Three Father Figures in My Early Life

In which Teófilo reminisces about the surrogate fathers the Lord sent to help him.

The Lord supplemented my growing years with astounding father figures besides Papi. As my fractured personality grew like a downhill runaway snowball, the Lord placed in my life father figures to help me along the way. These were priests. None of them ever did anything wrong to me. Each one helped me grow up a better man.

Fr. Francis X. Russo

Foremost of them was Fr. Francis Xavier Russo (1934-2022), a Capuchin Franciscan Friar. He directed the Capuchin seminary in Ponce, and then became pastor at St. Teresita parish. He was also chaplain at nearby Ft. Allen, a US Navy outpost in the neighboring Juana Díaz municipality. It was there I first met him in 1977 during a Boy Scout Jamboree. He asked me to be a reader during Mass. I accepted. Our meeting became one of those risings and convergences that would dot all my life.

Figure 1. Father Francis Russo, OFM Cap, the way he looked when I met him in 1977.

Fr. Russo was exceptionally paternal towards me. I took refuge at the seminary and also at the rectory when Mom's irrational fury got insufferable. He would always welcome me. I learned from him the rudiments of Franciscan praxis. He was also the diocesan moderator of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at one time. (I would join this movement in 1979). He also held a hope I would become a friar. (As an adult I told him that I would've been a ticking time bomb had that taken place. He understood).

We kept in touch throughout the years until his passing in January 2022. I was a guest of his many times at Capuchin College, living and eating with the seminarians. His passing has left me orphaned, but it was his time to go to our Father's House.

Figure 2. Fr. Francis and I during his Golden Anniversary of his priestly ordination in his hometown of New Castle, PA in 2009.

Fr. Guillermo Esters

Fr. Guillermo Esters (1934-2017) was born in Aachen, Germany. His given name was Friedhelm. Aachen had been once the capital of the medieval Carolingian Empire. He was also a priest of the same Aachen diocese. Early one he joined the Diocesan Schoenstatt Fathers. He came to Puerto Rico in 1970. Along with Deacon Jesús María Pagán - whom I also met - became a founder of the Schoenstatt Movement in the Island.

Figure 3. Father Guillermo Esters, Diocesan Schoenstatt Priest.

I met Fr. Esters in 1978 or 1979 when I began to seek the maternal solace in Our Lady that Mom was then denying me. I tried the good priest many times. I could sense he was angry at something stupid I did when he swallowed dry. It was as if he was saying "I want to tell you this, but I'll break your heart if I do." I did cause him some grief, I'm afraid but he helped me quite a bit.

The Schoenstatt Movement is big on acquiring self-knowledge as a step for self-sanctification. As a step in that direction Fr. Esters administered to me the Four Temperaments test. I saw his astonishment when he saw that I had no dominant temperament at the time. After mulling it over he said, "It must be because you're entering adolescence." I stated my concern because he looked at me as if I had some terminal condition. He told me not to worry about it.

Father Esters received my Covenant promise to Our Lady in 1987. Father Esters offered my firstborn son in his home shrine in Villa Grillasca that same year. We then lost touch. He suffered a stroke in 2004 and passed away in Germany in 2017. His influence upon me is also inmensurable.

Fr. Hugo Irala

Father Simón Hugo Irala Troche (1935-2005) was a Paraguayan Redemptorist priest. We knew him as "Padre Hugo." He landed on my parish around 1977. While in Puerto Rico he became a fervent Catholic Charismatic. He was an accomplished musician, playing keyboard, harp, and guitar. He became the director of the parochial choir. I learned to play the guitar under his guidance - although I also learned from other friends like Raúl Díaz, Nilda Feliciano, Mabel Osuna and Luís Ocasio. Father Hugo bought me my first acoustic guitar, bringing it straight from Paraguay. It had an awesome sound.

Figure 4. Father Hugo Irala, CSsR.

I would travel with him at times. My most memorable trip was the day in which he was to record his first album. We arrived at a beautiful country house in the mountains outside of Trujillo Alto. I saw the house and I thought I had seen it before. Then master musician Tony Croatto came forward and introduced himself. He extended his hand toward me. and I was speechless. We were in his house studio! We spent the whole day therein, but the album never saw the light of day.

Father Hugo thought I would become a Redemptorist priest. He once referred to me as la esperanza de la parroquia. Alas, it wasn't to be. He wasn’t to thrilled when my Mercie and I became a couple.

Anyway, he returned to Paraguay in 1980 and I lost touch with him. His legacy to me was his music, a lot of which remains printed on the old parochial song book, which I still treasure. He died in 2005.

Thank you for the music, Padre Hugo.

There were others...

Father Antonio González was another Redemptorist priest who helped shape me. He was Galician. He liked to reminisce on how the best and brightest boys from his hometown became priests. He was also a chain-smoker. During religious retreats he would share his smokes with the smokers in our class. He did it because he didn't want the smokers to hide. As a consequence, he enabled a whole lot of our classmates into smoking. Not me, I hated smoking and do so to this day. Even so, he was an excellent counselor and a sympathetic confessor. I believed he has passed on and I won’t be surprised he’d died of cancer.

Figure 5. Fr. Antonio González, CSsR, ca. 1980.

Father Antonio Hernández, also a Redemptorist, was our Parish's Pastor. He was also our school's director during my high school years. His influence upon me was more indirect, but no less valuable. He took special pride in me when I won a certain science price, but that's another story.

Figure 6. Fr. Antonio Hernández, CSsR in 1983.

I thank you Lord, for all the fathers you sent my way to help me grow in your sight. Through all these priests you shaped me and made a man of good.