Four New Priests Ordained for Miami Two Were Born in Colombia, Another in Mexico, and One in Hialeah
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WWW.THEFLORIDACATHOLIC.ORG | May 2018 FLORIDACatholic MIAMI ARCHDIOCESE Four new priests ordained for Miami Two were born in Colombia, another in Mexico, and one in Hialeah ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO of the Florida Catholic staff MIAMI | Two are older. Two are younger. Two come from the same parish, Mother of Our Redeemer, another comes from a par- ish nearby, Immaculate Conception. One is a native, born and raised in Hialeah. The other three are immigrants who started out as manual laborers: loading and unloading clothing, moving mattresses, waiting tables. Miami’s newest priests aptly represent the people they will serve: • Omar Ayubi, 55, a Colombia native of Lebanese extraction who moved to the U.S. 26 years ago to join his family. • Gustavo Barros, 45, also a native of Co- lombia who came to the U.S. 17 years ago seeking success as a photojournalist. • Juan Alberto Gomez, 37, a native of Mex- ico who found salvation through the Neocat- echumenal Way, and his vocation at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002. • Matthew Gomez, 27, a Hialeah native and local Catholic school graduate who always considered the priesthood an option, then discerned it as a calling. Archbishop Thomas Wenski ordained them May 12 in front of a jam-packed St. Mary Cathedral, during a ceremony brimming with symbols and tradition — and as emo- tion-filled as the new priests’ personal stories. ‘LIFE HAPPENED’ Archbishop Thomas Wenski, center, poses with the newly ordained priests outside St. Mary Cathedral. From left are Father Matthew Father Ayubi, born April 13, 1963, discov- Gomez, Father Gustavo Barros, Father Omar Ayubi and Father Juan Alberto Gomez. (PHOTOS BY ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC) ered his vocation at 14. He was studying at a Jesuit high school in Barranquilla and con- sidered entering the order after graduation. Then, as he put it, “life happened.” His father died in 1980, the year he gradu- ated. He was the oldest — two brothers, one sister, a 10-year gap from oldest to youngest — and “I became a dad” to the younger sib- lings. He worked at a bank while studying computer science. Eventually, his mother and siblings moved to Miami, and he joined them in 1991. He found a job at a clothing factory in Hialeah, loading and unloading trucks. At night, he studied English at Miami Dade Col- lege. Soon he was promoted from the loading dock to the purchasing office, and the work became a career with three different manu- Fernando Gomez tries to control his emotions as he witnesses After the ordination ceremony, Father Gustavo Barros gives one facturers. When the last one shut down its the ordination of his son, Father Matthew Gomez. Next to him of his first blessings to his parents, Gustavo Barros and Gloria Miami operations, he was invited to join their is his also teary-eyed wife, Laura Gomez. Goenaga de Barros. central office in Chicago. “I was ready to go,” he said. But two weeks which predated his work — included serving out that he himself had entered the seminary He had felt hurt and angry, but when he en- before the move, Father Jimmy Acevedo, then as usher, lector and coordinator of liturgical in his 30s. tered the seminary, she called him. “That’s pastor of Mother of Our Redeemer, offered ministries. The rest, as they say, is history. He entered exactly what it was,” she told him. “You did him a job as parish administrator. “I cannot One day, “out of the blue,” Father Acevedo St. John Vianney College Seminary in 2011 not belong to me.” pay you what you’re making,” the priest told asked him if had ever considered the priest- and immediately “knew I had to be there.” Looking back, Father Ayubi said, “Things him. But it was enough to live on, so he ac- hood. “I said, ‘it’s funny that you asked,’” Fa- Reassurance came from a most unusual happen for a reason.” He now views his age cepted. ther Ayubi recalled. He explained that he had source: the girlfriend he had been planning and life experience as an asset to his ministry. For the next five years, the parish became considered it anew, but by that time he was to marry until she suddenly broke it off. She “I was in the world. I know the world. I know his life: in the office five days a week, there in his 30s and figured he was too old. “You’re didn’t have a good reason at the time, just a on weekends as well, since his ministry — just silly,” Father Acevedo replied, pointing vague “something here that I can’t explain.” PLEASE SEE ORDAIN, 2 2 YOUR MIAMI COMMUNITY Florida Catholic May 2018 Archbishop Thomas Wenski lays hands on Father Matthew Gomez, calling down the Holy