 |
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
||||||
|
| :: You are here :: Home :: Events & News :: Ordinandi 2007 Biographies | ||
|
Ordinandi 2007 Biographies Jorge Aviles - A 'yes' to the Lord eases worries A ‘yes’ to the Lord eases worries Aviles, 34, moved from El Salvador to Montreal at the age of 17 with his mother and two siblings. Those were tough times for Aviles. His parents had separated and he struggled as a new immigrant with the language and studies. When most people his age were graduating from high school, Aviles had to start his studies at a Grade 7 level. His initial plan was to make some money then move back to El Salvador after five years. “Something touched me — that Jesus Christ is present in my sufferings,” he said. He attended World Youth Day 1993 in Denver with the movement, where he
initially felt called to the priesthood. When he returned to Montreal
he discussed his uncertainty with his spiritual director who told him “I had a beautiful girlfriend, the job of my dreams, but at the moment I felt a call to enter into the seminary. It was providential because otherwise it would seem like I was escaping into the seminary.” Two weeks later he went to Porto San Giorgio, close to Rome, for a Neo Catechumenal gathering of members who’d discerned a religious vocation. He was selected to study at Redemptoris Mater. A week after entering the seminary Aviles wanted to leave, feeling like he’d abandoned his mother who had lost her job and was relying on him for financial support. He called her intending to leave if she was distressed, but to his surprise she’d found a job and was supportive of his decision. “If you say ‘yes’ to the Lord, His will, then (you) don’t have to worry about anything else.” :: top of page Future priest is more at home in seminary than in high finance
“You could see the homeless people sleeping on the steam grates from the subway system,” said Camilleri. In the midst of working on $100-million business deals, he’d ask himself: “How is this helping those guys living there in the cold. It was those things that got me thinking what is more important in life, this career or those people.” Answering a quiet life-long persistent call is the reason Camilleri will be ordained to the priesthood for the archdiocese of Toronto this May. He was born in Malta to a long family line of active Catholics: an uncle ordained to the priesthood on his deathbed, plus four cousin priests, one a bishop in Brazil. “I had good role models, but I was too scared to think of (the priesthood) seriously,” he said. The first time he felt a strong call to the priesthood was during the last year of his finance degree at Laurentian University in Sudbury. "I got into bargaining (with God) — if you let me finish my degree I’ll consider the priesthood,” he said. He finished with honours at age 22, but to avoid answering his call, he continued on to complete an MBA at 24. He began working for BCE where he said he got caught up in the company which was undergoing a series of mergers and acquisitions. “I was good at what I did. I got promoted rapidly. I felt a loyalty to the employer like I couldn’t just leave. Like most people in business you are working on a five-year plan. I found I couldn’t make my five-year plan any more.” Camilleri found himself at a crossroads, needing to choose between a religious or married vocation. “The more I resisted making the decision, the more I felt an urge to the priesthood,” he said. Finally, at 29 years old, Camilleri contacted the vocations office for the Archdiocese of Toronto. It took a while for someone to contact him because the department was in transition. In the meantime he was assigned to work on Nortel, still owned by BCE, and he began travelling to Europe on business. Eventually, the vocations office replied and paired him with a spiritual director, Fr. Tim Hanley, who had previously been a chartered accountant. During this period of discernment Camalleri changed companies. “I was trying to see if by changing jobs this call to the priesthood was because of job dissatisfaction.” That’s when he knew he had a vocation. “I had the job of my dreams — 50 people working under me and the call was still there. God had given me everything I wanted, but He did it to show it wasn’t what I really wanted.” He said he took a one-year leave from his job to avoid giving up everything without recourse. “The seminary is a scary thing from the outside, but as soon as I came I felt at home and I knew it was the right decision for me.” :: top of page Despite life's sturggles, the call kept pulling Llames to the Seminary
Then for eight years he studied architecture part-time while working in construction. “I encountered life’s struggles and a few times my pastors and peers
brought me back to the church. Sometimes I would go and fall away again
until I asked what is the meaning of my life? Why is there suffering?” Once Llames finished his degree, he found answers to those questions at his parish through the Neo Catechumenal Way. This international lay movement helped him rediscover his calling as a Christian, said Llames. A few years after he joined the movement his vocational call returned. At first he said it felt like an escape from the troubles he was dealing with. For three years he wrestled with it, thinking it was an infatuation because he had nowhere else to go. Then in 1995 Pope John Paul II brought World Youth Day to Manila, Philippines. At the pilgrimage when he heard the words “do not be afraid” Llames realized “it’s the church that calls me to take a risk, to take up one’s cross and follow Christ.” During World Youth Day the pope made a call for vocations and Llames said it was then that he stopped escaping. He went through a pre-formation period. “It was a test to see if this is ‘real gold,’ see if there are any impurities.” In September 1998 the Neo Catechumenal movement asked him to go to
Porto San Giorgio in Italy for a large vocation discernment gathering.
