By Tracy Rusch

Catholic Herald Staff

ST. FRANCIS — His family was Catholic, but not very religious. They went to church, but not always. Other than playing pretend priest at age 3, dressed in his mother’s bathrobe and handing out banana slices as “Communion wafers,” Angel Anaya Estrada, 37, had no desire to become a priest. In fact, it wasn’t until after a long, winding journey through faith that he realized his happiness would blossom when he gave in to God’s calling.

Anaya will be ordained to the priesthood on May 23 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and will serve the people of St. Francis de Sales Parish, Lake Geneva as an associate pastor.

“I learned a lot from their love, even from their demands,” he said, speaking of the time he spent with St. Katharine parishioners during his internship.

They were looking for a pastor who could take care of their spiritual life and Anaya was looking to help the people.

“I’m looking forward to listen to the people of God and to be willing to serve them and to love them,” Anaya said. “How? Well, just being present and trying to share God’s grace with them.”

Joshua Hren, 28, met Anaya in a cardboard box in 2006, where they were spending the night as part of a fund-raiser and an event to raise awareness for the homeless people of Milwaukee. He has since developed a lasting friendship with Anaya.

“There are two people in my life who have been, who I’ve kind of like looked at and just knew that they were going to be a friend for life, and I would say he’s one of them,” said Hren, who shares common interests in poetry and education as well as faith with Anaya. “…on a spiritual level, I could just sense the presence of Christ living inside of him so much that … he was really like an embodiment of Christ to me.”

The fact Hren and his wife, Brittney, members of Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish, Milwaukee, will name their first child Anaya Ave, after Anaya, is evidence of the impact he has had on their lives.

“One of the most important things about my friendship with Angel is he’s somebody who doesn’t mince words or try to skirt around challenging me and telling me the whole truth about what he thinks about, what I’m doing with my life or how my spiritual life is developing or if it’s deteriorating,” Hren said. “… He’s very honest with me.”

Hren said he’s overjoyed about Anaya’s upcoming ordination.

“He will contribute things to the church that I think we will not even be able to perceive,” he said, adding that because Anaya sees himself as “a child of God,” he knows he is capable of accomplishing much for the church.

Anaya, however, didn’t have his family’s support when he joined the seminary in 2001. His sister hoped he’d forget about it; his father said it was up to Anaya because he was paying his own way through school; and his mother wanted her eldest son to marry and have children.

“After the years passed, when they saw that I was very happy and I was very joyful about my decision, they started (to say), ‘OK, that’s wonderful. If you are happy, wonderful.’ But it was hard to go on without them before they came around and felt comfortable with the decision,” he said.

Anaya was an elementary educator from 1990 to 1993 in Colombia, South America, where he grew up and lived with his parents. At that time, he was also working with the Franciscans, serving the poor, and as a substitute high school teacher. But he felt called to study medicine and abandoned not only his teaching career to go back to school, but the Catholic Church as well.

For about seven years, Anaya said he didn’t have anything to do with the Catholic faith. Instead, he ventured to the synagogue.

“I kind of liked it, it was fun; at least, in my mind, it was more fun than going to Mass,” Anaya said, adding that his Catholic mother came from a Jewish background.

From 1993 to 1998 Anaya studied alternative medicine, and put his skills to use by performing acupuncture and other homeopathic remedies for patients. During this time, he realized that he had an “existential crisis” on his hands. He had everything, but something was missing.

“I remember that conversation with my mom,” Anaya said. “One afternoon, I said, ‘Mami, this makes me think that happiness was not made for me. I’m not made for happiness. How come I have everything I want – money, a girlfriend, you – my parents – you know, my (three) brothers (and sister) and I still feel like something is empty, something is missing?’”

His mother told him she felt the same way until she met his father. She reassured her son that eventually God would show him what was missing in his life.

One day, Anaya answered the door to Jehovah’s Witnesses who were looking for one of his brothers.

“They said, ‘Do you study the Bible?’ and I said, ‘Oh, not really.’ And we started a conversation and these guys started talking about the only one who can give real happiness in your heart is Jesus,” Anaya said as he recalled the day that he decided to “try Jesus.”

But after a year of Bible studies with them, and using the Hebrew he learned during his time spent in the synagogue, Anaya grew suspicious of the translations. Being a Jehovah’s Witness wasn’t right for him, but Jesus had begun to make an impact on his heart.

“I started like, you know, accepting that well, what if Jesus can do something in my life? What if Jesus really can give me some answers?” Anaya said.

He studied with Seven Day Adventists, then the evangelicals, and discovered more inconsistencies in interpretation.

“I started getting kind of sick of those things, and then once I said, ‘Lord, I’m going to be an independent Christian, no churches,’” that his friend insisted he go to a retreat with the Verbum Dei Missionary Community.

“I would say that was the beginning of my going back to the Catholic Church, and I started getting involved with retreats for young people, people from college or high school, retreats for couples, and Bible studies every day at nights, and my mom started questioning me, ‘Don’t you think you’re going a little bit too beyond normal? You are spending most of your weekends in retreats and nights with Bible study groups and stuff. Do you think you are exaggerating a little bit?’ And I said, ‘Mami, I don’t know if I’m exaggerating, but I just like it. I love it.’ And she said. ‘Well, you are not a priest.’”

That was when Anaya asked his mother, “Well, what if I were a priest?” and he said she replied with a, “Well, that’s different, but you are not going to be a priest.” But his mother was wrong.

After one year of discernment to see if the priesthood was an option, Anaya went to the seminary in Colombia for a trial year. He was encouraged by the rector to interview for a chance to go to Milwaukee through a partnership between the seminaries, but he didn’t want to leave. There were almost 30 young men interviewing for the single position in Milwaukee.

When he was interviewed to find out why he wanted to go to Milwaukee, he simply said, “Actually, the rector is the one who wants me to go to Milwaukee, but I don’t want to go to Milwaukee.” He was caught by surprise when he was invited to fill the spot.

“I felt bad and kind of guilty and said, ‘Father, there are a bunch of people who want to go to Milwaukee and the only one who was not really interested is the one you are going to pick. I don’t understand,’ and I remember my rector said, ‘You know, that’s not your problem. That’s the Holy Spirit’s business,’” Anaya recalled.

In 2004, he came to Milwaukee, where he learned English as a second language and worked through five-and-a-half years of classes.

“The thing is I trust God and since I said, ‘Yes’ to this vocation, I said to God, ‘Well, OK, I’m in your hands, do whatever you want.’” Anaya said. “…I never thought that I would be in the United States being a priest, so I don’t know; I trust God and I know that even though I might have down times, and I might have times where I will feel disappointed or sad … if something ugly is facing my life, I know he’s going to hold me hard and say, ‘Don’t worry, I’m with you. You’ll go with me, so, let’s go.’”

Be An Informed Catholic!


For the rest of this week's news, visit the Catholic Herald Web site.

Click here to subscribe to the Catholic Herald.