At the age of 28, when many young people dream of consolidating a professional career, gaining economic stability or moving up the career ladder, Santiago Valderrama Henao made a radical decision: to leave behind a promising career as a lawyer to answer a call that had been silently echoing within him for years: to become a priest.
Santiago belongs to the Diocese of El Espinal, in Colombia, and resides in the Bidasoa international seminar, in Pamplona, Spain, where he is attending his first year of priestly formation and studies of Philosophy in the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra.
His story is not born of a personal crisis, nor of a professional failure, nor of a disappointment with the world. Quite the contrary. «I was fully at ease with my career, with the professional practice and with the life I had,» she says. And that is precisely why his testimony acquires a special force: because it shows that the priestly vocation is not an escape, but a free response to an invitation from God.
Everything is new to him
When his bishop - a former student of Bidasoa - approached him about the possibility of traveling to Pamplona for training, Santiago felt a deep joy. «I was very excited to be able to train in a place with a structured plan., The atmosphere of intense study and a solid spiritual life, which helps both the priestly vocation and, above all, to grow in holiness».
Everything is new to him. First year in Bidasoa. First year of Seminary. First year of philosophy. But also the beginning of a completely different life.
A brilliant path as a lawyer
Before arriving in Pamplona, Santiago had built a brilliant path in the legal field. In 2020 he graduated with a law degree and subsequently took two years of legal minor one in financial law and the other in business law. For almost five years he worked first in a bank and then in a law firm.
However, underneath that seemingly resolute life there was still a much deeper restlessness. «From a very early age, I sensed in my I have a particular concern for the priestly vocation».»he recalls.
During the university years and the first years of professional practice that call became more diffuse, eclipsed perhaps by the rhythm of daily life, professional goals and personal projects. But God was still waiting.
The turning point came in 2023, during the Camino de Santiago.. As he meditated on the apostle's life, a question pierced his heart forcefully: «If he gave his whole life for God, what am I doing?.
That question did not go away. Afterwards, while in Seville, he lived an inner experience that would definitively mark his life.. «I felt that God was inviting me to take the step and, somehow, I felt that He, fully respecting my freedom, made me understand that this was the moment».
A professional life dedicated to God
He then decided to approach the Church to begin a serious discernment. And he found something that he interprets today as providential: a welcome that confirmed what he had been sensing inside himself for some time.
Far from disavowing his past, Santiago looks back with gratitude on his years of professional practice. «My professional life, which I gratefully give to God today, has taught me a lot. It helped me to structure a way of thinking, a language and a concrete way of relating to people and to reality».
His story also breaks another cliché: that the priestly vocation necessarily arises in contexts of rupture or suffering. He insists that did not give up law due to frustration. «It was simply an invitation from God that I decided to accept.»
Comes from a Catholic home and the root of that call is deeply linked to his family, where faith has always had an important place. His parents, Luis Gabriel and Luz Amparo, with his grandparents, transmitted to him a solid Christian education. He has two older sisters and a niece, and acknowledges that in his family he learned «the value of effort, of a job well done, and of right intention».
Among all his childhood memories there is one he never forgot. «Once, when I was very little, my grandmother Georgina asked me to recite the Lord's Prayer. I started confidently, but there came a time when I could not continue because I could not remember it well. I felt a lot of shame and also a great sadness.».
Over the years he understood that that seemingly simple scene left a deep imprint on his soul. «I understood, even as a child, that faith could not be reduced to something superficial, but was to be truly rooted in the heart». Today that conviction sustains his entire vocation.
His view of Colombia is full of realism, but also of hope. He speaks fondly of his diocese of El Espinal, located in the department of Tolima, a Church very close to the reality of the people and marked by enormous pastoral challenges.
Describes a large diocese, with high levels of poverty and communication difficulties due to the state of the access roads. There, secularization does not manifest itself so much as religious indifference, but rather as a complex spiritual plurality.
«There is a significant presence of evangelical communities that carry out intense pastoral work,» he explains. But there are also more informal phenomena, groups without sufficient ecclesial structure and even practices related to esotericism or Santeria.
