Riga - Latvian Jesuit Ivars Juhņevičs SJ has been ordained a priest in Riga on Saturday, 25 June. The Archbishop of Riga, Zbigņevs Stankevičs, ordained him at 11 a.m. in St. Albert. Ivars was ordained a deacon on 6 April last year in the church of Il Gesù in Rome.

Ivars Juhņevičs SJ was born in 1985 in Daugavpils, Latvia's second largest city in the south-east of the country. He graduated from the Latvian Jāzeps Vītols Academy of Music. He has worked at Riga's Zolitudes Gymnasium and Latvia's Interdiocesan Higher Theological Seminary. In 2012, he joined the Society of Jesus. He took his first steps as a Jesuit in Poland and completed a two-year novitiate in Gdynia. He then studied philosophy in Krakow.

After his philosophical studies, Ivars returned to Latvia, to the Jesuit community in Riga, and worked as a presenter at Radio Marija Latvija. He also volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity.

Ivars then went to Rome to work with the Jesuit Refugee Service. In 2018, he began his theology studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Three years later, he was ordained a deacon.

After completing his bachelor's degree in theology, he returned to Latvia and began his pastoral ministry. Since autumn 2021, he has been a deacon at Mater Dolorosa Church (Our Lady of Sorrows) in Riga. From the first week of Advent 2021, he is responsible for the Latvian version of "Pray as you go", a daily prayer podcast. He also brings his experience of working with refugees gained abroad to bear as a mentor in an integration project run by Latvian Caritas.