In Pace Christi

Henry Oswaldo was born in Limón, Costa Rica, on 20^th December 1977. After elementary and middle school, he attended high school, where he obtained a technical diploma in commercial accounting.

I met Henry in 1998 in San José (Costa Rica) when he attended the first year of postulancy at the Comboni Seminary, in the Barrio Sagrada Familia, He came from the diocesan seminary, where he had already completed the introductory course: he was proud to have opted for the mission, and he did not hide it.

Once the postulancy was finished, in August 2001 we left together for the novitiate in Sahuayo, Mexico. The first-year group was made up of 18 novices. Officially the novitiate began for first-year students on 21^st September, St. Matthew’s Day.

Together we also had our first "missionary experience" outside the novitiate, starting from Holy Week 2002, in the parish of Patamban; we had our second experience – in a community – at the Comboni community of Monterrey.

On 10^th May 2003, we made our first profession. Every newly professed already knows where he will go for the international scholasticate: Henry opted for the Democratic Republic of Congo. A few weeks later, he left for Kinshasa having given those of us from Central America a close experience of Africa. In Kinshasa, he made his final vows on 10^th October 2006.

Of the moments spent with Henry, I particularly remember his poetic flair: he liked to write in a ‘mystical way’ about the Cross, about the Madonna, about the sense of total abandonment... Yes, I would say that he intended to discover Jesus and share him also through writing.

For his priestly ordination, Henry returned to his homeland, and the ceremony took place in the Cathedral of Limón on 22^nd September 2007. The event enjoys two ‘firsts’: Henry is the first priest to be ordained in that recently completed cathedral, and he is also the first to become a priest at the hands of the newly elected bishop of Limón, Monsignor José Rafael Quirós. He will have another first in his life: he will be the first Comboni missionary from the Province of Central America to die, at the early age of 46.

His first mission as a priest was in the province of Brazil, from 2007 to 2016. He loved living there, among the indigenous people, among the boats that travel along the rivers, involved with all his energy in missionary pastoral care as we understand it... between difficulties and joys.

He was appointed community superior and elected a member of the Provincial Council. The most needy populations penetrated deeply into his heart and mind.

I again met him when he returned to his homeland in 2017, with the task of relaunching missionary animation in the province of Central America. The superiors had faith in his young spirit and engaging mission experience, particularly the most recent one in Manaus.

In the PCA, Father Henry brought about a revival of missionary animation and vocation promotion, while in the CAM Community of San José he offered his appreciated contribution to the management of the procurator’s office.

In 2022, in Costa Rica, there began to take shape an idea that was immediately found attractive but needed more study before becoming a concrete proposal: the Comboni Cenacles. The objective is to promote prayer for missions in families, make Comboni and the Comboni charism better known, and encourage vocations in families and parishes. Henry took the project to heart and became an ardent promoter, even if only for little more than a year. His sudden death left a void not only in the province and also in these ‘cenacles’.

Father Henry wanted an atmosphere of order, organisation and prayer for his community. I remember his last visits to Costa Rica and to the CAM community, always with new ideas for the renovation of the chapel, which the members wanted to improve as a space for prayer: however, thanks to him, the little chapel became a genuine space for recollection.

Towards the end of 2023, he had his first light attacks of fever. “Nothing to worry about,” he would say. At the beginning of the new year, his fever rose so much he had to be hospitalised. He was diagnosed with a "serious infection" of the lungs which quickly turned into generalised septicaemia. On 5^th January 2024, Father Oswaldo passed away. (Father Juan Diego Calderón Vargas mccj)