Otto Fernando Arana Mont is a 31-year-old seminarian from Guatemala (diocese of Santiago). He studies theology at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Pamplona. In this interview he tells us about his vocation, the apostolic needs of his country that will be declared in March 2022 as "Ibero-American pro-life capital" and, finally, his experience in Spain.
You are 31 years old and before Before entering the seminary, you worked for more than 11 years in education. How did you discover your vocation?
When I talk about this I always explain that the vocation was early, but the response was late. I liked to play soccer, until hepatitis at the age of 11 forced me to rest. for a few months. But the infinite wisdom of God took advantage of this situation to propose to me an exciting adventure: the ministerial priesthood.
How did it happen? By being limited in terms of physical activity and with few possibilities for distraction (at home there was only one TV, no computer and no internet access), my mother was wise enough to put at my disposal books of Sacred Scripture and many biographies of saints adapted for children.
From these texts I developed a strong interest in these subjects, wanting to imitate the heroic lives I read about. In addition, the environment favored it, since my mother always encouraged me to pray the Holy Rosary at home, frequent participation in the Holy Mass and the sacramental life, as well as moments of personal prayer.
When I was 12 years old, already an altar boy with a great interest in liturgy, I made it known to my family and to a priest, Fr. Pedro Medina ofm, who accompanied me in this vocational process.
The first plan was to train with the Franciscans of the province that was pastorally attending the rectory of St. Francis of Assisi, in which I participated. This meant traveling to Murcia and studying there. But when the time came, I did not want to take the step.
After this, there was a period from the age of 18 to 29 years in which the vocation of theI was a student, working and then studying philosophy, literature and education at the university.
However, the restlessness was always latent and every end of the year was a time in which I dedicated myself to see websites for information on the different charisms in the ChurchFranciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, Carthusians, Jesuits, among many others.
During this time, I would like to stress the importance of the presence of Our Blessed Mother Mary, who was always at my side and helped me to return to the Lord. For this reason, I like to say to her "Little Mother, what would my life be without You?". My life and my vocation are unthinkable without the maternal presence of the Immaculate Ever-Virgin Mother of God.
In my last place of work, an educational center where I worked as a teacher and family educational advisor, the Lord provided me with the means of formation that helped me to take up again with enthusiasm the universal Christian vocation to holiness.
Giovanni Pleitez who, with great patience and dedication, helped me as my spiritual director when I returned to the subject of the ministerial priesthood in 2012.
But it will be until November 2017, that in a retreat, talking with this priest, he helped me to discern and decide what I had been leading to prayer: to give a first yes to God and serve him as a secular priest incardinated in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Guatemala.
It was at that moment that he spoke to me about the possibility of scholarships. From then on, God's providence arranged the whole process until my arrival in Spain to study Theology at the University of Navarra and to be formed in Bidasoa, sent by the Archbishop of that time, Monsignor Óscar Julio Vian Morales sdb.
The following year was decisive and meant a radical change: to announce the news of my entry into the seminary to be formed as a candidate for the ministerial priesthood. The school received it well, although the transition was a challenge for the families with whom I was working that school year. It was an excellent place to work.
The experience of working with families was importantThe first thing he did was to witness the daily yes to the vocation of marriage, of parents who educated their children with dedication and care, thus giving an authentic witness of holiness.
While I could have served God as a teacher and allowed Him to work through this work, I realized that I could give the Lord more.
To give my life completely to serve Him, in spite of my miseries. and many sins, with a love according to his Most Sacred and Priestly Heart, renewed by his redemptive work that is actualized in every Eucharistic celebration to be given, in the Church, to the souls he wishes to entrust to me.
"I believe that, in these times, those of us who have responded to the Lord's call to serve him in the Church as priests must be clear that our vocation involves persecution and even martyrdom."
Otto Fernando Arana Mont felt the call of the Lord at the age of 11, when he hepatitis forced him to rest for a few months. "Then my mother was wise enough to put at my disposal books of Sacred Scripture and many biographies of saints adapted for children. From these texts I developed a strong interest in these subjects, in wanting to imitate the heroic lives I read about".
However, from the age of 18 to 29, he put aside his vocation and dedicated himself to the to work and then to study philosophy, literature and education at the university.
In my last place of work, an educational center where I worked as a teacher and family educational advisor, the Lord provided me with the means of formation that helped me to take up again with enthusiasm the universal Christian vocation to holiness.
In the picture, with other teachers from the school.
As a seminarian in Guatemala, what do you think are the most important apostolic needs in your country, how is the situation regarding religious freedom?
I am in communion with the bishops of the country, who in their communiqués as the Bishops' Conference, whose current president is my own, are in communion with the bishops of the country. bishop Monsignor Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez sj, have expressed as pastors those apostolic needs that are most important: care for migrantsboth foreigners and nationals; the need for peace in the face of various forms of violence that causes so much suffering and pain, the cry of the poor, among others.
