When they ask him, he answers with total honesty, even if they don’t like his answers, even if he falls into controversy. Father Omar raises passions despite being a priest. They have left up to ten bullets at the door of their parish and, hours after expressing their opinion against Pedro Castillo, they managed to slip a war grenade into his help center, among a pile of donated clothes. Apparently someone protects him from beyond.
The truth is that its history is full of rebellion and confusion. Perhaps because of the uncertainty in his search, for not finding the answer to the question he always asked himself: “And then what?” Being a priest, in any case, was the last thing he imagined for his life. Being a missionary could be; It caught his attention since he was a child, “but if I could get married,” he told his mother when he was only 14 years old. Celibacy was not an option.
His family had risen to a privileged position thanks to the fact that his father, after briefly passing through the FAP, stood out professionally: “The job that marked us the most was that of Aeroperú because of the number of trips we made. We went to Europe, Asia and North America, which gave us the world,” says Father Omar. For this reason and for his extroverted personality, he remembers that he grew up full of friendships, trips and parties, but despite recognizing the gift that God gave him to communicate and relate to many people, there was something that gave him instability. He studied English; In New York he met a vegetarian Belgian girl, so he studied French and stopped eating meat while love lasted. He returned to Peru, studied photography, practiced mountaineering with the best, began studying law and met Beto, Maritere, Pedro Suárez Vértiz, Mónica Zevallos, Susan León, Bernie Paz, among other friends at the university that he maintains to this day. At some point she was about to get married thinking that she could have 12 children—two volleyball teams, she said—but she ended the relationship over the phone and for that she continues to apologize. What is clear is that something was missing in his life. Suddenly, his parents radically converted to the Catholic faith. Omar resisted. He confesses that he started a war against them. Since his rebellion, he developed university works on Hitler and Plato’s rhetoric. Omar had a life like any young man. Sex, drugs and alcohol? I ask him and he answers: “I think there are many who have tried it, but are afraid to tell it because they think they will be judged, and the truth is that the only judgment that worries me is that of God.” One night of partying, he got tired and shouting desperately, perhaps to heaven, he drove to a well-known parish, where there happened to be a vigil for Pentecost. He talked all night with a priest and continued on that path for about six months. He was 24 years old and today, at 58, he says with a great sense of humor—always political and right-wing—that, unless Giorgia Meloni crosses his path, he does not plan to leave his cassock even when voting.
Father Omar is a politician. True or false statement?
Political, not partisan. For me there is no taboo. Plus, you can talk about anything with your friends. Also about football, politics and religion, although it is said that they are prohibited topics. If tempers flare, friendship makes everything return to normal.
Although there are more sensitive issues, don’t you take off your cassock by disqualifying communists?
When I disqualify a communist I am wearing my cassock more than ever, because the Church teaches that communism is the enemy. My political struggle is from the teaching of the Church. As John XXIII said, priests have the obligation to participate in temporal realities. We cannot live in a bubble and here communism has done a lot of damage, starting with terrorism, which is a consequence of it.
You might think that socialism is a more moderate option for a priest.
No. In Spain, France, England, Italy, Germany or Holland, socialism has become a caliphate. I do not agree even with the Spanish right of the PP, I am more of VOX: a true right. Your eyes have been opened! (series). I believe in solidarity and opening borders, but controlled by the country that receives the people, respecting culture and order, without trying to change it. VOX advocates for an orderly migration. Me too.
I would think that people come first rather than the polarized political struggle that exists today.
Look, I have 103 workers here and 61 are Venezuelans. For me it is a way of taking care of them. I also have 433 residents with special abilities, from babies to seniors. I don’t go to the march of life, not even when Cipriani, who is my friend, organized it. What we do here (in the center) is my march through life.
What do you think of far-right leaders and the global trend that exists?
The extreme right is used a lot to disqualify Milei, Noboa, Vox, Meloni, Trump, Bukele, Le Pen’s party in France, which is going to win… For me they are right-wing people who have clear ideas.
Agree with Trump?
I agree with the ideas, although I don’t agree with the way you apply some of these ideas.
And doesn’t the contempt you have for some people contrast with the religious outlook?
Do you know what I see? I see that the authorities say one thing and do another. While there are authorities who say one thing and do not fulfill it, Donald Trump is tough in dealing, but he fulfills what he is saying. It’s coherent. Pedro Sánchez, for example, is incoherent, a liar and a hypocrite. He says one thing, but in his private life he does another. He built his career on the foundation of his father-in-law’s brothels. So, I see that difference.
Trump doesn’t come out of the best cradle either. He has stepped on heads and has Epstein among his friends.
Well, the Epstein thing is relative. Nothing official has come out yet that Trump has been there and it depends on where you look at it. He is a president who has achieved the first real peace signing between Israel and Palestine, for example. Who has achieved that? It seemed to me an absolute shame on the part of the academy that they awarded Obama. He expelled more migrants than Trump, there was just no propaganda.
And the Nobel Peace Prize to Corina Machado?
Corina Machado is not Teresa Calcutta’s mother, but I think it’s good that they gave her the Nobel Prize. She is a brave woman who fights against a terrible situation in her country. Eight million Venezuelans are out because of this pair of people who have governed, first Chávez and now Maduro, also involved in issues of absolute corruption. So it does seem good to me that they gave him the award.
Would you agree with an invasion of Venezuela?
This situation of crime from the head of a Government has to stop. This person runs a cartel where he allows or promotes drug trafficking to the United States, to Europe, to any country in the world. It doesn’t have to be the United States, but someone has to do something about this.
Could the US stop doing business with Venezuelan oil, for starters.
It is international hypocrisy. Trump could do it, we agree. You should do this to be consistent.
Returning to Peru, I imagine then that your candidate is Rafael López Aliaga.
It’s just that who else? You cannot vote for people who do not say things clearly and who do not call corruption by its name. Although the problem is its vice president, Norma Yarrow. I think he has personal intentions and I’m not saying they are bad, but they are not the same as Rafael’s. I tell you one thing: if it is so easy to vacate a president, it will be easy for her to stay in office and I don’t know if she has the conditions and the capacity. Unfortunately, among the candidates there is no moral reserve, but in the face of a critical situation I think you have to cover one eye for some things and see the positive of the options you have.
Will you one day participate in party politics?
I am a priest and all the priests who have gotten into politics have failed. Our souls are made to be pure. If someone asks me like you, I will be transparent according to the panorama we have, even if they call me ‘facho’, as they have called me ‘facho’ a thousand times. Like everyone, I can have certainties and uncertainties, but without ever doubting the existence of God, even in the darkest moments.
CHARACTER DATA
-At the age of 33 he was ordained as a priest.
-He was director of the Children’s City in San Juan de Miraflores.
Founder of the Association of the Beatitudes in Tablada de Lurín for 18 years, when he received the first person with different abilities he did not stop. Today, they serve 433 children, adolescents, adults and seniors with psychiatric and physical illnesses in three locations.
