INTERVIEW WITH MA. CONCEPTION ‘CONCHITA’ FERNANDEZ-CALERO
AND JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA
Filipino Neocatechumenal
Ventamilla, Peru
November 13, 2016
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Okay, I am Conchita Cuervo, tiga-Manila ako. I was born in the Philippines, and he is my husband, Juan Ignacio. We met in Spain and now,we are here in Peru for eight years na, as missionaries, we came as missionaries to Peru.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
So I’m Juan, I came from Spain and the whole family, we came here to Peru as missionaries from—family mission. Okay, we came here, four of our seven children, the three elders were married. So, we came here with four. And now, we stay here with two of them and then—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
The rest are in Madrid.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
Yes, the rest are in Madrid. That’s all.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
We’re already 44 years married, okay. (laughter) We have seven children and expecting our 10th grandchild.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
We had eight grandchildren.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
We had eight and two more coming, on February and July, okay.Anyway, so I went to Asturias, which he is from Asturias. I went there to visit my family because my father’s family is from the North to meet my cousins, okay. And they introduced us and that’s how we got to meet; and that’s how it all started. We—the thing is that, it was a God’s will, we were in Oviedo, all right? And we were introduced the night before I was going to Madrid to study.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
By bus.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO :
I was 18 and he’s 17, He’s one year younger than me. (laughter)Anyway, we were introduced in the street, okay, because of friends. And the next day, I had to take a bus to Madrid because school was starting because their school starts at August-September. And what happened? We coincided—God’s will in the same bus. (laughter)
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
So we sit together.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
So we sat together and that’s where it all started. (laughter)When we were married already, we got to meet each other, we went to the Philippines to get married, of course. And when after few years of marriage, we lived in Madrid, okay. We had already two children and the third newly born and we had crisis, our marriage was not well.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
Broken.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Yeah.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
So after how many—23 years I think we was wondering—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
We were wondering.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
Yeah, and then after— so lot of time and the Pope … sends us to Peru.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Yeah, we were in Rome and he gave us a blessing to come to Peru, yes. And so, we came here and we were sent to a Parish church very closed by,which is also all verypoor people and we’re helping the parish priest there and we give cathechists and this is our—and then, lately, I am teaching in a school.I teach English, of course, for kindergartens up to second grades. And this school is for poor, poor people, it’s a free school. And that’s what I do because before I had my children at home but they’re already independent. So I said, I have something else to do—I have something to do, (laughter) you would go to work.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
I work the whole day.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Yeah, so the thing is that now, we are both very busy during the day also. I teach, he works in a company he is in. And at nights, we give cathechistsand on weekends also.And we tell this to the people, what we—what has changed their lives, discovering Jesus Christ in the middle of our marriage.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
Yeah, this way, this Neocatechumenal way,we try to rediscover the baptism, so because many people are baptized, excuse me, but it doesn’t make nothing. It’s just the same, so in—the good thing is to know that you are a son of God; and if your Father is God, if you know and believed that your Father is God, your life changes. So, that’s what we want to tell to the people, that’s all.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
It has changed their lives and we see and it has changed lives of so many people, and you know, when you’re happy, you want to give this good news to everyone.Nowadays, the marriages have breaking up because there’s nothing, with—we have discovered that it’s so important to have Jesus Christ in between us, because you always fight, it’s normal, you have discussions and Jesus Christ is the only One that really helps us forgive each other.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
The couple cannot continuous a—only two—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
It’s a matter of three.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
Yeah, it’s a matter of three. If God is in between, it makes easy, everything because everytime I make something wrong, she will forgive me and the opposite also. You say—how do you say, forgiveness.It’s the only way to be together in— I think so, and I—my experience is that.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
It’s that, our experience. And we’ve seen it with people that are in this Neocatechumenal way, that has helped so many marriages, so may couples, we have seen it with our chatechist who have told us all these.How it has reahed not only for couples also, for—to help discover that young people have their vocation, also as priesthood as nuns. It’s not only for married couples.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
I would like to say that Neocatechumenal way is not the target, the object, it’s just a way to reconstruct the church. The important thing is to introduce the people to church through the Neocatechumenal way. That’s why. But it’s the same Neocatechumenal way or the opposite of popularist or any way is absolutely fantastic if it brings you to Jesus, to God.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
As impacted by helping the people when they realize God’s love in their way of life, that they know they have a Father that’s taking care. There’s so much confusion nowadays, so the world is so materialistic. You need to have a meaning in life, you need something and God’s there, trying to help you, God the Father is there protecting all the time, Jesus Christ has come—He came to die on the cross, He’s the son of God and He came, He humbled himself so much. He died in the cross with so little justice, at no justice at all. And He gave his life for us, to save us. And many people don’t realize this.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
This is the most important, I think to—not to believe but to know—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
—experiencing it in our life.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
—in your life that God acts in your life and everything, He puts on to you is good. Sometimes, the things are sweet—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Sour—
JUAN IGNACIO:
—sweet, fantastic. Sometimes are sour, but it’s always good for you. So in that case, you can have a— (dialect)
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
You can be with a cancer—
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
—with a cancer, for example and you don’t mind, you just, you know that God loves you and that’s good for you.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
Live a life that you’re tending on God’s will all the time, life changes, completely.
JUAN IGNACIO:
And If we (dialect)—
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
If we would have stayed in Madrid—
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
—in Madrid, we, our children and us, we will not have this.
MA. CONCEPTION FERNANDEZ-CALERO:
—this experience.
JUAN IGNACIO GUTIERREZ VILLA:
So, we are very happy.
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