his fiancé, his law practice and his parents to attend the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Newark.
He was ordained as a priest on May 29, 2004 in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, as a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. In 2009 he arrived at the Brooklyn Diocese and first ministered at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, in Prospect Heights. He began serving as administrator at St. Brigid's Church in 2014, and became the Pastor there on July 13, 2019. On December 10, 2019 he officially became the priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn.<ref name=":2" />

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