Undoubtedly, the path we have begun with the diocesan stage towards the Synod on Synodality will highlight the needs of the Church on pilgrimage in Guatemala in communion with the Holy Father.
As for religious freedom, there does not seem to be a problem at the present time. Masonic liberal governments in the pasts who persecuted the Church from 1871 to 1945 and left an "abomination of desolation" (Dn 9:27). expelling religious orders, imposing secular education, writing a history against evangelization and the work of the Church for centuries, expropriating convents.
Perhaps we should mention a recent event related to the pandemic. Faced with the prohibition of attendance to religious activities in temples and outdoors in September 2021, the Bishops' Conference reacted, asking for this regulation to be modified, declaring the "essential value" which is the cultic life of believers.
In addition, when it has come to the care of the common home, many clergy members have suffered threats and harassment, as confirmed by a 2017 report by the U.S. Embassy.
Tell us about abortion in your country, euthanasia and gender ideology.
I can glimpse a future danger looming over the Church on pilgrimage in Guatemala. danger of passing legislation allowing abortion and euthanasiaThe promotion of sex education that seeks to implant gender ideology among children, as well as the recognition of homosexual unions.
Because if passed, the implications such legislation would have for pastors' preaching could lead to legal consequences, some of which some have already suffered: lawsuits, lawsuits, legal sanctions, imprisonment, gagging, gaggingetc.
There has been no shortage of attempts to promote projects that favor legislation to decriminalize abortion and the implementation of abortion law. gender ideology in sex education in educational centers. The most recent is bill 5494, which seeks to decriminalize abortion.
In addition, there are institutions that, linked to certain corporations and people with a lot of international power, are interested in imposing this agenda and are poisoning many people, mainly children and adolescentsso that these ideas are internalized as a matter of course. Not to mention the ideological work that is done with women to induce them to an abortionist and contraceptive mentality.
This would unleash a new persecution.. But, I believe that, in these times, those of us who have responded to the Lord's call to serve Him in the Church as priests, must be clear that our vocation involves persecution and even martyrdom.
It motivates me and fills me with an indescribable joy when I think: the Lord wanted to count me in his team for these times. That is why I want to tell him like the prophet Isaiah (my friend and favorite prophet that I have studied), and renew him constantly: "Here I am. Send me" (Is 6:8) and as the psalm expresses it "Here I am - as it is written about me in the Book - to do your will, my God" (Ps 40:8-9).
For the time being, there is a legal framework, such as the Political Constitution that defends against these anti-Christian laws, with two main principles: Article 3, when speaking about life, affirms that "the state guarantees and protects human life from its conception". In Article 42, when dealing with the family, it states that it is constituted "by the free decision of a man and a woman to enter into marriage".
This constitutionally guarantees a real opposition to any attempt to decriminalize abortion and to recognize unions between homosexuals.
Recently there have been two news items that may show the situation on the abortion issue. The first was on Tuesday, October 12, when Alejandro Giammattei, who is the current President of the Republicsigned its adhesion to the Geneva Consensus, which establishes that there is no "right" to abortion. The second was that the country will be declared in March 2022 as a "Pro-life Ibero-American Capital".
Therefore, I still see on the horizon a serious future danger, even not so distant: that international pressure and certain influential people may condition the country's government by forcing it to back down, destroying all that has been achieved in the defense of life and the family.
With this, they can create a whole gag that economically seeks to influence the legal. But this should not surprise us, since behind all this is Satan, "a murderer from the beginning" (Jn 8:44), who wants to destroy the family, hates life and seeks to pervert people.
We cannot lower our guard, we must persevere vigilantly and know that the total victory will be until the Parousia, that we know that the triumph is of the Risen One, but that does not exempt us from living the prophetic denunciation of these evils.
In some Latin American countries, people are leaving the Catholic faith and going Protestant. Is this also happening in Guatemala?
This is an undeniable reality. In 2016, the Evangelical Alliance estimated that in Guatemala, for every Catholic parish there were 96 Protestant temples, being considered the country with the most Protestants in Latin America. While 2015 had 45% of Catholics to 42% of Protestants, the 2020 data shows a shift: 42.8% of Protestants and 41.2% of Catholics..
There are a wide range of factors influencing these changes: poor training of Catholics versus rigorous persuasion training of Protestants, the welcoming capacity in Protestant groups versus a somewhat passive attitude in some Catholic temples, and the tireless Protestant proselytizing versus the comfort of thousands of Catholics who are content with Sunday Mass.
Therefore, I think that the presence of the priest in the parish is fundamentalHe must be available to the faithful and, like a father, be tireless in forming them and encouraging them to be missionary disciples. It is not rare to find a story in which a Catholic faithful has sought help from the parish priest and his absence was the cause of a disappointment that found in some Protestant group all the support and welcome that he did not have in the parish.
In addition, Catholics must overcome some of the greatest problems of our time and complex, including a solid knowledge of Sacred Scripture, living Tradition and the Magisterium, as well as a formation in Mariology that leads us to feel proud to have a Mother like the ever-virgin Blessed Virgin Mary.
