For a time he practiced the profession as well as teaching at various universities. However, there was a call from God since he was a child that he always tried to hide or postpone. Until one day he could no longer say no, and went to speak to the bishop. And he was sent to Rome to become a priest, thanks to the CARF Foundation grantsHe first studied for a bachelor's degree in theology and then for a bachelor's degree.
Upon his return to Ecuador, specifically to the Diocese of Guayaquil, Father Sojos has exercised important pastoral responsibilities, both in the field of the communicationHe is also a professor at the seminary. In addition to having been assigned to various parishes, he is currently the rector of the diocesan cathedral.
Don Francisco considers that the situation is complicated, with problems present throughout the country. Latin America and also globally. In recent years, a significant increase in violence has been observed in Ecuadorreaching worrying levels. This phenomenon, which constitutes a profound moral problem, is inherently intertwined with the questioning of the foundations of society, giving rise to destructive thoughts and ideologies.
At Ecuador There is a lot of faith. "Look, I stand for five minutes at the front door of the cathedral at any time of the day and, for me, it's an injection of hope. Why? Because people never stop coming in. They don't come in to waste time, they come in looking for the Blessed Sacrament chapel, which is always full. They come in looking for a moment of prayer, to wait for Holy Mass or to go to confession.
50 % of Catholics attend Mass every Sunday. This is a very high figure, despite the challenges of secularization and the advancement of groups evangelicals. There is also a high rate of return of people who, having entered the country in the previous year sectsThey returned to the Catholic Church when they realized that something was wrong.
Don Francisco Sojos knows he is protected by the Lord. His greatest doubt of faith lasted only a few seconds, at the age of 15, while he was reading the book The Trojan Horse. It made him doubt whether the Church was not founded by Christ. Immediately, he realized what a "garbage" book he was reading and threw it away. In his family, a Sunday Mass family, there were never any doubts about faith and religiousness was lived as a matter of course. It was part of everyday life.
As for the priesthoodhis vocation had always been present in his life. But it did not materialize until he was 28 years old, when he decided to enter the seminary. For seven years he had studied journalism and philosophy at the Universidad de Los Andes in Chile. And for another three years he worked as a professor in different universities and in his own communication projects. When he thought of the priesthood, he said to himself "for later, for later".
The definitive call came on a television program in Chile. He met a university classmate who was studying to become a priest. He asked him if he should not have already entered the seminary. When he returned to Ecuador, he spoke to the bishop, who decided not to send him to the seminary in Guayaquil, but to send him to Rome, to do the whole seminary at the International College Sedes Sapientiae and study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
For Don Francisco, the experience in Rome was wonderful, getting to know the Church, getting to know the depth of Rome, seminarians and priests from all over the world, with so many ways of living the Gospel faithfully. This opens one's heart and mind to understand more deeply the Gospel and the mission of evangelization. The formation at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross has given him a deep love of doctrine and liturgy, transmitting to him the importance of not deviating from doctrine and of respecting the liturgy as an element that belongs to the Church, not to the priest.
"I hope that they have not yet arrived, but are yet to come. To live in the Gospel means to live always hoping for the best. If the best has already come, then where am I walking towards? I am walking towards Heaven, therefore, the best has certainly not yet arrived".
When he returned from Rome as a deacon, the bishop immediately entrusted him with the reconstruction of a parish that had been destroyed. A few months later, he was appointed spokesman for the archdiocese of Guayaquil, to take charge of the communication and the relationship with the press at a very conflictive political moment, in a clash between the Government and the Church over the new Constitution.
Francisco Sojos has also been director of Radio CatĆ³lica Nacional, a hard time because he had to be in charge of a parish and travel to Quito, to the radio headquarters. He had to travel back and forth in the same day.
After ten years in a busy parish, he has recently become the rector of the cathedral of Guayaquil.
What does a priest need in order not to succumb to the dangers he faces today?
In relation to the challenges facing a priest today, he stresses the importance of having good friends priests to avoid isolation and stresses the need for prudence, a virtue that should moderate life and prevent the risks of the world. In the face of the crisis of the Church, he proposes to reverse the situation through the love of Christemphasizing that being an evangelizer implies speaking from a personal love for God. The one who is in love with Christ convinces about what he loves. Talking about the love of God, instead of preaching about theories, is the key to being a convincing evangelizer.
