AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Day of Vocations: the missionary vocation continues to attract young people who join the Missionaries of Yarumal

Saturday, 24 April 2021 vocations missionary institutes missionary animation

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Bogota (Agenzia Fides) - The Institute for Foreign Missions of Yarumal (MXY) was founded in 1927 in Yarumal, a town in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Osos, for evangelization and missionary work. "Our missionaries are currently working in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, the United States and Canada on this continent. In Africa we work in Kenya, Angola and Ivory Coast, in Asia in Cambodia and Thailand. We also have missionaries who work in Italy, Spain and Belgium", says Fr. Hernan Pinilla, MXY, of the Missionary and Vocation Animation Secretariat of the Institute. "We are currently about 180 missionaries, including temporary seminarians - he continues -. About 40 missionaries work in America, 15 missionaries in Africa, 8 missionaries in Asia. About 20 missionaries are then engaged in other services in Colombia: missionary and vocational animation, general council, administrative services. There are 30 elderly and pensioners".
Regarding the situation of vocations, Fr. Hernan Pinilla underlines: "Currently we have 22 professed seminarians who are studying theology and some of them are living a pastoral experience. About 15 students are attending philosophy courses. This year, despite the difficulties of vocational accompaniment caused by the pandemic, seven students have started the path of formation. The average number of students who have entered in recent years is between 8 and 10".
Fr. Hernan notes that the limitations of the pandemic have not affected the decision of many young people to follow God's call. "The coronavirus pandemic, with all its tragic implications, challenges our pastoral schemes, including vocational ministry, and it awakened the creativity of vocational pastoral workers. Traditional vocational meetings must be carried out through new technologies, there are few face-to-face meetings, always respecting the regulations on biosecurity, with all the care that the pandemic requires from us. However, the pandemic has not been an impediment for many young people to worry about the missionary vocation. We see with joy that God continues to call, and there are always young people ready to answer the call. The missionary vocation continues to attract many young people".
"The young people who come to our seminary - concludes the missionary -, are divided into two groups: those who have finished secondary studies and another group of those who have completed (or at least started) university or technical studies, some of whom are working in different fields. Many adults, over the age of 24, knock on our doors with the desire to be missionaries, but we cannot welcome them because they would finish the path of formation at an advanced age, we have also noticed that it is much more difficult for them to learn other languages and adapt to the needs of community life". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 24/4/2021)