2014_02_06_FYL_The University of Navarra has a colossal structure, but here the student comes first.

Alex and Alan Vieira are brothers. Alex was an altar boy and Alan, if only by imitation, wanted to be one too. When Alan was 11 years old, his parents separated. His mother's reaction was to go more frequently to a church in São Gonçalo, the second most populous city in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. A Dutch missionary priest, who has since died, celebrated mass for them on Sundays. At that time, Alex was often asked if he wanted to become a priest: he would give an evasive answer.

Before long, the church became a parish and Father Wallace, then 28 years old, became position of it. He had been a formator at seminar and many seminarians came to see him and talk to him. Alan knew then what a seminarian was, as he had never imagined the process by which a man becomes a priest. Father Wallace visited other churches and had no objection to Alan accompanying him. His mother punished him by not going to daily Mass for a while, until a parishioner made him see that such a punishment was not too convenient. Two years later, in 2003, when Alan was 13 years old, he attended vocational meetings. He was also a member of a Vincentian group , founded by Blessed Frederic Ozanan, which was dedicated to social work. In 2004, he took part in these meetings again.

His father believed that it was his mother who was putting the possibility of becoming a priest into Alan's head; and his mother thought that he was going to vocational meetings because he wanted to fill, in some way, his father's void. Neither of them was right. Alan liked a girl - he never became a boyfriend - and he knew perfectly well that she had a crush on him. But in 2005 he drew two columns on a piece of paper - advantages and disadvantages - and freely made the decision to go to study at seminar. "I was very clear about the idea of giving myself to God," he explains. He spoke to the girl, who encouraged him in his decision, and told first his mother and brother, and then his father, who was leaving for the seminar minor.

He entered the Archdiocese of Niteroiwhich comprises 14 cities and 71 parishes, with a total of two and a half million inhabitants. Two years later, in 2007, he began his programs of study of Philosophy with 100 other seminarians. When he spoke to his father on the phone, he would invariably ask him: "Have you given up?

During the three years he was there, he did youth ministry, catechetical ministry and vocation ministry. And on his own, taking advantage of having one day off a week, together with three other seminarians, he went to prison. There he discovered the importance of hope. "We had to listen to those people and talk to them about hope; otherwise, life has no meaning".

His Archbishop did not usually send his seminarians to study outside the Archdiocese. Some went for a year to mission statement to the Amazon and others to the central region of the country. Alan was sent to Navarra. It was at the end of the 2009-10 academic year when he proposed to him to go to study at the School TheologyTheology, something surprising. When he told his mother, she asked him: "Where is Navarra?" And when he told his father, he understood that the decision made in 2005 was a serious one. He has never asked him again if he had given up. On one occasion, Alan recalls, talking to him on the phone, his father asked him about his prayer life, if he prayed daily and if he went to Mass every day. He has resumed his practice. He has even thought about how much he will be happy to see Alan celebrate Holy Mass.

From the University of Navarra and the high school Bidasoa International Ecclesiasticumwhere he has lived during these four years, he takes with him "universality, fraternity, service, professionalism and the little things". And he lists them one after the other, like someone who has thought about it before and has it embedded in his heart. And he explains: "The other always has a lot to teach you; you have to live as brothers, which is deeply evangelical; you have to have a spontaneous disposition to help others; the University of Navarra has a colossal structure, but here the student comes first and puts everything at your service. Bidasoa is very big, more than 100 of us live there, but it is my home. Everything small is important: from taking care of newcomers, who often do not know how to speak a word of Spanish, to turning off a light".

Alan Vieira was ordained a deacon on March 22, 2014 at St. Nicholas Parish in Pamplona. He was accompanied by his parents, his brother Alex and his current parish priest. He returns to Brazil on June 15 and awaits ordination to the priesthood at the discretion of his Archbishop.