Spirit and ordaining him a “priest forever.” ORDAIN FROM 1 After the ceremony, Father Omar Ayubi gives one of his first blessings Archbishop Thomas Wenski kisses the newly anointed hands of to his mother, Judith Giraldo. Father Juan Alberto Gomez. (PHOTOS BY ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC) exactly what it takes to be a father of per, El Tiempo. At 28, he set out to for me like the vitamin of human Miami, the call came again. While Oct. 30, 1980, in Veracruz, Mexico, a family, working, paying your bills. find success in the U.S., and began warmth.” attending a Cursillo, he mentioned looks back on a somewhat difficult … I definitely think it is an advan- living the immigrant’s life. And that’s where he heard the his feelings to the spiritual director, life. He is the fifth of seven siblings tage.” He spent his first year trying to Lord’s call — twice, while attend- who told him he had to discern it. whose father was an alcoholic. He Father Ayubi loves to cook and learn English while working at a ing retreats with Mother of Our He started attending weekly meet- left the family to work in another used to rollerblade on Hollywood mattress factory in Hialeah. He Redeemer’s young adult group. The ings organized by Msgr. Roberto town when Juan Alberto was 10. His Beach. Now he lifts weights at the also joined the very active young first time, in Orlando, the theme of Garza, then the archdiocesan voca- mother died when he was 16. gym. He will serve as parochial adult group at Mother of Our Re- the retreat was “Dare to say yes.” At tions director. One day, Msgr. Garza “I had no direction. I felt alone,” vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes in deemer, which he likened to his one point, those who were consid- invited them to the cathedral and he recalled. “I kind of hated God a Kendall. “spiritual trampoline.” He left when ering the priesthood were asked to handed them application forms for little but I never left the Church.” he was offered a journalism job at a stand up. He remembers holding the seminary. “I couldn’t escape,” In fact, while “every door was A LATE VOCATION Spanish-language newspaper in on tightly to his chair and think- Father Barros said. open for me to get into drugs or al- “Mine is a late vocation,” said Seattle, but he returned frequently ing, “Nobody is getting me up from When his mother heard, she was cohol,” he said, he retained a strong Father Barros, born Sept. 7, 1972. to Miami, both to reconnect with here. That’s not for me.” very happy and so was the aunt he attraction to the Mass. “I think the His dream growing up was to work his parish friends and to complete But he couldn’t push the thought lived with in Miami, who was like a Lord protected me. Going to Mass as a photojournalist, and he found a master’s degree in journalism aside completely, especially be- second mother to him. She died last every Sunday saved me.” success in his native Colombia, at the University of Miami. Those cause people would tell him, “You’d year. She was not Catholic. But “she After high school, he left home eventually joining the staff of the trips back, he said, after feeling make a good priest.” Five years lat- would be the first person to be hap- and worked as a waiter for several nation’s most important newspa- alone and cold in Seattle, “were er, after he returned permanently to py and pleased” to see his ordina- years in Acapulco, returning to tion, and the thought saddens him. Veracruz in summers to pursue a Making it in the U.S. also was degree in mathematics. Along the more difficult than he expected, way, he joined a Neocatechumenal Father Barros recalled. “I would Way community. They helped him lock myself in that bathroom in Hi- see that he was not alone and en- aleah and cry.” But he figured, “God couraged him to take a leadership wanted me to be more humble,” role in the Church. They also took and added that he has no regrets. him to World Youth Day in Toronto “God’s hand was always present.” in 2002. His experience in Seattle, re- That’s where he realized, he said, porting on immigrants like him- that “the Lord was calling me. I saw self although they were mostly un- the joy, I saw the strength of the documented Mexicans, “touched youths. I saw that I was not alone, me very deeply,” he said. He also that the Church was young. That it was born without one ear, a condi- wasn’t dead.” tion known as microtia and atresia Eventually he responded to the which affected his hearing, though call to priesthood and was sent to paradoxically, “I love listening to study at The Catholic University of people.” While in the seminary, America and the Blessed Diego Luis he received an implant — a bone- de San Vitores Catholic Theological anchored hearing aid — that Institute for Oceania in Guam.