The Catholic News Herald recently spoke to Father Alfonso Gámez who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charlotte June 22 and has been assigned to St. Mark Parish in Huntersville.
CNH: Alfonso, tell us when and where you were born, the names of your parents and how many brothers you have.
Gámez: I was born in the city of Clyde, in Haywood County, in 1990. My parents are José Alfonso Gámez and Ana María Gámez. I have one older sister, who is married and has two children. In 1992, my family moved to Hendersonville and there I grew up. In 2010 I came to Charlotte to start my college years. My parents are from Indaparapeo, Michoacán, Mexico. My father, from a very young age, used to work for seasons in the United States and then return to Mexico. When my parents got married in 1988 they had the idea to come to the United States to work and raise some money. They always thought, like many people, to stay for about three years and go back and to live in their hometown. God had other plans!
CNH: What beautiful memories do you have of your childhood?
Gámez: They have to be the times when we were traveling to Mexico. My family used to travel for the Christmas holidays to our town. I really liked listening my parents talk about their lives, traditions, customs. Those trips gave me a lot of perspective of the world on both sides of the border.
CNH: When did you hear the call to the priesthood?
Gámez: When I realized that I had more desire to study religious and moral issues than my academic studies. When I started my studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), I was studying civil engineering. But I spent more time in church and in catechetical groups than in the engineering lab. There I realized that my deepest longings were for an extraordinary life through this vocation, and not a professional life, even if it were to be a successful one.
CNH: Were you involved in the Church earlier in your life?
Gámez: I was never an altar boy, nor was I involved in youth groups. But when I was in high school my interest in the Church was something intellectual. I wanted to know what my beliefs were and why I believed what I professed. Unconsciously, I was hungry for the truth. From there the desire was born in me to share the truth I had found, and then I started to teach catechism classes. I served as a catechist in the parishes of Immaculate Conception in Hendersonville and in St. John Neumann in Charlotte. When I was at UNCC, I was also very involved in the university’s Catholic Campus Ministry group. I served as president of the organization in 2011.
CNH: Did you have girlfriends? What did they tell you when you told them that you were planning to become a priest? What did your parents say?
Gámez: I never had a girlfriend, but I had always planned to get married. In fact, when I joined the Catholic group at the university, I have to confess that this was one of my reasons for joining – to meet my future wife. And in a sense I did, because it was in those years that I found my vocation and my love for the Church.
My parents have always supported me. My mother, on her side, had considered a vocation to religious life, so for her those questions were not strange. At the beginning, my father did not understand the process or my situation with my career, but he always told me that he trusted my decisions.
CNH: When did you enter the seminary? How were your studies?
Gámez: I was accepted as a seminarian of the diocese in May 2013. That same year, in August, Bishop (Peter) Jugis sent me to study at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. There I completed six years of studies: two years of philosophy and four years of theology.
As I mentioned earlier, my vocation journey began with the intellectual hunger I had for the faith. Then, when I started my studies, I felt like a sponge – absorbing everything that was presented to me. I liked my studies very much and it will be a life that I will miss.
CNH: Any doubts along the way? What strengthened your decision?
Gámez: Always. I had many doubts at several stages of my formation. But the Lord gave me two very great gifts: a good memory and incredible seminary friends. I had to make a habit of memory and remember the reasons why I had entered the seminary, my love and desire at the beginning and to think that if I left the seminary I would only live an incomplete life. The friends that the Lord gave me always reminded me of who I am and motivated me in difficult times. I am inspired by the families I have met here in the diocese. As a priest I will have the ability to bring them to God Himself. That motivates me.
CNH: Do you think you will be a priest who is outgoing or rather a bit conservative?
Gámez: I really do not know, as I've never been a priest and I do not know how I'm going to be. Maybe you can compare it to when you ask a man before his first child is born if he is going to be a “strict” or “relaxed” father. It is hard to say. Either way, I intend to serve the needs of my parishioners, whether they are outside or inside the parish.
CNH: Regarding your new life, what do you think will be the most beautiful aspect and what do you think could be difficult?
Gámez: I think the most beautiful thing will be to witness the wonders that the Lord is going to do in the lives of the people I serve. That moves me a lot, to see the transformations and conversions He makes happen. I think the most difficult thing is going to be when you do everything you can, but despite that some people decide to turn away from God and the Church.
CNH: How do you see yourself in 30 years?
Gámez: In 30 years, I cannot imagine what the Lord has planned for me. Ten years ago I would never have imagined that these days I would be on the eve of my ordination. It was never part of my plans to take this path, but I could not be happier.
— César Hurtado, Hispanic reporter