On October 16th, the feast of St. Gerard Mayela, Sergio Andrés Guerrero Buitrago and Juan Sebastián Criollo Puentes, who, on March 3rd, had made their perpetual profession for the Congregation and a day later received their diaconate ordination, were ordained priests. The ceremony took place in the parish of St. Alphonsus in Bogota and was presided over by Monsignor Álvaro Mon Pérez CSsR, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Carreño, Vichada.
The solemn Eucharist began with the song: “Before you were formed”, sung by the choir of St. Alphonsus Seminary, in which the deacons received the priestly ministry by the laying on of hands and the anointing with the holy chrism. The parents of the newly ordained priests were happy to hold in their hands the vestments with which their sons would be clothed, and they also expressed their joy at receiving the first blessing as priests from Fathers Sergio and Juan.
Monsignor Álvaro Mon, in his homily, expressed his gratitude to the Redemptorist Province of Bogotá for their fraternal invitation to be the ordaining bishop and for all the support they have given in their service as bishops.
These priests will be the last to be ordained under the Province of Bogotá. As a hopeful sign, they are also considered the first of the coming Andean-Caribbean Unity, which will unite the Redemptorists of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. This was highlighted by Fr. Luis Carlos Jaime Murillo, CSsR, provincial animator of Bogotá.
At the end of the ceremony, all the guests and relatives of the new priests moved to the San Alfonso Seminary, where a festive reception was prepared for them by the formation community and the seminarians. Father Superior Luis Alberto Roballo CSsR expresses that with this celebration, the celebrations of the 60 years of the Seminary and the work of the Province of Bogota come to a masterly close, giving way to the reconfiguration.
The destinies of the new priests were also socialised. Father Juan Sebastián Criollo CSsR was assigned to carry out his ministry in the parish of San Gerardo Mayela in Bogotá, while Father Sergio Guerrero CSsR will continue in the San Alfonso Seminary as vicar of the Parish of the Most Holy Redeemer. The invitation is to continue to pray for the new priests of the Church, that they may persevere in being missionaries of hope, in the footsteps of the Redeemer.
Reports: Dixon Alvarez, Junior.
“The priestly dignity is one of the greatest graces that God can grant to a man”.
Saint Alphonsus
