CPAL

Since 2006 I have been deeply involved in the work of Instituto Mayor Campesino (IMCA-founded in 1962, a Jesuit centre at the service of rural communities in Colombia) in Valle de Cauca Department in southwest Colombia.

Being called to the mission of the Society of Jesus is to partake in a living process, as it requires an on-going encounter with the inner person, from the spirit and the desire, to serve your personal concerns to be called and to be part of a new process, of pathways and of life.

In the southern part of Colombian state of Nariño, we have started down the path towards local and regional sustainability, understood as a life choice in harmony with the surrounding environment.

“Close proximity to the most marginalized” was always the main concern of Fr. Christophe. It was for that reason that his first option was for the urban poor.

My arrival in Chile, on the way to theology studies, could not have been more “earth- shaking” than it was. Two hours after I arrived, there passed from this world Renato Poblete SJ, who bore witness of the social apostolate to this province as it was meeting to reflect on the apostolic frontiers to which we are all called.

We left Santo Domingo for Haiti and on the way we decided to ask the donation trucks, which that day were going to Barahona, to drop us off in a boat from the industry to accompany us.

A forest in agony, that’s what Brazil’s Amazonia is. Called the “lung of the planet,” that name may cease, at any moment, to be an appropriate description. No longer can we drink its waters or fish therein for they are poisoned.

My life has been one continuous apprenticeship. And my best teachers have been the poor and the young people of Andalusia and Latin America, especially those of Paraguay.