Cuban-born Andy Gil Gonzalez will be a priest in June

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

Making the choice to be baptized at age 12 was Deacon Andy Gonzalez’s first step to becoming a priest.

He said most Catholics in his native Cuba practiced their faith in secret out of fear that Fidel Castro’s communist government would restrict their career choices.

"The people who went to the church were persecuted,” Deacon Gonzalez said. While his parents and grandparents were baptized and his Spanish grandmother prayed the rosary, fear prevented them from attending Mass at Santa Cruz Church across from their home.

His faith life changed when a seventh-grade classmate invited him to Catholic youth ministry one Sunday morning.

"Everybody was laughing at me,” he said. “I went without telling my parents. It was like entering a totally different dimension – God’s spiritual dimension. The Mass was like a child who had an encounter with the infinite Father. Even though I didn’t understand everything that was happening, there were all these symbols. I felt there was something mysterious, and I wanted to discover what it is, who it is. I felt a lot of peace.”

He joined Infancia Missionaria – missionary Infants – on Sunday afternoons to discuss Mary and Jesus and pray the rosary for the world. The group’s missionary work – building and cleaning houses of the less fortunate – resonated with him as he discussed Jesus with the unchurched.

“That was a beautiful experience,” he said, realizing the joy in parish life for the first time. A year later, he was baptized Catholic on Epiphany Sunday; first Communion followed. His parents knew of his sacraments but remained concerned about the government, so they didn’t officially attend.

“I was very happy,” he said. “My mother was standing outside the church doors, but didn’t enter.”

After middle school, Cuban boys who desire college attend Russian-created boarding school for 10th-12th grades. Discussions of faith were forbidden, and food was often scarce or terrible. He grew up fast.

“It was a challenge to my faith (being away from Mass),” he said. “But, soon some of us got together on Sunday, meeting in secret. Little by little, we created a ministry” to keep abreast of the Catholic faith.

“To me, that was great, because it was how the first Christians were living – in persecution,” Deacon Gonzalez said.

His two-year Cuban military training requirement to attend college was cut in half when the need for teachers grew. He entered the Marists and stayed for seven years – first in Cuba, then discerning and teaching in Guatemala – but became disillusioned by Marxist themes creeping in.

“It was a beautiful experience of being with the poorest of the poor, but nothing was divine,” he said. “Everything was humanized and focused on very specific groups such as the poor, and they forgot about the rest. It affected me a lot.”

Deacon Gonzalez left in good standing in November 2011, but his desire to be a parish priest continued. He found his way to Florida and worked in a restaurant. Attending a Mass one Sunday, he heard the parable of the prodigal son, and it made him cry.

“It was like God was telling me I had to come back,” he said. “It was more than ‘you have to come back to church.’ It was ‘you have to come back to consecrated life, pastoral work and everything you were doing.’ I thought I would become a diocesan priest.”

He studied at St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami for three years. In 2018, another priest suggested he come to New Orleans because it was a very Catholic place.

“Notre Dame Seminary has helped me put together everything that I have had in the past – all my knowledge and experience in Cuba, in Central America,” he said. “It is a very solid theology, a good formation. We are trying to find what God wants for us. This helps me now to go out to help people.”

Deacon Gonzalez, who became an American citizen in 2019, anticipates reuniting his family in the United States, but probably not in time for his June 4 ordination.

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