People

Padre has dancing feet, teaching heart

Drums set the beat. Guitars overlay a lively rhythm. The evening air in Cártago-Valle, Colombia, swells with the sounds of horns and an accordion. It’s time to samba, and the ladies line up to request their favorite partner, Jesus Alberto Lozano Hoyos.

Father Jesus.

Childhood instilled Jesus with two aspirations. His first goal was to become a priest, but he also wanted to learn to dance. Adulthood introduced him to a third vocation: an educator.

Father Jesus Alberto Lozano Hoyos enjoys conversing with his students, teaching “life lessons.”

As a young boy, his passion for the church was so fervent his mother sewed priestly garments, which he wore while pretending to lead mass. His parents, however, could not help him with musical inclinations. Neither danced much; instead, they hosted parties.

“My parents had lots of parties, and that’s where I learned,” Jesus says of his introduction to dancing. “I think dancing is a very significant cultural expression. Here in Colombia, we have many types of dances, and they are all beautiful.”

With a preference for Colombia’s cumbia and salsa, he also enjoys watching and learning steps from other cultures, such as the tangos in Buenos Aires and the Aztec Ballet in Mexico City.

Now living his dream as a priest, Jesus has been assigned as director of Institución Educativa Diocesana Paulo VI (Diocese Educational Institute Paul VI), which prepares 5- to 17-year-olds for college. He also is a professor of liturgy and theology at the Seminario Mayor Diocesano (Diocese Major Seminary).

“My role is to provide a lot of human education,” Jesus says. “I believe that to teach every youngster to discover his/her infinite value as a person is very important. … It is a difficult task, very difficult because many of them lack a family environment that would do the same for them.”

Respect, truth, and responsibility, Jesus says, are the primary lessons he tries to instill in his students. He often is seen strolling through the hall, meditating or reading but always ready to interrupt his thoughts to answer a student’s question or step inside a classroom to encourage or admonish.

“As my grandma used to say, he is a man who ‘does not have hairs in his tongue’ (which means, he doesn’t mince words),” says Alvaro Quintero, a former student and current friend now living in France. “I always admired that about him.”

Quintero remembers fondly Jesus’ religion classes.

“They were not really classes as we were used to,” he says. “They were actually chats about life in general and about things that surround us: the present, the reality. He would teach us to love life and to appreciate every moment in front of us, without forgetting our mission as men and women, as citizens, as well as God’s sons and daughters.”

Eighteen years ago, Father Jesus answered another calling: charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Mariscal Robledo, Cartago.

“I have been a Kiwanian ever since,” he says. “I was absent for three years while I went to Rome to study theology, and then I joined again upon my return.”