Being a priest in La Paz (Bolivia) is a gift for the faithful of the country. This young priest is in his second year of his Bachelor's degree in Theology, with a specialization in Liturgy, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (PUSC) in Rome.
In October 2024, during the annual meeting of benefactors of the CARF Foundation in the Eternal City, he had the opportunity to share his testimony with pilgrims and benefactors, in addition to celebrating a Mass for them.
Manuel is able to study at PUSC and live at Altomonte College, thanks to a grant funded by the CARF Foundation, an invaluable support for his diocese, which is experiencing serious difficulties.
Don Manuel tells us how his vocation matured, a call he felt among the doubts and tasks of any young person in the world. "I come from a very believing family, in which I have been educated with much love. I remember very well that since I was a little boy, together with my sister, we were taken to MassWe also attended catechesis and different parish activities in which we liked to participate all the time," he says.
Like most of the young men in Bolivia, he was thinking about what his life would be like, what he was going to study, where he was going to work or live. But there was something else, a doubt that had to be resolved: "Could I become a priest?"
Manuel Guzmán Murguía tells us that these doubts increased when he participated in the pastoral activities of his school. Those activities made him feel very peaceful, and he felt an immense joy when he talked about God with other friends, about wanting to be good or to improve in his way of being.
"When I graduated from high school I had to decide what to do with my life, so I entered the university to study accounting, but even with that decision, I felt empty. I didn't feel happy, and in my mind came many other options, but one thing that resonated strongly was the idea of being a priest."
Manuel prayed a lot to know what to do, and thanks to the support of his family, friends and his community, he was able to hear the voice of the Lord leaving everything to enter the seminary. "Thanks to the people who guided me: priests and lay people, I knew that the only way to know if God was calling me was through deep discernment, entering the desert to see my own life."
With fears and uncertainty, he spent his time of formation in the seminary, and his vocation grew thanks to his formators and his brother seminarians, as well as the different experiences that have made him mature in the vocation that God had for him.
During his formation, Don Manuel learned firsthand the profound work that his diocese carries out thanks to the work of priests, religious and lay people in the various apostolates. The archdiocese of La Paz covers 10,975 km², and has 53 parishes and approximately 50 priests. "The current reality of my diocese is the lack of priests, since La Paz is a city with a large population. and a cross-cultural mix with different social, political and religious realities," he says.
His diocese serves in the midst of a meager economic reality, with people working from dawn to dusk to bring bread to their homes. Most of the people in La Paz live from informal businesses, hard and temporary jobs. The parishes subsist on the little help that the faithful can give and thanks to the help of foundations and benefactors who help to continue spreading the Gospel in spite of the material limitations.
"During the last stage of my formation I was given the task of promoting vocation ministry for our seminary and accompanying young men who feel an interest in the priestly life, an apostolate that always led me to qualify my vocation".
After the discernment process, on the Solemnity of St. Joseph in 2021, Father Manuel received the diaconate, a ministry where God led him to be configured to the missionary face of the Church. "The Bishop entrusted me at that time with the direction of the Pontifical Missionary Works, a pastoral that I did not expect, but necessary to live in the flesh the ecclesial reality".
The mission that develops in his diocese is the re-evangelization, since many people have been baptized, but do not live their Christian life, or are far away from the Church. You can also see the reality of poverty in the farthest reaches of the diocese.
The mission is carried out by people who voluntarily promote spaces of faith in the daily life of the people: visiting families, praying in the squares, doing charity work, forming small communities of families, etc.
Manuel Guzmán was ordained a priest on the day of the Immaculate Conception of the year 2021. "Certainly the Ministry has given me undeserved happiness, but it has also made me take up the Cross of the Lord. In spite of saying to the Lord like the centurion 'I am not worthy for you to enter my house' he took notice of me at my young age, my inexperience and my weaknesses."
In his first years as a priest, the bishop of Don Manuel appointed him as formator in the seminary, a challenging task for his young ministry. "During that time I was helping seminarians discern their vocation, facing a reality where the shortage of seminarians makes it a more personalized formation," he tells us.
Unfortunately, due to the shortage of clergy, many priests have not been able to access a study that qualifies their formation in their diocese, and that is why their bishop made the decision to send him to Rome to study, in order to better serve his diocese with the help of the CARF Foundation.
"Specifically, my bishop sent me to study Liturgy, so that later, if God wills it, I can teach everything I have learned and enrich the celebratory dimension of my diocese. It is a challenge that I take it hand in hand with God so that he will give me the wisdom to be able to learn in the best way all that I can".
The experience in Rome, and in particular at the University of the Holy Cross, is a wonderful experience for Fr. Manuel Guzmán Murguía, who studies and meets wonderful people. But also from the heart of the Church, he is in communion with the Pope, increasing even more his faith and vocation.
Don Manuel is very grateful to the CARF Foundation and would like to express his gratitude: "None of this would be possible without the generous help of the benefactors who made my training project possible, and also to the parents of the Opus Dei who offer their spiritual accompaniment and friendship. Know that you are always in my prayers and my Eucharist, God bless you and give you back a hundredfold".
Gerrardo FerraraBA in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East.
Head of the student body at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
