As a boy attending minor seminary in a town near Toledo, Spain, Gregorio Hidalgo could not have imagined that he would wind up as Father Goyo, a priest in Los Angeles. But that was only the beginning. He also became a social-media star.
Meet @FrGoyo, the Twitter Priest
As @FrGoyo, he has 92K Twitter followers. They come for his words of wisdom and faith, but also for his stories of the extraordinary things that can happen to a priest during his ordinary day.
This might mean calling the wrong person (who turned out to be someone who really needed it), or sheepishly pulling out a Rosary at the gym, only to find that his fellow exercisers had them as well.
He says:
I hear a lot of priests that [have this happen to them], as well. They are not as annoying as I am, and tweet all the time. But yeah, a lot of priests go through the same thing I do.
Last month, Father Goyo was the featured guest at the monthly Prayer and Pasta gatherings at Family Theater Productions, the Catholic production company in Hollywood, where I am the Social Media Content Manager and Blog Editor.
He came to talk about his life and his new book about it, Prodigal to Priest: A Journey Home to Family, Faith and the Father’s Embrace (it’s also on Amazon).
I recorded our conversation, so quotes from him here come from that.
From Prodigal Son to Tweeting Priest
Like many young Catholics, Father Goyo fell away from the Faith when he went off to college and then moved to Los Angeles. There, he worked as a teacher and a singer/songwriter, and generally enjoyed himself.
But back in Spain, his devout mother continued to pray for him. After a conversion experience while watching the funeral of St. John Paul II in 2005, Goyo began a slow and halting journey back to the Church of his childhood.
That’s all laid out in his book, and in much shorter form, in this Twitter thread (summarized in one page here, by the ThreadReader app). You can also click here to see part one of this post, over on the Family Theater Productions blog.
His Tweets have not only garnered him followers, but frequently, they’re written up in Catholic blogs. I did it, in 2015, and Aleteia also regularly covers him (like here).
But, he’s had to learn to tone down his naturally combative personality, if he wants to win hearts and minds on social media.
Father Goyo, the Archbishop and That Joke
Here’s one story (Father Goyo admits that, in person, he uses way more words than on Twitter).
And don’t get me started with humor. Humor is the worst for priests, and the best for priests. I made so many mistakes that I learned from that, and I was lucky that nobody called the pope on me.
But well, one time they called the archbishop, and he called me and he said, “What are you posting?” I said, “I posted a joke.” And he said, “Somebody found it offensive. Could you take it down?” And I said, “No.” I told him no.
This is when I used to be bad. And I said, “No, I’m not taking it down.” And he said, “Why?” I said, “Because it is my private Facebook.” And he said, “Yeah, but you’re a public persona.”
This is what I started realizing. And he said, “And you are representing not just you.” And that’s what happens in our social media. We are not representing ourselves only. Whether we like it or not, we have our name, and we have a little intro right there. That intro right there represents something else than just us.
You are representing somebody. Whatever you put in there, you are representing. So yeah, I’m very prideful. Somebody said humility, I’m not humble at all. I’m from Toledo. I have to fight. And I told the bishop no, to his face. I said, “No, I’m not taking it down. Who do you think you are?” He said, “I’m your bishop.” And I said, “OK, I’ll take it down.” Seriously.
But in my mind, and this is the problem with social media, my mind is, “Why did this create such a thing? It’s not a bad picture. It’s not a bad joke.” It doesn’t matter if it is a bad joke or a bad picture, because it’s doing is, I’m creating another roadblock for someone to hear the real message. Which is not the joke, it’s about Jesus Christ.
So that’s the problem with social media, our pride. My pride, I’m going to say it, is so big that sometimes I’m like, “OK, just bite it and let it go.” And that’s the difficulty right there, too.
Priests Are People, Too
Sometimes, Father Goyo reveals on Twitter that priests are also human beings who like a good movie.
I remember I went to the movies one time when I was in Simi Valley, and I was with the youth minister of my parish. And I had my collar, of course, so I could hear, this was very funny. I could hear the kid behind me telling his mother, “Mom, there is a priest in front of us.” And the mother said, “Yeah, they let them out of the church from time to time.”
But not everyone is happy to see a priest out and about in the world.
I went to Target, I was having my collar. I went to Target, and I was going to buy a toothbrush. It was around Christmas, and this woman was carrying a cart full of presents. And she bumps into me, and she said, “Don’t you push your Christmas on me.”
My answer to her was like, “I just came to buy a toothbrush. You are the one buying presents for Christmas.” And she was really mad at me, but I posted that. And instead of reading the whole thing, people are like, “You go to Target?” I’m like, “Yes, I go to Target.”
Father Goyo on Superheroes, Zombies and Vampires
As for favorite superheroes, Father Goyo named Superman. Asked what movies he likes, the answer was not exactly something pious and uplifting.
See, I like zombies a lot. I like zombies. I don’t know why. I like vampires and zombies. I find them very entertaining. I think they’re hysterical.
Yeah, I don’t go for mystery. I go for horror, zombies, vampires, and all of that. I don’t know why.
But if he posted that on Twitter …
If I posted on Twitter tonight, “I watch zombies,” or vampires movie. “Oh, you are such a bad priest. How dare you? You are horrid…” Huh? What are you saying?
Maybe in a future post, I’ll reveal what Father Goyo said about demonic possession and exorcism … and it might not be what you expect.
Here’s an appearance he did on EWTN’s Life on the Rock, which aired days after he visited FTP:
Image: Kate O’Hare
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