About Deacon Pedro

Originally from Panama, Deacon Pedro is a  senior producer for Salt + Light Media in Canada. He left Panama to attend Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific on Vancouver Island and was hired as a producer for Salt + Light Media after being the artistic director for World Youth Day 2002, which meant he was responsible for all the artistic programming for the 6-day event including the Youth Festival and all the events with Pope John Paul II.

He has a background in the performing arts: theatre, music and dance, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University and has been working with young people since he was a teenager himself. For 9 years he was a youth worker and job coach at Covenant House-Toronto, where he developed a passion for serving the most vulnerable and the voiceless (something which has translated easily into his passion for pro-life issues). He also was a youth leader with the Children’s International Summer Villages for almost 10 years and a Confirmation retreat facilitator for many groups.

Deacon Pedro was a music minister for over 25 years. He directed the Children’s Choir at Our Lady of Lourdes in Toronto for many years, his last stint before Ordination being the 7pm Youth Mass at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Newmarket, ON. Deacon Pedro is also a dynamic speaker and workshop/retreat facilitator for adults and for children and youth, having been to many schools for various talks. His most popular topics have to do with love, sex, relationships and marriage (as he loves JPII’s Theology of the Body). Other topics include vocations, Sacraments, Scripture, caring for creation, Liturgy, music, mission, life issues and the culture and media.

For Salt + Light Media, Deacon Pedro has produced and directed dozens documentaries and TV programs. He was the supervising producer for In Her Footsteps: The Story of Kateri Tekakwitha (2012) and is the writer/producer/director for Walking Together: Into One Beat (2023), Answering the Cry of the Earth (2022), Walking Together (2022), Historia Vitae series (2020-2024) Something More Than Ordinary (2019), We Believe (2019), Taking the Pulse series (2018), Away in a Manger and The Good Shepherd (2016), At the Foot of the Cross (2015), Living Stones: Walking Humbly in this Land We Call Holy (2014), With Our Own Hands (2013), the Make the Call series (2013), Abraham’s Tent (2012), Ends of the Earth (2009), A Day in a Life: The Carmel of St. Joseph (2009), A People of Life (2008), Turning the Tide: Dignity, Compassion and Euthanasia (2007); Lives in the Balance (2006), INRI (2006) and Thank You, John Paul II (2005).

He is also the creator, producer, writer and director of the popular youth series In Your Faith (2004, 2010); produced and hosted Taking the Pulse: Youth Faith and Vocations (2018); he has produced and hosted many Catholic Focus episodes, contributed to S+L’s magazine-style program, behold and the concert series Openings.

From 2010 – 2018 he was the producer and host of Perspectives: The Weekly Edition and in 2015 he completed the  documentary series, which he also hosted, Creation that looks at the Church’s teaching on the ecology.

In 2019 he produced and hosted the new S+L series, Deacon-structing and every three years produces and hosts S+L’s World Youth Day coverage program WYDCentral.

Over the 2020-2021 pandemic, Deacon Pedro was busy producing and hosting various programs for S+L: Historia Vitae, Faith in a Time of Crisis, Hope From Home, Make a Joyful Noise and Ethics and Pandemics. During the beginning of the pandemic, Deacon Pedro also produced the multi-artist video rendition of Be Not Afraid, which has been viewed over 3.5 million times, and in Spanish, Nadie te ama como yo.

In 2020-22 he also developed, produced, wrote, directed and hosted, the children’s Liturgy of the Word program, Yes Lord.

You may also know him as the host (and producer) of The Salt + Light Hour, a popular radio program and podcast that airs across North America on the Catholic Channel, 129 on SiriusXM Radio and can be downloaded wherever you get your podcasts.

When not making television programs, hosting the SLHour or ministering at his parish, Deacon Pedro can be found helping out with various events – most notably, in 2016, he was the Artistic Director for the Mercy Centre during WYD 2016 in Krakow, responsible for all the artistic programming during the week. In 2018, Deacon Pedro also worked with the WYD 2019 Local Organizing Committee in Panama, helping set up their Youth Festival and Artistic Department. While there, he co-wrote, directed and produced the WYD 2019 Theme Song video, Hágase en Mi, Según Tu Palabra.

In early 2022, Deacon Pedro was asked to join the organizing committee for the Papal Visit to Canada. For the four months of planning, he acted as Senior Lead, Programs, in charge of nine events with the Holy Father during his penitential pilgrimage.

On May 26, 2012 Pedro was ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Toronto and is assigned to Holy Martyr’s of Japan Parish in Bradford, ON where he preaches about once a month; come check it out! If you like his writings, you may want to read his “Deacon-structing” columns on the Salt + Light Blog.