From Playing Priest to Becoming One: The Story of Father Gus

26 years ago a boy played at being a priest, organized processions and saw priests as “superheroes.” Today, that dream has come true: Father Rosenberg Augusto Franco Barrera, of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima (Guatemala), fully lives his vocation.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, Father Franco Barrera, also known as “Father Gus,” recalled that it all started when he was around 6 years old. His mother, who was a catechist, took him to the priestly ordination of a friend from his youth, Father Walter Salazar.

“That day was like the marking of a story,” he recalled. As he observed how the priest to be ordained prostrated himself, he thought: “for me he just threw himself down, because I didn’t know it was prostration. I imitate the same.”

Since then, Father Gus remembers that he began to feel attracted to priestly life. He noted that “I played at doing Mass with my brothers, with my cousins, with those I knew, or alone.” Among his childhood memories, his fascination with ecclesiastical clothing stands out: “I looked at the priest as if he were wearing a cape, which I now know is the chasuble, and said: well, this is a superhero, he looks striking.”

His devotion was also fueled by the numerous religious processions in Guatemala, especially those during Holy Week, such as the emblematic Procession of Jesús Nazareno de los Milagros in Guatemala City.

“In Guatemala it is very common for there to be many processions during Holy Week, or well, here there are processions all the time. Then I also played processions, or Way of the Cross live,” said Father Gus.

Although for him at that time everything was “child’s play, something that I did not (understand) at that time as a vocation. However, perhaps God, who lends himself to everything, had begun to call me without me knowing at that moment.”

In 2015, he said that he entered the National Seminary of the Assumption in Guatemala, where he completed his studies in Philosophy. In mid-2019, Bishop Cayetano Parra Novo, Bishop of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima, sent him to continue his formation at the Bidasoa International Seminary in Navarra (Spain). This was possible thanks to the support of the CARF Foundation and the Association for Humanistic Studiesinstitutions linked to Opus Dei that support the training of young seminarians.

After completing his studies and returning to Guatemala, he was ordained a deacon just a month after his return. A year and a half later, Bishop Parra Novo informed him that he would be ordained a priest. At that moment, he noted, “that child’s dream came to me, to say ‘I’m going to be a priest.’ It was thanking God and saying ‘well, here I am.'”

A significant detail of his ordination, on December 14, 2024, was the presence of the priest whom he had seen prostrating at the age of 6. “A nice gesture was that the Father told me at the time of prayer: ‘After 26 years it was your turn,’” he said.

Currently, Father Gus is vicar at the Holy Family parish, Oratorio Santa Rosa, where he collaborates with the same parish priest, Father Walter Salazar.

Superhero? “A priest saves souls”

Remembering his way of thinking as a child, when he saw priests as superheroes, Father Franco Barrera reflects that, with a more mature vision, today he can affirm that “comparing these two figures would leave that of the priest very short.”

“A superhero has superpowers, but the priest has gifts to bring us closer to the grace of God,” he explained.

Furthermore, Father Gus highlighted that “while a superhero saves lives with his superpowers, a priest saves souls with confession, bringing souls closer to Christ.”

“Now I assimilate it and say: ‘well, a priest saves souls, he brings others closer to God. A holy priest also sanctifies his people. So, a good priest is, in some way, like a superhero who saves his people,’” he concluded.

“Young Saints”

In addition to his pastoral work, Father Franco Barrera leads the digital evangelization project “Jóvenes Santos”, an initiative inspired by a personal experience that marked his life during his training at the seminary.

In 2017, while studying at the National Seminary of the Assumption, Father Franco Barrera faced facial paralysis, an experience he described as “the death of half the nerves in the face.” In the midst of this difficult challenge, a companion confronted him by saying: “You are always the one telling us that we must learn to carry the cross. Ask yourself what the saints would do.”

These words prompted him to reflect deeply and investigate the lives of contemporary saints. Inspired especially by the young Carlo Acutis, who promoted an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles, Father Franco Barrera found the motivation to make known the lives of youth saints.

This is how “Jóvenes Santos” was born, first as a Facebook page and later with an Instagram account. Through these platforms, the priest seeks, in his own words, “to make it known that there are young people who bring us closer to God.”