D. Bolívar Andrés Batallas, better known as D. Bolo, is a priest from the diocese of Ibarra, Ecuador. He came to Pamplona in 2006 to the International Seminary of Pamplona. Bidasoa and was ordained in 2013. "Since then I give infinite thanks to God, because thanks to Bidasoa and the University of Navarra I am a happy priest who have taught me to be a true diocesan priest. I have learned to love my bishop with my intelligence and with my heart my diocesan bishop."
In 2019 his bishop sent him back to his "most beloved University of Navarra". to continue with Cycle III in the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Philosophy. He has resided in the Priestly Residence Father Barace, being the rector of this one. Last June 10 he read his doctoral thesis "Christian Humanism in Charles Moeller".
All the formation he received in Pamplona has helped him to put it at the service of the Catholics and citizens of his diocese and to be a good diocesan priest of Ecuador. "These years in Pamplona have been a great and undeserved gift from God. The formation at the University of Navarra has meant for me the intelligent and enamored discovery of service to God and to all men and women of our time, especially those most in need," he says.
On the occasion of his return to his diocese, we spoke with him about his vocation and his experience as rector of the Priests' Residence.
D. Bolo, how did you discover your vocation?
I studied elementary and high school at the Salesian school in Ibarra. In elementary school I learned about the life of Don Bosco and the beautiful and wonderful experience of his dedication to children and young people. It was there where the example and the life of a salesian priestBenito del Vecchio, captivated me and I thought that perhaps I wanted to become a priest.
In my last year of high school, in January, I went for the first time to the Diocesan Seminary to ask about the "requirements" to become a priest. Danilo Echeverría (auxiliary bishop of Quito) was the rector of the seminary at that time. I told him about my concerns and he invited me to the monthly retreats at the seminary. Those meetings helped me to clarify the panorama of my life and at the end of high school, I believed that the Lord was calling me to be a priest. I entered Our Lady of Hope Diocesan Seminary in September 2005.
What was your first impression when you entered the Seminary?
I was received with immense affection. I remember with great gratitude the open arms of Mr. Julio Pérez García (diocesan priest of Santiago de Compostela, who left and continues to leave his life for the diocesan clergy of Ibarra) who was then the seminary formator.
At the beginning of those years of discernment, I did not expect that the following year my bishop would have thought of me to continue my studies at the University of Navarra. I arrived in Pamplona in 2006 at the Bidasoa International Seminary. And since then I give infinite thanks to God, because thanks to Bidasoa and the University of Navarra I am a happy priest.
In the picture, D. Bolivar (second bottom right) appears with the priests of the Padre Barace Priests' Residence in Pamplona, during a visit to the house of the Archbishop of Pamplona Francisco Pérez González and the then auxiliary bishop, Juan Antonio Aznárez Cobo, now Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Pamplona.
For him, the care of priests is a divine task. "The mission of the residence is to see to it that there is a family atmosphere in which the priests who come sent by their bishops to study at the University of Navarra feel effectively "at home."
In these three years, you have been entrusted with the mission of being rector of the Father Barace Priestly Residence. Tell us about your work.
In 2019, Bishop Ivan Minda, who was the Apostolic Administrator of my diocese, proposed to me to return to my beloved University of Navarra to study Cycle III in the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Philosophy. I accepted the proposal with great pleasure.
When I arrived in Pamplona in August 2019, the service of assistance and promotion of the ecclesiastical faculties proposed me to help a little by making head in the priestly residence that has been my home during these three very beautiful years.
I knew, because of my short priestly life, the great affection of St. Josemaría by his brother diocesan priests, but the experience of these years has shown me with concrete facts that, the care for the priests is a divine task. The mission of the residence is to provide a family atmosphere. where priests sent by their bishops to study at the University of Navarra feel at home. Thanks to the care of several former students, this family atmosphere is truly conducive to prayer life and priestly fraternity.
In this secularized society, many wonder about the raison d'être of a priest. And what do you answer, what is the purpose of a priest?
This question fascinates me! I think it is the key question that all priests should ask themselves. I think that the priest serves to serve!
If every human person is fully realized in service, in the sincere gift of self, in the priest this "sincere gift of self" is realized by making present sacramentally the same Christ who gives himself every day in the Eucharist and in the whole liturgical life.
Valter Maggi, when he ordained me to the priesthood and in his homily he told us ordinands that if we did not know by name the people he would entrust to our care, We would be ecclesiastical officials who do not know about the woman who cannot make ends meet to feed her children, or of that man who cannot find work, and even more of those children and young people who do not know the attractive and beautiful face of Jesus Christ and that no one makes him present to them.
The presence of Christ in the Eucharist is sacramentally realized because priests exist. Therefore, the dilemma is either to be an ecclesiastical official (who does not serve) or a young pastor (even if the years go by), joyful and above all in love, who serves the Church as the Church wants to be served.
"Thanks to CARF, Ecuador, my country, has better prepared priests. May God repay them.
And in these times when the Church is somewhat discredited and vocations are scarce, how would you encourage young people to discover their vocation?
I think and believe that the Church is Christ present among men. If we really believe this marvelous truth, we will be able to propose to many young people the beauty and greatness of the Christian vocation: the call to holiness and then, in each case, to concretize it existentially according to what God wants for each one.
The big problem and the The great temptation we Christians have is to become bourgeois, to become comfortable and forget the greatness of our vocation.. The witness of so many people who selflessly give their lives for God and for others really shows that Christ is present in our midst today and that he wanted to take the risk of our freedom, so that we may freely choose the Good, having known the Truth.
In closing, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to CARF, the foundations, and benefactors Thanks to the generosity of the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra, here you have a man in love who, with his defects and miseries but, above all, with the help of the Lord, tries to be a priest one hundred percent. Thanks to CARF, Ecuador, my country, has better prepared priests. May God repay him".
Marta Santín
Journalist specializing in religious information.