He was selected to go to the seminary and at random his name was picked “I didn’t know where Canada was. I went to a map when I got home. I thought it was like Nunavut.” When he arrived that winter there was a huge snow storm. He didn’t think he’d survive coming from a tropical country, but after studying the life of the Canadian martyrs it made his own problems seem small. Now nine years since he’s arrived in Canada he will be ordained a priest this May for the Archdiocese of Toronto. :: top of page Gratitude to the Lord feeds the priestly call
“I accepted out of gratitude to the Lord,” said Lopez, 29. “I felt the love of God personally. This is the bottom line for everything. It helps me give my life because it belongs to Him not to me,” said Lopez. “I’ve given my whole life, my family, my culture, my country, but it’s nothing in comparison to what He’s given me.” Early in life Lopez formed a personal relationship with the Lord with the help of the Neo Catechumenal Way. As a child, Lopez’s parents had marital problems and he felt abandoned by God until his parents joined the international lay movement and began to forgive each other and work things out. At 13, Lopez also decided to join because he’d witnessed how the movement had helped his family heal. By listening to the priest preach the Gospel Lopez understood the meaning of the crucifix hanging on the wall of his house. “There were problems in the family, but that was not the bottom line. The bottom line was Jesus Christ died for me and my life had meaning.” Lopez went to World Youth Day 1993 in Denver where Pope John Paul II invited young people to discern their vocational call. “I was afraid. I didn’t want to give in.” He returned to Nicaragua to complete high school and begin studies in business administration, but he continued to feel a pull toward the priesthood. Finally, a priest asked Lopez to consider a vocation and he accepted. Shortly after he attended World Youth Day 1997 in Paris as a confirmation. A week later he went to Porto San Giorgio, Italy, with other men and women of the Neo Catechumenal Way who were discerning a religious vocation. His name was picked out of a hat to be sent to Toronto. Lopez will be ordained for the archdiocese of Toronto in May where he’ll serve under Archbishop Thomas Collins, but like all Neo Catechumenal Way missionary priests, at the request of the local bishop they welcome a transfer to wherever the need lies, even outside their diocese. :: top of page Changing paths on the road to the priesthood
“This community saw my tendencies were straying away,” said Pinedo, 47. After taking two years off to discern and take a few education courses at the University of Toronto he decided that his true call was as a diocesan priest with the archdiocese of Toronto. Initially, Pinedo felt drawn to Scarboro Missions to work as a missionary in Third World countries because he had grown up in Venezuela witnessing its poverty first hand. “That’s the paradox of the Catholic Church. Countries that are 99 per cent Catholic have the least amount of priests,” he said. But while outreach and social justice is important to Pinedo, he knew deep down that he wanted to be a parish priest. “People stray where the parish isn’t the centre.... You become so focused on the social aspect, you forget the spiritual side.” Born in Bilbao, Spain, Pinedo moved with his parents and two older siblings to Venezuela after birth. He earned a systems engineering degree from the University of Central Florida, went back to Venezuela to work for a few years and then at 36 immigrated to Mississauga, Ont., because of political troubles in his adopted country. He started to discern a vocation while in Mississauga at St. Ignatius Loyola parish when he got very involved with the young adult ministering group. “Some people have these God experiences. This eureka ‘ah-ha – this is it!’ But for me it was gradual. I didn’t feel fulfilled working at an office job. I felt more fulfilled doing parish ministry.” After a year-long hands-on internship at Holy Family parish in Whitby, Ont., as a deacon, Pinedo said he’s prepared to make his final vows May 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral. :: top of page Seminarian feels to need to give back to the Lord
“What makes me go is this gratitude. Everything I received, I received freely, so I feel inside the urge to give back to the Lord,” said Scollo. “That’s what (causes) this desire to go wherever I’m called to go.” In 1997, at the age of 19, Scollo moved to Toronto to attend Redemptoris Mater Seminary run by the Neo Catechumenal Way, an international lay movement. Before his move, he had no idea what Canada was like. “I’d never heard of Toronto. I thought of the penguins right away and I said ‘mama mia.’ ” Scollo said his parents, particularly his father, played a major role in his call and initial faith formation. At 15, Scollo joined the Neo Catechumenal Way, five years after his parents had joined the movement. “I joined because I saw changes in (my parents),” he said. “They stopped fighting and asked for forgiveness.” God gave his father the courage to start praying before meals and praying with the family in the morning, said Scollo. “God worked through me, through my father’s conversion.” Scollo attended Euro Hope in 1995, a parallel event to World Youth Day for Europeans who could not attend the WYD gathering in Manila, Philippines. It was there that he experienced a deep, yet simple joy. “I can’t compare this joy with the kind of joy you get from a party or club.” After Euro Hope, Scollo decided that in order to believe he needed proof of God’s existence, so he put God’s word to the test. He zeroed in on the teaching that if you give you will receive and devoted himself to helping a friend pass a physics test. His friend ended up getting a good mark and Scollo gained a new friend, which for him was a confirmation of God’s promise. Another confirmation was that each time Scollo opened up the Bible at random, the passage fit Scollo’s context. “I kept putting the Word of God to the test until I started feeling a vocation.” By the time World Youth Day rolled around again in 1997, Scollo flew to
Paris to attend. He found it confirmed to him that he was called to the
priesthood.
Scollo will be ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Toronto this :: top of page
|
|
When Jorge Lopez joined Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Toronto nine
years ago he didn’t speak a word of English. Still, he left his family
behind in Nicaragua to follow his call to the priesthood.
Two years ago Ignacio Pinedo was to be ordained a missionary priest
with the Scarboro Missions religious community based in Toronto, but
close to his ordination date the superior asked him to take some time 
