Xaverians in Colombia

Our Presence in Colombia

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Father Mark Marangone with parish children

We, Xaverian Missionaries , arrived in Colombia in 1975; we began our activity in Buenaventura, accompanying the people suffering from discrimination, poverty, narcotics, and violence.  At the beginning of our presence our work was totally dedicated to and organized around parish pastoral activity. In Cali we worked in the outskirts of the city; while in Bogota we work on vocation activity among the youth, and mission animation within the church in Colombia. Today we are clearly oriented towards Mission Animation, Vocation Recruitment and Formation.

Our work of evangelization is done through a pastoral presence in the outskirts of the major cities. In this kind of context we do not limit ourselves to a generic parish work; we undertake pastoral approaches and methods according to the demands of a New Evangelization. Key points for our pastoral activity are: Basic Ecclesial Communities, personal adhesion to Jesus Christ and the personal accompaniment of each member of the Community. We are placing a clear emphasis on  evangelization: cordiality and a serious approach are the attitudes, which guide us in this new venture.

We recently handed the parish of the Sacred Heart back to the diocese of Buenaventura (this was the first parish entrusted to the Xaverians upon our arrival in Colombia) because it had reached a sufficient degree of autonomy and organization. We set out to look for other areas of work, more on the outskirts where the bidonvilles have sprung up: this is where biggest challenges to the New Evangelization are located.

Besides our Charism, it is the present Colombian situation that pushes us to a renewed awareness of evangelization: the serious breakdown in family life, children and youth at high risk (in terrifying proportions), the atmosphere of permanent conflict and war visible everywhere, corruption, poverty (the consequence of a shameless and humiliating injustice), daily violence in homes and districts, etc. .All of this obliges us to listen, to consider carefully the strong historical signs, to abandon obsolete methods and announce the strength and gentleness of the Gospel as a possible solution.

This is, more or less, the new venture we have embarked upon in the parishes of Saint Francis Xavier (Cali) and Christ the Redeemer (Buenaventura) and which we intend to carry forward in fidelity to the Lord of History, to the People of God and to our Xaverian Charism.

Our house in Bogota is our Mission Animation Center, where we have begun to devise material and instruments of animation. Our house in Medellin functions mainly as house of formation, where after a period of preparation, some students are sent to Mexico to complete their missionary training.

Service, mission, work, news, and presence of the Xaverian Missionaries in Colombia