Guillermo Gutierrez

mgtzc9958@gmail.com

I am Leonardo Guillermo Gutiérrez Carbajal. I am 24 years old and was born in a small, but beautiful city called Morelia, Mexico where I grew up and attended school. I enjoy books, movies, and real football. Most families in my country are very religious so I have been active in the Catholic Church since I was a little boy. My two younger brothers and I participated in our parish in Morelia dedicated to The Divine Child Jesus where I received my Sacraments. I was a member in the parish youth group where I learned how to play the guitar and joined the music ministry and sang at Sunday Mass. I have an uncle who is also a priest, and my family was always around the parish and had a good relationship with the priests that served our community. That is how I got to know the life of a Catholic priest and how I began asking if I was being called by God to serve him in that specific way.

After graduating high school in 2017, I entered the Seminario Diocesano de Morelia to begin my priestly training and have completed two propaedeutic years and three years of Philosophy studies. While I was in my first year in the seminary, my parents received a job offer from the Diocese of Boise and relocated to Idaho. Fr. Ron Wekerle, who is a priest in this beautiful diocese, had been the pastor at our parish in Morelia for six years and we became familiar with the diocese and the way Catholics live their faith here. During my formation, I began contemplating whether I was being called to share the message of love given by Our Lord Jesus with the faithful in Idaho. After much praying, I realized that God might be calling me now to serve Him and my brothers and sisters here in Idaho.

Last fall, I was finally transferred to the Diocese of Boise and spent a year at Pope St John Paul II parish in Idaho Falls learning a lot from the priests there and from the community. I am currently in my first year of Theology studies at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Birthday:  June 21