The P. Fernando Pascual LC is originally from Barcelona, Spain. He joined the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ at the age of 18. He was ordained a priest in 1994. Today, he serves as a Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (Rome), where he has been serving God in education for over 25 years.

Recently, through a video (which can be seen at the end of this article), he briefly shared on the site RomaLC about his experience as a teacher of the Legionary religious, diocesan seminarians, and religious from various congregations. Below is the transcript of the interview points.

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What is the mission of a teacher in the ecclesial context?

P. Fernando: The Church serves humanity according to the message of Christ, and the message of Christ reaches men in all its dimensions. A very important dimension is the dimension of ideas, because thanks to ideas, man directs his actions, his behaviors, communicates to society, accepts an idea of justice or injustice, changes his ways of seeing and imagining people, has an idea of marriage, of family, develops an ethics, a bioethics… so, a Legionary teacher wants to contribute to the Church’s task of evangelizing culture, which was one of the great challenges posed by Pope Paul VI; it was one of the great messages of Pope John Paul II and, in a very particular way, it is also one of the messages of Pope Francis, who wants to reach today’s man with new modes of communication: using direct terminology (which he speaks very expressively), using concise, understandable formulas for all, so that the message of Christ can truly touch more hearts and, through the internalization of these truths, can change and create a society or, as I would call again, returning to the idea of Paul VI, a civilization of love.

What does contributing to the formation of future priests mean to you?

Well, it is the most important task because if Christ reaches men incarnate and continues his incarnation through these men who are called by him to the priestly vocation, working in the formation of priests means working in those whom Christ loves the most. So, it is one of the most beautiful tasks in the Church because they have an immense future. The other day I was talking with a colleague who works at the Mater Ecclesiae Seminary with students also from the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum, and he told me in such diocese are these priests… in another diocese are these others, so one reaches many places around the world, and by being part of the philosophical-theological intellectual formation, one reaches places where one would never imagine reaching.

Finally, what message would you share with our friends and family?

To those who are family and acquaintances of the brothers-students from Rome, of the young Legionaries, I would invite them to continue supporting them with their prayers, with their closeness. Because every priest, every seminarian, and every religious has behind them a family that supports them. And to those who do not have family here (in this Center of Studies), to those who are our friends or who have come here providentially, I would ask for a prayer: that they pray for us so that we may truly be those men of faith who carry the Gospel to all societies. And thank you very much!