Manuel Guzmán is a diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of La Paz. He is 27 years old, was born in Bolivia, specifically in the city of La Paz, and is in his first year of his Bachelor's Degree in Theology (specialization in Liturgy) thanks to a scholarship from The Formation Foundation.

Here he tells us his testimony

Being born in the sky!
Sometimes we Bolivians are told that we are born in the sky, because I was born in La Paz, a city that is 3600 meters above sea level, surrounded by high mountains. I come from a very believing family, in which I was brought up with a lot of love. I remember very well that since I was a child, together with my sister, we were taken to mass, to catechesis and to different activities of the parish in which we liked to participate constantly.

“Could I be a priest?”
Like all young people, I thought about what my life would be in the future, what I would study, where I would work, live, etc. But there was something that was very strange, I felt a doubt: could I be priest? I felt this doubt stronger when I participated in the youth ministry of my school. It is in these activities where I realize the peace and joy I felt when talking to other friends about God, about wanting to be good, about wanting to improve my way of being.When I graduated from high school I had to decide what to do with my life, so I entered the university to study Accounting and Business Administation, but even with that decision I felt empty, I did not feel happy. In my mind came many other options, but something that resonated strongly in me was to become a priest. I prayed a lot to know what to do, and thanks to the support of my family, my friends and my community, I was able to listen to the voice of the Lord leaving everything to enter the seminary.

Enter the desert to see his own life
Thanks to the people who guided me: priests and lay people, I knew that the only way to know if God was calling me was through a deep discernment, entering the desert to see my own life. With fears and uncertainties I spent the time of formation in the Seminary, I have been growing in my vocation thanks to my formators, my brother seminarians, as well as the different experiences that have made me mature in the vocation that God had for me.
During my formation time, I came to know the life of my diocese in a deeper way through the work of many priests, religious and lay people in the various apostolates.

A diocese lacking in priests
The archdiocese of La Paz is 10,975 km², with approximately 53 parishes and 50 incardinated priests. The current reality of my diocese is the lack of priests, since La Paz is a city with many inhabitants and an intercultural mix with different social, political and religious realities; it is a diocese that serves in the midst of a scarce economic reality, with people who work from sunrise to sunset to bring bread to their table; most of these people live in the informal business, hard and temporary jobs. The parishes subsist on the little help that the parishioners can give and thanks to the help of foundations and benefactors who help to continue spreading the gospel in spite of the material limitations.
During the last stage of my formation I received the task of promoting vocation ministry for our seminary and accompanying young people who feel an interest in priestly life, an apostolate that always led me to qualify my vocation. With a team of seminarians we had different meetings with young people from the parishes of the diocese, where we tried to show the different states of life of the Church, that pastoral always led me to give the best of me to also generate the curiosity of young people to priestly life.

An important task: the direction of the Pontifical Mission Societies
After the discernment process, on the Solemnity of St. Joseph in 2021, I received the diaconate, a ministry where God led me to configure myself to the missionary face of the Church. The Bishop entrusted me at that time to lead the direction of the Pontifical Mission Societies, a pastoral that I did not expect, but necessary to live in the flesh the ecclesial reality, the mission that develops in my diocese is the “re-evangelization”, since many people have been baptized, but do not live their Christian life, or are far away from the Church. It also made me see the reality of poverty in the farthest places of the diocese. The mission is carried out by people who voluntarily promote spaces of faith in the daily life of the people: visiting families, praying in the squares, doing charity, forming small communities of families, etc.

A treasure in jars of clay
With the grace of God, in the same year 2021, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I was ordained a priest, a treasure placed in an “jars of clay”. Certainly the ministry has given me undeserved happiness, but it has also made me take up the cross of the Lord. In spite of saying to the Lord like the centurion “I am not worthy that you should enter my house” he took notice of me at my young age, my inexperience and my weaknesses, during my first years as a priest my bishop appointed me formator in the seminary, a challenging task for my young ministry. During that time I was helping the seminarians to discern their vocation, facing a reality where the shortage of seminarians makes it a more personalized formation. Unfortunately because of the shortage of clergy, many priests have not been able to access a study that qualifies the formation in the diocese, and that is why my bishop made the decision to send me to Rome, to study, to serve better in my diocese.

Rome!
Specifically, the bishop sent me to study Liturgy, so that later, if God wills it, I can teach everything I have learned and enrich the celebratory dimension of my diocese. It is a challenge that I assume hand in hand with God to give me the wisdom to learn in the best way I can. The experience in Rome and in particular at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is a wonderful experience for me, studying and meeting wonderful people. But also from the heart of the Church, in communion with the Pope, increasing more my faith and my vocation. None of this would be possible without the generous help of the people of the Formation Foundation, who trust in this formative project, and also the fathers of Opus Dei who offer their spiritual accompaniment and friendship.

Know that you are always in my prayers and my Eucharist, God bless you and give you back a hundredfold!