Nicolás Duarte (23 years old) is clear about one thing: he wants to be a priest. But getting here wasn’t an easy decision. The young seminarian from the Diocese of San Roque, in Argentina, felt fear, uncertainty, and even thought that perhaps he should take another path.

However, today he is studying his first year of Theology at the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra and resides and trains at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Pamplona, ​​where he will face his second year in Spain and eagerly awaits the visit of Pope Leo to Argentina.

A lively atmosphere in the Church 

Nicolás still can’t believe his bishop’s decision to send him to Spain for his theological studies. When he received the offer, his first feelings were “fear and uncertainty,” but little by little, “I adapted, made new relationships, and discovered new experiences,” he says.

Nicolás was born into a Catholic family and is the second of three children. His parents have been catechists for many years and continue their faith formation. “From a young age, they instilled in us the Catholic faith and taught us values ​​and a good upbringing,” he explains. Therefore , from childhood, he lived “in a vibrant Church environment .” He was an altar boy and helped out in his parish “in any way he could.”

The question of his future was present from a young age . “I always wondered what God wanted for my life,” he recalls. During his adolescence, he began participating in vocational retreats organized by the diocesan seminary.

But it was in his final year of high school, when he was 18, that he began to realize that perhaps God was calling him to the priesthood. The possibility filled him with fear. “I felt too young and insecure to make such a strong decision to follow God’s call,” he explains.

“Perhaps God was calling me to the priesthood”

That’s why she decided to take “my own path.” She was about to begin her dream career at university. However, a month before starting university, she participated in a mission organized by the seminary in a small town far from her diocese.

An experience that changed their plans 

That experience changed his plans. “I had a powerful, personal experience of the lack of priests in my diocese,” he says. And, finally, he decided to enter the seminary a month later.

His decision makes even more sense when he describes the reality of the diocese to which he hopes to return as a priest. San Roque is a large and impoverished territory where “many people do not receive the sacraments.” In his view, this situation is compounded by “a notable decline in faith within the Argentine Church due to the growing number of sects and the abandonment of the faith.”

The need for priests that he discovered during that mission was therefore not an isolated impression. For Nicholas, training to return to his diocese meant preparing himself for a Church that needs priests capable of reaching out to people who do not receive the sacraments and who are increasingly distant from the faith.

Argentina awaits the visit of Pope Leo XIV

In this context, Argentina is preparing to receive Pope Leo XIV soon. After decades without a papal visit to the country and following the pontificate of an Argentinian pope, Francis, Nicolás senses a special anticipation.

“Throughout the country, there’s a great deal of enthusiasm and preparation to receive the Holy Father,” he says. Parishes and communities “are making arrangements to see the Pope.” And there’s one thing the seminarian is particularly certain of: “There’s a feeling it will be a very fruitful visit.”

The anticipation is even greater because Francis was unable to visit Argentina during his pontificate. “Several decades passed without a papal visit to Argentina, and even longer since Pope Francis could go,” notes Nicolás, who recalls the legacy the Argentine pontiff left among his compatriots.

From Pope Francis and also from Pope Leo he has learned simplicity, humility and charisma, qualities that, in his opinion, should be present in all Christians and especially in priests.

“Charity is the foundation”

These qualities take on special importance when Nicholas considers the priest of the 21st century and the challenge of evangelizing those who have strayed from God. For him, the answer lies in one word: charity.

“Charity is the foundation by which Christians work for God and for the Church,” he affirms. He also believes it is “the tool we must use to work with those who are far from the faith and from any knowledge of God, especially among young people.”

During his time in Spain, Nicolás witnessed this reality firsthand. He acknowledges noticing “a certain decline among Spanish youth,” though he believes this situation is repeated “in many other parts of the world.” However, Pope Leo XIII’s visit to Spain was a catalyst for many young people. In response, he recalls a lesson from Pope Francis: “Hope is the virtue of those with a young heart.”

And he again places faith at the center of his mission: “It is in Christianity, in that Catholic faith that we must all cultivate and bring to others, where salvation is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, a reliable hope, thanks to which we can face our present.”

A vocation that also needs help

Nicholas’s story allows us to put a face to a reality that can sometimes be hidden behind a statistic: a seminarian’s formation doesn’t end when he discovers his vocation. He also needs years of human, spiritual, pastoral, and intellectual preparation to be able to respond adequately to the needs of the Church to which he will one day return.

In Nicolás’s case, that formation continues today in Pamplona. The Bidasoa International Seminary welcomes seminarians sent by their bishops from different parts of the world, and the CARF Foundation, thanks to its benefactors, partners, and friends, helps many of them receive a comprehensive education and complete their studies.

That’s why, behind every donation to the CARF Foundation, there isn’t just tuition, accommodation, or studies ; there are stories like that of Nicolás , a young man who once felt afraid of the possibility of becoming a priest, who was about to start another life, and who, on a mission in a small town in Argentina, personally discovered the lack of priests that his diocese needed.