If there’s one thing that characterizes priests today, it’s that they barely have a free minute. Faced with declining vocations, priests must multiply their efforts to faithfully attend to the world’s hunger for God, which means that many of them hold several pastoral positions simultaneously, all of them filled with great responsibilities.

This is the case with  Father  Héctor Oswaldo Salinas Calva , a priest in the Ecuadorian diocese of Santo Domingo, a relatively recent diocese, as it was established by Rome in 1996. There is no shortage of work in this territory, which is home to almost 900,000 people, more than 80% of whom are Catholic. With an area similar in size to the Community of Madrid, the Catholic Church has just over  50 diocesan priests  and about 20 religious, making the work of these priests a selfless mission.

In fact, at this time  Father Hector is parish priest of the Holy Trinity in the city of Santo Domingo , as well as ecclesiastical judge as defender of the bond for matrimonial cases and notary for criminal cases, a  specific training  that he received in Spain, when his bishop sent him to Pamplona to study the licentiate in Canon Law at the  Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Navarra .

His time as a student in Pamplona

From his three-year period in Pamplona, ​​he not only gained legal knowledge that he puts into practice every day in the court, but also transversal lessons that go far beyond the merely academic.

In this interview with the CARF Foundation, he fondly recalls his time at the  University of Navarra : “It helped me greatly to better understand the ecclesial sphere and the mission of the Church, but on a personal level, I have also experienced spiritual growth and it has helped me to have greater clarity regarding parish administration and social service, specifically through Caritas.”

To show the excellent training he received in  Canon Law,  he tells us an anecdote that happened to him as an ecclesiastical judge, where in one of the cases in which he participated, one of the parties asked him to please serve as his defense attorney in a civil matter that he had to resolve.

The vocation of priest

Father Hector didn’t have a religious childhood or one close to the Church, but once he got to know the Church well, he never wanted to stray from it. “When I turned eighteen, I started attending Sunday Mass and joined the parish youth group, and later I became a catechist,” he says.

It was precisely in those circumstances that his  priestly vocation was born . His increasing involvement in the pastoral work of his parish led him to a deeper relationship with God, until that call awoke “to serve, and in particular, the most vulnerable,” a call to which he continues to respond today.

This  Ecuadorian priest  was ordained in 2010, and in his more than fifteen years of pastoral experience, one thing is very clear:  “The formation received in the seminary is not enough .” In his opinion, “it is necessary for priests to pursue higher education in order to respond in the best way and with fidelity to doctrine to the challenges of our time.”

But he believes that the key lies not only in having a higher education, but also in working and training to have a charitable spirit and be close to the faithful, because the best way to help them is to “know their spiritual and material needs firsthand.”

Thanks to the CARF Foundation

Finally, Hector expresses his “infinite” gratitude to the benefactors, partners, and friends of the CARF Foundation for “their concern for the benefit of priests so that we can be trained and respond faithfully to the mission of the Church.”

Hector’s story is yet another example of loyalty and dedication to others, like the story of Peter Paul. 

Discover how the commitment of so many people generates priestly vocations for all dioceses.