Zach Zaldivar

I was raised the third of four boys in a small town in Minnesota, with a mother who was determined to keep her sons Catholic, which translated to going to a Catholic grade school and mass attendance each weekend. But apart from Sunday mass, our home felt nominally interested in the faith. As we grew up, my two older brothers began to struggle with various drug addictions, as well as, an onslaught of mental health ailments. This transformed my once “fun-loving” childhood home into a chaotic mess, which found my parents reeling for answers, and I began to search for an exit strategy.

That “strategy” presented itself after I graduated high school in 2011 and enlisted in the United States Army. However, during the initial stages of my time in the military I began to drift further away from the faith of my childhood and frankly had never experienced intimacy with God to that point in my life anyways. But that trajectory was totally altered when I encountered the Lord on an airfield in Afghanistan during my first deployment in 2013.

 Coming home, I returned to the sacrament of Confession for the first time in seven years, began attending mass once again, and continued my slow journey towards living out of a state of daily conversion. A few months later I met the woman who would become my wife, and now, we’ve been married for nearly eight years and have four beautiful daughters.

 Shortly after exiting the military in 2017, the Lord opened a door to begin serving the Church in youth ministry. With virtually zero qualification, I graciously accepted the position that was being offered to me. Since that first ministry role, I’ve had the privilege to serve multiple parishes in several different states working with youth, college students, and adults.

Currently, I serve as the Director of Evangelization at Christ the King parish in Denver, Colorado. And most recently I’ve been blessed to begin my own apostolate named Identities of Man, which features an eight-week fraternal scripture study and has an overall objective to cultivate healing, freedom, and revival in the male heart.