Felipe Gonzalez St. John Vianney College Seminary (Senior Year) Home Parish: St. Paul, Tampa

Felipe was born in Itagüí area of Medellin, Colombia.  He has an older brother and an older sister.  His family moved to the in 2000. Felipe graduated from Gaither High School in 2007 and has been very active in his home parish of St. Paul’s.  Felipe is a senior at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.  Felipe likes to read a lot and for exercise he likes to swim and ride a bicycle.

Do your family and friends think it is a good idea that you’re becoming a priest?  Yes, my family and close friends have been of great help since I entered the seminary; a great help for me but also a great help for themselves because in a sense I believe that my call to the priesthood and the reflections that I have shared with them so far about seminary, has influenced them to confirm their Catholic faith.

Do you ever have any fun? What do you do in your free time?   Yes. Friday and Saturday nights’ curfew at the seminary is at 1 a.m. so we have the opportunity to go out to the movies along with other brother seminarians. Some other times we go to the beach to get a tan. Keeping in mind the virtue of “prudence,” we can basically do and go anywhere during our free time.

If you were not a priest, what do you think you would be?  I think I would become a teacher. I do not really know what I would teach, though, but I enjoy teaching.

How many brothers and sisters do you have?  I have one brother and one sister who are older than I.

What is your favorite TV program?  I do not really have any favorite TV programs. I don’t watch TV that much.

Who is your favorite singer or music group?  I also do not have a favorite singer or group, but this time I have to say that I like a little bit of everything, because I enjoy listening to all kinds of music. The music I often listen to is: Classical, techno, rock, Hispanic, and much more.

Do you ever get bored while studying to be a priest?  They keep us busy most of the time at the seminary, so I think that there is very little time to get bored. I have to be hones. Once in a while, yes. But most of the time I do this: study, pray, going out to have fun to the malls or socializing with the seminarians. 

How is a seminary different than a regular school?  It is very different in the sense that seminary formation is focused not only in the academic formation of the seminarian, but also in his spiritual, human and pastoral formation, so that he becomes a good priest one day. 

How often do you see your family?  Before entering the seminary I didn’t realize that we would go home that often. We have mid-semester breaks, thanksgiving break, Christmas break, Holy Week “break”, and a long summer.
Can you really be happy as a priest since priests don’t make much money?  I don’t think I would be worried about money. The gift of the priesthood goes way beyond money; way beyond all the material things that we have in this world.

Who helped you decide to become a priest?  Primarily my grandmother; She greatly influenced on my decision. My parents, many priests from Colombia and from here, and my friends helped me decide to take the next step.

When did you decide to study to be a priest? How did you know God was calling you to be a priest?  I officially decided to take the next step after having attended five vocation awareness weekends and some other retreats. Something that really helped me decide was the reflecting back on my life appreciating all the good times in which I felt the call from God. Now that I have the opportunity to reflect back I see the different levels in my life as I was being called by Him: As a child, playing the mass with his friends, later in time I became an altar server and had the opportunity to gain some basic knowledge about the teachings of the Church (catechesis), and now as a an old teenager, putting together all those good memories and the prayer life that I have started at St. John’s, I have become aware even more of the call that I have been receiving from God, since I was a child.

What do you think the best thing will be about being a priest?  God willing, being able to teach what I was taught; letting God use me as one of his ministers to get to people’s hearts with the truth.