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Family Gathering of Guatemalan Comboni Missionaries
Friday, October 31, 2025
The Comboni Missionaries arrived in Guatemala in 1989. Today, the chapines – as Guatemalans are affectionately known – number eight: four priests, one brother, and three scholastics (one of whom is already a deacon, one studying at the scholasticate in Kinshasa, and the third in São Paulo). There are also three postulants and several aspirants. [In the picture: Brother Jonatan Josué Chajón Gordillo]
Taking advantage of the fact that October is the month chosen by the Catholic Church to focus reflection and action on the universal mission, this year it was decided to invite all the relatives of the confrères originally from the country to spend Sunday 26th together at the “Casa Comboni” in Guatemala City.
It turned out to be an excellent decision. This is also the opinion of Father Juan Diego Calderón Vargas, Provincial Superior of the Provincia de Centro América (PCA), which includes three countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador. He said: “It was the first time an event of this kind had been held, and it was truly a day of fraternity and missionary spirituality, lived as one big family. We experienced the mutual joy of getting to know one another and of sharing our charism with those who have inspired and supported our missionary vocation, through joy, prayer, and a few tears shed by our parents and relatives.”
Two ‘guests of honour’ were invited to share their vocational journey and their experiences of faith and mission.
The first was Father Luis Filiberto López Pastor, who, after four years at the scholasticate in Kinshasa (DR Congo), was ordained in 2006. He then spent eight years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and eleven in his home province, the PCA.
The second was Brother Jonatan Josué Chajón Gordillo, who made his first religious profession in May 2021 and has recently completed his scholastic formation at the International Formation Centre for Brothers (CIF) in Bogotá, Colombia.
A particularly moving moment came when the group listened to audio messages sent by three Comboni chapines currently serving in Ethiopia, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As a symbolic gesture of fraternal communion, during the Eucharist the relatives lit a candle on behalf of each Guatemalan missionary scattered across the world.
The celebration concluded with a joyful lunch featuring traditional Guatemalan dishes: chuchitos, tostadas, tacos and rellenitos.