Below are stories from past issues of Columban Mission magazine. The Columban Fathers publish Columban Mission magazine eight times a year. Subscriptions are available for just $10 per year. Sign up to receive our next issue. Read more about Columban Mission magazine.
The missionary journey of Jorge Juaregui, called Coco for short, and his wife Rosa Ramirez, began when the Columban Fathers assumed responsibility for the rapidly expanding housing estates being built on land that was once part of a large rural hacienda called Santa Rosa near Jorge Chavez Interna
In 2013, after twelve years in administrative assignments with the Columban Fathers, I was given the chance to take a sabbatical. I seized the opportunity and chose to do a six-week course at the Tantur Institute south of Jerusalem.
I’ve been working in the parish of Christ the King in Ba, which is located in the western part of Fiji, for more than a year now. Near where I live is St. Theresa’s Primary school which has a statue of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Living with a host family was a blessing for me. I lived with the family of Maria Rene Covarrubias Arze in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She is a widow who lives with her two daughters and three grandsons.
My name is Iowane Naio, and I am from Fiji. I joined the Columban Formation Program in 2014, and I studied for two and a half years in the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji before moving to the Philippines in 2016 to continue my theological studies.
Getting to know the people in this community of Rancho Anapra Corpus Christi Parish, Juarez City, México, was my number one priority when I arrived here after learning Spanish. I visited families and got involved in parish activities such as catechism class and prayer groups.
Casa del Migrante (Migrant House) is one of the shelters in ciudad Juárez, Mexico, under the management of the diocese.
During a recent visit to Peru, Maritza Upiachiwa and her husband Jorge Sanchez invited me to celebrate Sunday Mass for the community of the chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Chuquitanta in Huandoy parish on the north side of Lima.
The phone woke me from a deep sleep. I turned on the light. The clock read 2:35 a.m., and the caller was Saiyun, a church leader in DaGuan village. Her mother is elderly and in poor health. I thought something had happened to her mother, and I answered the call.
“I dream of an Amazon that struggles for the rights of the poor ….”
“I dream of an Amazon that sustains the richness of its cultures ….”
“I dream of an Amazon that guards its astonishing natural beauty ….”
The Columbans are a society of missionaries, including priests and lay people, who minister to people of various cultures as a way of witnessing to the universal love of God.