This is compounded by Colombia's structural problems: violence in some regions, normalization of illegal dynamics and growing political tension. Santiago perceives that the country is going through a period of less institutional stability and lack of strategic clarity in public management, something that directly affects the daily life of the population.
«All of this has repercussions on social coexistence, on people's hopes," he said. and the possibility of building a more stable society».
In the midst of this context, the Catholic Church plays an essential role. «It accompanies people in their spiritual life, sustains the sacramental life and also is present in many areas of assistance to the public».
In many places it continues to be an institution deeply respected for its closeness in difficult times and for its ability to act with moderation and judgment during social crises and moments when peace and calm are lost in other parts of the country.
But there is one reality that especially worries Santiago: the lack of priests. «The number of priests is not sufficient to adequately meet all pastoral needs.» In his diocese there is an important imbalance between the number of parishes and the number of available priests.
Another point of future tension is the middle ages of the clergy The number of seminarians is approaching sixty years of age and the number of seminarians is not yet sufficient to guarantee the generational replacement.
However, far from commenting on it with a vision of defeatism, he speaks with a serenity, a peace and a faith that invites us to pray for priestly vocations in Colombia and throughout the world. «A vocation is a gift from God and the Church is not sustained by statistical criteria».
The great pastoral challenge of El Espinal is immense: to take care of a diocese of about 14,000 square kilometers and almost one million inhabitants, with numerous rural areas, all of them very dispersed. All priests seek to strengthen Christian formation and especially to accompany young people and vocations.
Precisely young people occupy a central part of his reflections.. Santiago Valderrama Henao recognizes that Evangelical and Protestant churches have grown tremendously. in recent years in Colombia, even in traditionally Catholic places where today they are already a minority. He considers that part of this expansion is explained by the lack of formation of many of the faithful and the difficulty of the Church to reach all territories..
Proclaiming the Gospel with proximity
But he avoids any aggressive or confrontational tone. On the contrary, he insists that the response must be closeness and the authentic proclamation of the Gospel. «The Church renews its apostolic mission by proclaiming the Gospel with closeness. Following the Lord's example with the Samaritan woman: knowing the person, understanding him and accompanying him».
He also regrets that in some religious groups people may experience rejection or mistreatment when they leave these communities. «These are situations that, needless to say, do not correspond to the Christian logic of love and charity.».
For him, evangelization cannot be based solely on speeches or strategies. It must be born of witness and personal encounter with Christ. «It is the witness of closeness and the positive proposal of faith that allows the truth of the Gospel to mature in the heart of each person.».
And he adds a profoundly spiritual reflection evoking St. Augustine and his encounter with St. Ambrose: «It is not so much a matter of a conquest made solely on one's own initiative, but of Christ himself going out to meet the person».
Since his arrival to study in Spain, Santiago has also closely observed the phenomenon of secularization in old Europe.
He is particularly impressed by «the low presence of children and young people in the churches»and the difference in shareholding between men and women in ecclesial life, The latter being more frequent.
However, it also emphasizes the key role played by many Latin American immigrants in Spanish parishes. «In many cases, they visibly sustain the life of the parish communities.
And, in spite of everything, it does not fall into pessimism. On the contrary. During experiences such as the Javieradas, the Jubilee of the Year of Mercy and university life and ecclesial in Navarra, has discovered «a joyful, committed and sincere Church».
Holiness, the key to the priest of the 21st century
When he speaks of the priest of the 21st century, his answer is clear and forceful. He does not speak first of social skills, management or technology: he speaks of holiness. «A priest of the 21st century, as well as of the 5th century, or of the 12th century, or of the 25th century, must be, first and foremost, a man focused on his holiness. That is, in being a man who is a profound friend of God».
Perhaps therein lies the heart of his whole story. The story of a young Colombian lawyer who could have followed a comfortable and successful life, but who one day let himself be challenged by a simple and radical question: «What am I doing? And he decided to answer by giving everything to God.
Marta Santínjournalist specializing in religion.
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