By Priscilla Greear

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Rev. Mr. Sergio Calle-Perez, 31, will be ordained to the priesthood in his home town on April 25 at St. Joseph's Church in Envigado, Antioguia Colombia by Msgr. Flavio Calle.

Rev. Mr. Calle-Perez, the son of José Vicente Calle-Martinez and María Gabriela Pérez-Mejía, said his journey to the priesthood has been an ongoing process which began in his childhood as he served others and learned about the Bible and his faith. "I was always very interested to know the Gospel and to teach other people to know the Gospel. I was interested in helping people to know the Bible and the Catholic Church."

At 14 he joined a Bible study at his parish, St. Joseph's Church, and later began leading the Legion of Mary group where he taught peers about the Bible and emphasized Mary as a role model. He also volunteered for a hospital two years where he visited poor families in nearby mountains and taught them to dispose of their trash properly and to drink water, salt and sugar serums as ways to prevent diarrhea.

Rev. Mr. Calle-Perez continued to explore his call to the priesthood when he began working mundane jobs in high school to finance his education and support his family. While working in a Colombian textile factory, restaurant, car wash and ice cream company he continued to share the Gospel message with co-workers and recognized his call to serve God through the priesthood.

"I enjoyed every job," he said. "This was for me one way to serve the people, to learn my vocation and to teach them the Gospel and the Bible. As long as I was working I explained to them about Jesus....about my religion about the Catholic Church," he said. "This was (an) experience to discover my vocation."

After high school he continued to prepare for seminary as he spent four years in a Christian leadership course in Envigado where he studied the Bible, Mary and the Church. Studying philosophy and theology, he later attended Seminario Nacional de Cristo Sacerdote, La Ceja, Colombia, for six years, graduating in 1994. He helped lead missions with other seminarians and Religious in those years, traveling to small towns throughout the country and speaking on marital relations and other Gospel and church teachings on the family.

Knowing no English, the transitional deacon first traveled to the U.S. in 1994 to observe for two months Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, after hearing a talk on the need for archdiocesan Hispanic priests by Father Richard Kieran, then pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, at his seminary. Following graduation, Rev. Mr. Calle-Perez returned to the U.S. where he began studying English for a year at Georgia Tech and assisted at Sacred Heart Church, Atlanta, with Spanish and English Masses and as director of religious education for the church's Hispanic community.

He also completed pastoral internships at St. Mark's, Clarkesville, from 1997-98 and served six weeks at St. Michael's, Gainesville, during 1995-1996.

The transitional deacon has worked since January this year with teenagers and the St. Vincent de Paul Society at the Hispanic Our Lady of the Americas Mission in Doraville. In the archdiocese, he believes Hispanic ministries "need more programs, more showed interest for them (and) more priests, because it's difficult to work for this community... All priests need to understand that the Spanish community has their religious culture to celebrate these sacraments," he said. "My interest is to work in America with Spanish people," he said, yet added that he likes to work with all groups of people.

His greatest challenge, he said, will be to improve his solid yet broken English.

The seminarian gratefully remembers the help given him by the late Colombian Msgr. Eugenio Villegas, who lent him tuition money to complete high school and attend seminary and gave him opportunities to work in various areas at his church in Envigado. "I feel happy, excited. I feel thankful with God, with people," he said awaiting ordination.

Calle-Perez misses his family, friends and foods including rice and "arepa," corn griddle cake, in Colombia yet said he likes Atlanta's nearby mountains, trees and moderate climate, characteristic of his homeland. He enjoys playing soccer, lifting weights and reading novels by Russian Leo Tolstoi and Fedor Dostoyeski and other authors.

Following his ordination, Rev. Mr. Calle-Perez will serve the archdiocese as a parochial vicar at St. Marguerite d' Youville Church in Lawrenceville and lead the Hispanic ministry at St. John Neumann Church in Lilburn, effective May 21.