For the first time in its history, a resident of La Graciosa will be ordained a priest. This is Nicanor Bermúdez Páez, a 24-year-old from Graciosa who is studying in Galda (Gran Canaria) the so-called Pastoral Qualification, the last stage of training to become a priest.
This young man told this Thursday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero how he discovered his vocation. Although he was always very religious and says that he was "discovering the vocation since childhood", there was an experience in his life that marked the turning point towards the ecclesiastical career. As he himself narrates, at the age of 17 he was invited to "a field mission experience in Almería, in a very poor, very poor town, with a large population of immigrants." It was on that trip with the Claretian missionaries when this young man from Graciosa felt "the call of the Lord."
"My first approach was to enter that garbage, those shacks, those barracks... It was a very unpleasant thing. I was very moved and personally ashamed. I wondered how I could have so many things in my house that I didn't need," he recalls. Nicanor explains that it was when observing the hardships that "the Lord" "embraced" him "strongly for the priestly life." "Those poor people evangelized me, they spoke to me about God and it helped me a lot, because they are experiences that leave a deep mark," he explains.
The young seminarian believes that "in La Graciosa there has always been that Christian, family background, because faith is also a gift that is inherited from the family", although he admits that currently "what happens is that we forget our roots". The future parish priest believes that "our root is a root of family, of Christianity" and advocates defending it to "keep the flame burning."
The level of atheism or detachment from religion has increased rapidly in Spain and throughout the West in recent decades, particularly among young people. For Nicanor, "the key" for them to approach religion again is for them to see "in young people, future priests, closeness, delicacy, the most elementary, a 'good morning, good afternoon'. I have noticed that with something so silly, so everyday, young people approach. They no longer say good morning, they say 'let's have a coffee' and they tell you that they have this or that problem."
For this seminarian, who recalls with amusement the stupor that the news caused among his friends when, as a teenager, he announced his desire to be a priest, the social work of the Church has been a constant in his life. He says that from a very young age he collaborated with Cáritas and, to this day, this is an important part of his training. Bermúdez explains that in his work in the parish, in this last stage of his training, he tries to help "young people who approach with precarious situations, primary needs", people with "drug addiction problems" or "impoverished families" due to the crisis. "It is a precious moment for me," he says.
