Sergio Rojas did not grow up in a religious family, nor did he dream of becoming one. priestly vocation. He barely knew God, and his life did not revolve around faith. However, this priest from Venezuela discovered that God's call can come even when you are not looking for it.
His story is that of a priestly vocation unexpected, forged in a personal encounter with Christ and sustained, years later, by the concrete help of benefactors and friends of the CARF Foundation.
The vocational story of priest Sergio Rojas does not begin in a parish or in a family especially religious. On the contrary. Although her family considered themselves Catholic, faith was not really part of their daily lives.
«I have always considered my vocation to be something very special,» he explains. And he says this with good reason: for years, God was practically a stranger to him.
The turning point came thanks to his best friend's mother. She was the one who first spoke to him about God in a personal and concrete way, and who introduced him to a community of Neocatechumenal Way. There began a journey of faith that, unbeknownst to him at the time, was planting the seeds of his priestly vocation.
Sergio had been walking in faith for barely three years when something unexpected happened. During some national Camino meetings, at the moment when vocations were being requested, he felt an inner restlessness that was difficult to explain.
«It was like a flame that burst into life,» he recalls. But along with that call came fear. He didn't feel ready. It seemed too soon. Too serious.
The question came up again some time later, in an even more direct way. A Mexican missionary nun, after meeting him, asked him a question that he couldn't get out of his head: «And you, when are you going to enter the seminary?».
From then on, the idea would not leave him alone. Until one day, before the Blessed Sacrament, he decided to stop resisting: «I challenged God. I said to Him, “If You want it, I want it.”».
That simple gesture marked the definitive beginning of his path to the priesthood.
While in the seminary, his bishop made a decision that would change his life: to send him to Pamplona (Spain) to complete his training in the Bidasoa international seminar.
For this Venezuelan priest, My time in Spain was not just an academic experience. It was a deeply human and spiritual experience.
«In Bidasoa, I felt at home, despite being so far from my country,» he confesses. There he discovered something essential: «that the Church is not an abstract idea, but a universal family. People from very different cultures, languages, and realities, united by the same faith.».
That experience helped him better understand the world to which he would one day be sent as a pastor.
If Sergio took anything away from his stay in Pamplona, it was not a degree, but a way of living the priesthood.
«I trained myself to give my all to pastoral work,» he explains. He learned to understand the Church from within, to understand the different human realities he would encounter and to bear witness to Jesus Christ in the midst of them.
Among the aspects that most influenced his formation were constant spiritual direction, frequent Confession, and personal contact with Jesus in the Eucharist.
But there was one testimony that left a special mark on his priestly life: that of Father Juan Antonio Gil Tamayo, his formator, who lived through his illness with a serene and luminous faith.
«He showed us that spiritual strength allows us to look beyond suffering and discover the will of God even on the cross,» he recalls.
The priest today: serving and not isolating oneself
Father Sergio Rojas does not idealize the priesthood. He is well aware of the current challenges and difficulties facing the Church.
For him, the key is clear: prayer, dedication, and humility. The priest, he says, is called to serve, not to seek comfort or recognition.
He also insists on the importance of not living in isolation. «The priest must be with the people, know their reality, share their joys and sufferings.» But all this only makes sense if it arises from a living encounter with Jesus Christ. «Without prayer, the priesthood loses its essence,» he asserts. Venezuelan priest.
Gratitude to the CARF Foundation: support that makes vocation possible
Looking back, Sergio Rojas has no doubts: without the help of benefactors and friends of the CARF Foundation, his story would have been very different.
«Without you, I would not have been able to travel, study, or train in Pamplona,» he says gratefully. This is not a platitude, but a concrete reality: his priestly vocation He also benefited from the generosity of people who invested in his education.
That's why, he says, there will always be a prayer grateful to those who make it possible for other seminarians and priests to prepare themselves to better serve the Church.
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