In Pace Christi

I met Fr. Jorge García Castillo a little more than thirty-five years ago in the editorial office of Esquila Misional and Aguiluchos. At that time, he was working and that was the start of the work he would have been involved in right up to the last hours of his life and which made him a great missionary through publications. In all those years, to be a missionary and to work on publications became inseparable in the person of Fr. Jorge. His mission, with his background of pastoral experience in areas of first evangelisation, was always marked by his ministry as a communicator of the Gospel by means of books and magazines, the main instrument of his preaching.

Fr. Jorge was born on 14 September 1953 at Los Camichines, in the parish of los Guajes, close to Juchitlán, Jalisco. From infancy, he experienced poverty and great sacrifices and it was from this that he first felt the desire for the priestly life at the service of others. He entered the seminary of Autlán where the broader horizons of the world opened up to him, going beyond the confines of his diocese. He felt that God was calling him to set out on the path of the mission.

In 1975, he entered the Comboni postulancy in Xochimilco where he continued his philosophical studies before entering the Novitiate in Cuernavaca, Morelos, for his first experience of religious life which ended with his consecration to the missions.

He then went to Rome where he studied theology. Having returned to Mexico, he was ordained priest on 23 July 1983 and appointed to the missionary animation centre. That same year he started to study journalism at the Carlos Septién School where he was awarded a diploma. In 1990, he was appointed to Peru and editor of Misión sin Fronteras magazine. In those years he lived his life not just imparting information but also allowing himself to be challenged by situations of poverty and injustice, taking up his prophetic mission by indicating and denouncing. This led to him having to accept the cross of being misunderstood and being punished by being obliged to leave the mission he loved so much. From 2001 to 2007, he had an opportunity to devote himself to pastoral work, in direct contact with the people in various and very different contexts. He spent some years on the mountains of Guerrero among the Mixtecos, in the diocese of Tlapa.

He served in urban pastoral in the community of the Uganda Martyrs in Colonia Moctezuma, Mexico City. In 2008, the superiors called him to Rome as Secretary General of Missionary Animation in the Institute. Returning to the world of communications, he accompanied all the missionaries dedicated to transmitting the Gospel by means of the media. He could often be seen with his camera and journalist ID, on his way to cover events where the Church was present through its commitment to the poor. He happily wore his jacket bearing the title “Comboni Press”.

In 2017, he returned to Mexico showing the first symptoms of suffering and illness caused by the surgical operations he had to have, but this did not prevent him from going wherever he needed to seek out news or testimonies of the presence of the Gospel among the marginalised. He happily accepted the task of editing the magazines Esquila Misional and Aguiluchos to which he dedicated his time and his heart: a few days before he died, he wanted to see the latest issue of the magazine that was ready for the printers, as if to show how the missionary is meant to die on the field of combat.

Fr. Jorge was short in stature but had an immense heart. He was one of those people who are not noticed in a group but who are missed when they are absent. Those of us who knew him will always remember him as one who was simple, humble, caring little for himself, a man of great goodness who, by his gestures of friendliness and consideration for others created empathy that became lasting friendship. Fr. Jorge was a man in who loved his priestly vocation. He lived his priesthood as a great gift that God gave him that he might be of service to others. He loved to celebrate the sacraments and was always available when anyone asked him for help.

We shall miss his words of counsel and his presence. But we are certain he will continue to be present among us since love knows no boundaries either past or present and Jorge was great in the experience of loving.
(Fr. Enrique Sánchez G., mccj).