12 News is Everything Arizona and we're taking you Everywhere A to Z and this week we're in the Southwest Valley! It’s home to the only active American-born Hispanic priest who is son of immigrant parents in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese.
To Father Fernando Camou, there’s no place like home.
The 28-year-old Valley-native priest's parents grew up in Mexico and moved to the U.S. as adults. Fr. Camou actually grew up with some of the parishioners who sit in the pews at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Avondale where he now celebrates mass.
“The grace of being from here is that one, I understand a bit more of where people are coming from. We went to similar schools, you know, I went to community college in Glendale, I have siblings that went to ASU and I’ve grown up at different parishes, participated in youth groups. So I guess in a lot of ways, I have been formed by this city, by this community and now I’m able to give back,” Camou said.
About half of Catholic parishioners in the Valley speak Spanish but the number of Hispanic priests is small, and they've all come from Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries, except for Camou.
“I hope that people recognize in me a little sign of what the church has to offer us,” Camou said.
Starting this fall, Camou will be reassigned to the brand-new Saint John Paul II Catholic High School in Avondale when they open their doors for the very first school year.
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