The Rev. Lorenzo Ato serves as the Administrator of the Church of Saint Emeric and Assistant Director for Hispanic Media at the Office of Communications of the  Archdiocese of New York.

Father Lorenzo Ato was born in Peru and in 1986 he was educated in Communications,  Sacred Theology, Philosophy, and Faculty of Theology from the Pontifical and Civil University in Lima, Peru.  Father Ato was ordained as a Catholic Priest in February of 1988 at Saint Rose of Lima in Peru.

In 1995 Father Ato received his Masters in Religious Education from Fordham University, Bronx, New York, and he continued his education in ESL Studies at Paterson Community College in New Jersey.

Father Ato’s  first assignment was Saint John’s Cathedral in Paterson, New Jersey and in 1991 he was transferred to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in New York.  In 1997, he served as the Coordinator for Pastoral Ministries at Saint Rose of Lima Church in New York and in the same year he became Pastor of Saint Thomas Aquinas Church in the Bronx.

Since his arrival to New York City, Father Lorenzo Ato has dedicated his life to Hispanic Catholic Communications in radio and television.  Father Ato continues to inspire the Hispanic Catholic community with his two talk radio shows, Hora Catolica (Sundays 8:00 a.m. Radio WADO 1280 AM), Tiempo Catolico (Saturdays 8:30 a.m. The Catholic Channel – Sirius Satellite Radio) and his televised Mass production,  Misa Del Domingo (Sundays 6:30 a.m. Univision WXTV-TV).

Father Lorenzo Ato also serves as a Hispanic columnist for Catholic New York and he is an author of a book titled “Al Encuentro de Jesus,” where he shares a collection of his columns which appeared in Catholic New York from November 2005-December 2009.