We must explain everything that objects to the privileges with which God has adorned her in anticipation of her Divine Maternity, so that we may be "shamelessly Marian" as my former bishop Bishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales sdb used to say.
However, it is not all shadows. There is much hope and light in the ecumenical task. We have to remember that there is a belonging to the Church of all these Protestant brethren, but they lack the fullness that we Catholics do have by possessing the integrity of doctrine and the the totality of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Moreover, there are many reasons that can unite us in the face of dangers that threaten the dignity of the person and Christianity: we can fight for the defense of the familyChristian life and values in society. From them we can learn the study of Sacred Scripture, the lack of human respects in preaching the Gospel, and the missionary way of life by which they are always ready to give witness to the faith.
"I think that the presence of the priest in the parish is fundamental: he must be available to the faithful, and like a father, be tireless in forming them and always encouraging them to be missionary disciples."
"The experience of living in Spain and getting to know the Spanish people has been very pleasant and important in my formation. Knowing the treasure they have in the spiritual and cultural aspects is something I am grateful for and have taken advantage of.
Then, when I have been in pastoral ministry during the summer and Holy Week in different places, I have experienced with gratitude and admiration the generosity of the Spanish people towards me. I am very grateful to them because in many places I have felt at home. I thank all my benefactors", says Fernando.
In the picture, with other seminarians from Bidasoa.
In your stay in Spain, how have you seen the Spanish people, what has surprised you?
The experience of living in Spain and meeting the Spanish people has been very pleasant and important in my formation as a seminarian in Guatemala. To know the treasure that they have in the spiritual and cultural aspects is something that I am grateful for and I have taken advantage of.
Then, when I have been in pastoral ministry during the summer and Holy Week in different places, I have experienced with gratitude and admiration the generosity of the Spanish people towards me. I am very grateful to them because in many places I have felt at home.
Would you like to tell us something that has left an impression on you?
I would like to refer to the pastoral experience that has left the greatest mark on my formation as a pastor. Bidasoa. This happened in the John Paul II Fatima CenterI have had the opportunity, together with other seminarians, to widen my heart in the formation towards the priesthood, serving and seeking to correspond with generous dedication to others.
This is what we try to live in the days when we live in the center. For if what one longs for is to be Christ on earth, one must not forget that "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve" (Mk 10:45).
This is manifested in my service to the meninhos and meninhas (residents), for whom I have wanted to be a brother who lavishes on them the same attention that he would have lavished on Christ himself, remembering the words of the Lord: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40).
I especially remember that in the casinha (little house) where I served, I met Daniela, an elderly woman in her 50s who has cerebral palsy, cannot speak and finds it difficult to ingest food.
She was the first person I helped feed at the center, thinking it would be easy. I tried for 45 minutes to get him to eat. I could barely get him to take any of the food. But, as I got to know him and treated him with patience, I learned how and when to give him a spoonful, founded on a special affection that I took her as a spiritual daughter.
The main remedy was to tell him "With the help of God, your angel and my guardian angel I will feed you". Whenever he asked for it, lunch and dinner went wonderfully. The grace of God and the assistance of the guardian angels helped. I continued to attend him until the end of the pastoral.
We also had an animation activity for the residents in which we had the challenge of giving them a time of recreation and a lot of joy. When in doubt about how we can make ourselves understood with them, we learned some words and phrases in Portuguese.
But the best help is very simple: the Babel of the language difference, God remedies it with the Pentecost of smiles, service, music and dance.
What we have received from God through each of the people we have served is always beyond us.. The Lord has worked through them to configure us according to his most Sacred Heart, and through the hands of Holy Mary who teaches us to serve each of his favorite children.
They are Christs-crucified who smile... and also suffer. The smile of the meninhos and meninhas who, in spite of their situation, like to smile and have a sense of humor, is impressive. After observing, listening and opening the heart, one begins to see them as Christ sees them.
Some also express their sufferings. But when they are taken out of their routine, in recreation and fellowship, they shine with joy as a reflection of God's glory.
There remain many memories engraved by charity, living the new commandment of love by which the Lord affirmed that we would recognize that we are his disciples (cf. Jn 13:34-35). The Lord has given me friends for eternity.
I constantly pray for them, especially for Daniela, Jael, Rita, Joao, Soraia and for all the other meninhos and meninhas.
I am especially mindful of them at Holy Mass. Their memory strengthens me in the face of difficulties in formation for the priesthood, because remembering the grace of God received, I can again be firm in God that it is worthwhile to follow, it is worthwhile to be a priest of Jesus Christ for the generous surrender of one's own life.
Undoubtedly, all of this has been possible thanks to so many benefactors, who, accepting the gift of generosity, have made it possible to that God has given them, contribute spiritually and materially so that we can have the opportunity of these pastoral experiences in this path of formation towards the priesthood. To all of them I profess eternal gratitude.
Marta Santín
Journalist specializing in religious information
