El Padrecito's Youth Retreats

El Padrecito Ministries is a non-profit located in the rural, migrant town of Guadalupe, California.  The non-profit was founded to work with youth, providing both direct evangelization (youth retreats, speaking engagements, live performances, with an emphasis on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Eucharist) and indirect evangelization (folklorico dance, youth employment and training at El Padrecito’s Ice Cream Parlor, concert production for young adults, arts classes, etc.). 

The youth ministry was founded by Father Masseo Gonzales, who as a youth, had a juvenile record, dropped out of high school, and eventually lost a portion of his right leg in a street fight. After his conversion he joined the Franciscans in 1985, became a Catholic Priest and now works with youth full-time. The non-profit was  incorporated in 2006, has the support of the leadership of St. Joseph Cupertino Province of the Conventual Franciscans, the province to which Fr. Masseo Gonzales belongs, and operates within the northernmost region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. His full-time faculties are in the Diocese of Monterey, in whose parishes Father Masseo regularly assists on weekends, in particular at “Chapel Hill,” in Shandon, California. Father Masseo also enjoys faculties in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as that is where he finds himself regularly working with youth. He currently resides at the Franciscan Novitiate in Arroyo Grande, Ca.