When Fr Ashton Gomez, 40, is delivering a sermon to his congregation at the St Michael’s and All Angels Anglican Church in Diego Martin, he dons the white robes of an Anglican priest, which he has been for nine years.
When he goes to Budo Fitness Gym/Physical Fitness Center at Long Circular Road, Maraval, to practice his beloved karate, he wears his white karate gi (uniform).
On March 3, Gomez passed his Shodan (first-degree black belt) along with Jerry Lalla who passed his Nidan (second-degree black belt) exam given by their teacher, sensei Brian Chin Leung.
Speaking to Guardian Media, Gomez said before he took up Shotokan karate, he studied Hung Gar kung fu for 15 years.
“When my Sifu, the late Tommy Wu, left Trinidad, I went to study to become a priest.
“Ten years later, the only person I was training was my son, and a few people here and there, but they weren’t really committed to kung fu in that way and I started to get fat,” he said bursting out in laughter.
“I wanted to get back into martial arts but the self-motivation was very difficult.”
He said he was looking for a good martial arts school, but, unfortunately, there were not a lot of good kung fu schools in Trinidad.
Gomez said that by happenstance, he was passing on Morne Coco Road, Petit Valley, where Budo Fitness was at the time, when he stopped and looked in at a class.
The pugilist priest said that the karate class looked like what traditional kung fu looked like; the same kind of discipline and “hardness.”
Gomez asked Chin Leung if he could join, and in December 2019 he began training with him.
Even during the pandemic, Gomez had been training via Zoom and not breaking any health protocols.
When Gomez was asked what he liked about karate, he joked that one of the reasons was his sensei could speak English.
He revealed that since he took up karate, he had lost 50 lbs; he weighed 220 lbs when he started, went down to 170 lbs and was now up to 189 lbs because he has muscles now, he said with a laugh.
Gomez trains every day for a total of eight hours a week. Whenever he has a little spare time he practices both karate and kung fu as well, as he spent so many years learning and didn’t want to forget it.
He explained that karate was something he enjoyed doing, it reflected the Latin phrase a healthy mind in a healthy body and an all-round holistic healthy lifestyle.
Gomez noted that Chin Leung’s club incorporated weight training, diet, healthy eating and different moods of exercise to engage in to make a better karateka.
He described martial arts as a lifelong journey, for him it was not a hobby, it was a way of life and part and parcel of who he is as a priest.
Gomez disclosed that during a conversation with Anglican Bishop Claude Berkley, he was told his martial arts always came through even when he preached because the philosophy of being a better person was what budo or martial arts were about.
It was Chin Leung who taught him about the philosophy and history of martial arts and gave him the encouragement to understand karate. While there are some similarities to kung fu, it is quite different in other aspects.
At first, Gomez revealed, he struggled with the karate training, but Chin Leung stepped up as a dedicated teacher and was patient with him.
He said under his eighth-degree black belt instructor’s tutelage, he was made to understand that what he learned before in kung fu was not to be abandoned but to be applied within his karate.
Gomez said that there was no conflict or contradiction in him being a man of the cloth and a martial artist–there were fighting priests, warrior bishops like the Bishop of Sherborne Heahmund, Templar Knights, Shaolin monks and Irish and English priests who taught boxing.
He said karate and kung fu had the same goal; enlightenment, it was not about fighting, anybody could fight as his sensei told him a martial artist was more than a fighter, he was someone who was trying to be a better person and that was compatible with his vocation in the priesthood.
Gomez said let it be known that the scriptures did not say people can’t defend themselves and should just let people run into them and beat them up.
He expounded that when Jesus said to turn the other cheek it was not about being a bobolee in local parlance, but to understand when some people said something to you, they can’t help themselves, you shouldn’t retaliate when you can’t de-escalate the situation.
Sensei Chin Leung, self-defence and eight-degree Shotokan karate black belt instructor and a director of the New World Karate Association (NWKA) said Gomez had a deep understanding of true martial arts and the many benefits, both spiritually and physically.
He said he can be fierce and battle-ready when he needed to be and compassionate and gentle when he had to be.
Chin Leung said as a martial artist he had complete balance.
