CHARLOTTE — Father Gabriel Carvajal-Salazar, parochial vicar at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, celebrated the fifth anniversary of his priestly ordination June 5.
The oldest of 15 brothers and sisters, Father Carvajal-Salazar first came to the Diocese of Charlotte as lay missionary in 1997 from Veracruz, Mexico, where he grew up. "My uncle Silviano Jaimes, who lives in Asheboro, invited me to teach apologetics at Our Lady of the Americas there," he recalled.
Pictured: Father Gabriel Carvajal-Salazar, parochial vicar at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, celebrated the fifth anniversary of his priestly ordination June 5. (Rico De Silva | Catholic News Herald)
The priest had been a full-time lay catechist with the Apostles of the Word, an ecclesiastical movement founded by Father Flaviano Amatulli, an Italian priest who has lived in Mexico since the 1960s. Father Carvajal-Salazar helped catechized several dioceses in Mexico in the 1980s and '90s before coming to Biscoe. Soon after his arrival at Our Lady of the Americas, Father Mark Lawlor, pastor at the time, suggested that he consider the priesthood. However, it wasn't until 2002 that he finally decided to pursue his vocation, after pastor Father Ricardo Sanchez encouraged him to speak with the vocations director at the time, Father John Allen.
"Father Ricardo cut my umbilical cord so I could finally make the decision to go to the seminary... One day, he just picked up the phone, called the vocations director, talked to him briefly and proceeded to hand me the phone saying, 'Here he is, talk to him.'" Although considered by many, including himself, as a late vocation – he entered the seminary at 41 – once he met with the vocations director, he immediately felt at home.
"I remember being so nervous then, but after he interviewed me, Father Allen gave me a big hug and said, 'Gabriel, welcome to the Diocese of Charlotte!'" he recalls.During his discernment process, he found great consolation in Jesus' words in the Gospel of John 6:44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them." And John 15:16: "You did not choose me, but I chose you."
"In my case, I don't think it was my decision to become a priest. God's the one who calls, and it's up to me to accept the invitation or not. No one is able to get into (the priesthood) if God doesn't call him," he said.
Celebrating the Eucharist and being able to be an instrument of God's mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation have given him the most satisfaction during his first five years of ministry. "Sanctifying the people of God with the sacraments has given me great joy as a priest," he said.
Father Carvajal-Salazar said we are at a critical time in Church history and the biggest challenge for priests moving forward is that "the world is waiting to be evangelized. We have thousands of baptized Catholics who have been abandoned – without the Eucharist, without the sacraments – and that's how they die. This is a huge challenge for the Church, and at the same time for those of us who have been called to work on the Lord's vineyard: What are we going to do to properly care for the people of God?"
— Rico De Silva, Hispanic Communications Reporter