Father Angelot confronts
mastering new languages
to better serve community

By PAUL BINZ
The Valley Catholic

 DONNA — Father Angelot Galson Andriamamitahina’s vocation is making him a polyglot — a multilingual man. He hails from Madagascar, an island slightly smaller than Texas off the southeastern coast of Africa. Malagasy is his native language, and his schooling was conducted in French — a vestige of the colonial era. He learned English after arriving in the United States in 2019, and now his station at St. Joseph Parish in Donna has brought him face-to-face with Spanish.
     “¡Estoy aprendiendo español!” he says in a perfect Spanish accent. “It’s not easy to learn the language. It’s very difficult. But God helps you a lot – it’s very hard!”
     He seems amused by his struggles with the challenges of mastering English and Spanish.
     “My goal is to speak fluently — like an American, like a native American. I love the United States,” he says.
     “Right now I have to study Spanish. I have a book right here to improve my Spanish,” he says, proudly brandishing a Spanish grammar from his desk. “But
right now I can read Spanish, and for that I’m glad.”
     In conversation, to which he brings his own unique eloquence, his underlying goal soon becomes apparent.
     “To help the people, I have to work a lot. Every day, every night like this. How to preach to people like this? How do they understand me? It’s difficult if they don’t understand what I say,” he says. “That’s a new experience.
   “How to preach? How to reach the people in America? Everything depends on God,” he continues. “I believe in God, so I trust in him, and he helps me a lot. That is important in our life.”
     Growing up, Father Andriamamitahina’s life took a different turn than he originally expected.
     “I wanted to be a doctor,” he said.
     He lost his mother at the age of nine. But by then she had set him on a clear path.
     “I was born in a Christian family, and my mom was devout. She would wake me up every morning to attend Mass with her – every morning,” he said. “But if she could not attend Mass, I would walk by myself because the church was close to where we lived.

     “So two years after my mom died, I became an altar server. I still wanted to be a doctor,” he said. “In high school, at the age of 15, my thoughts turned to the priesthood. I asked my pastor, Father Clement; he suggested that I prepare myself for one year before I go to the seminary. So I improved my French and read the Bible.
     “At the age of 16, I went to the minor seminary … (where) I finished high school.”
   Eventually, Father Andriamamitahina was ordained on Aug. 5, 2018 in Madagascar as a priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Family. The order works in 23 countries, with their mother house in Rome. The tie between the order’s North America province and Madagascar province prompted his superiors to select him for his next challenge – a mission to the United States.
     “It’s not easy. This is my first time to go out of my country, and it is my first time to fly. That was an experience as well!” he said. “So I am nervous about this, but my provincial superior told me, ‘You can do it. I believe and I trust in you. You can do it. Go ahead!’”
      It took a year of work to acquire the proper visa, but then Father Andriamamitahina was on his way.
     In September 2019, a series of flights carried him from Madagascar to Paris, then to Atlanta and to San Antonio.
     “After that I drove to St. Louis, Missouri,” he said. “Because Father (Philip) Sosa is superior provincial of North America, I joined him in (St. Wenceslaus) parish to help him and to learn English.”
     Following almost two years of service there, Father Angelot, as he is known here to most, came to the Rio Grande Valley in May of this year, and the contrast was immediately apparent.
     “In St. Louis, over there I saw the old people attend Mass. I don’t know if it was because of COVID-19 as well, but the people don’t come to the church like this,” he said. “But when I came here to the Valley I was very glad, very happy to see the people with their kids, the young, attend every Sunday Mass. That’s good, and I like that.”
     “The other thing that I want to say is that the people here are more friendly; they help the priest,” he said. “That’s a good experience.”
     Father Angelot himself came here to help, assisting pastor Father Eka Yuantoro with his parish work and support for some 200 families in outlying areas.
     “We go every afternoon to serve the colonias,” Father Angelot said. “That’s the people of God."
     “We have a food pantry; we have a lot of food 

here, and we bring it for them and serve food for them and help them, like this,” he said. “Our activity, our work here is to help them.
“And we make easy how they receive the sacraments.”
     Father Angelot (The “t” at the end is silent, as in proper French.) smiles broadly when asked about his time in Donna at St. Joseph Parish, and about his life as a priest.
     “Father Eka is a nice priest. We are in the same congregation, and we have the same vision. We have the same charism. We have to think about the family, about mission and about vocation.”
     “To be a priest, you have to be a model," Father Angelot says. “If the people see you, they should say, ‘So that is the life with God!’
     “This was not my plan, but it was God’s plan. I wanted to be a doctor, but now I am a priest! And I’m happy! I am glad to be a priest.”