Vatican reports Peruvian Vincentian lost in jungle

John Freund, CM
December 3, 2011

Moyobamba (Agenzia Fides) – From several ecclesiastical institutions and structures prayer requests and help arrive for father Alfonso Asencios Zuloaga, a priest of the Congregation of the Mission (also known as the Vincentian Fathers) that has not yet been able to return to his parish in the Peruvian forest (see Fides 28/11/2011). No one has news about the missionary since November 23.

The Prelature of Moyobamba writes that more than 80 volunteers continue to search for Fr. Alfonso. The same Prelature has denied the report published by a local newspaper that more than 30 members of the police are engaged in the research. Not even the army is present in this work despite the Bishop of the Prelature, Mgr. Rafael Escudero López-Brea, and the Superior of the Vincentian Fathers, have formally requested their intervention.The Conference of Superiors of Major Superiors of the Religious of Peru recalled that Fr. Alfonso was engaged in the celebration of the Mass and baptisms of children and adults in different locations very distant from each other. Just in order to fulfill his pastoral ministry he had decided to walk back after a landslide had damaged a part of the road. He knew the road very well and sometimes he travelled on foot, taking about 6 hours to go from Banda de Shilcayo to Santa Elena. Not seeing him arrive, on Wednesday, November 23, his Vincentian brothers, Father Adolfo Salazar Julca and father Eduardo Mendoza Garcia, anxious, started the research. Similarly, the Missionaries of Jesus in Chazuta have involved animators and friends to organize the research. Unfortunately no one in Santa Elena saw him arrive in the country. In a statement released by the press office of the Archdiocese of Lima, the Provincial Superior of the Vincentians in Peru, Fr. Ruben Pedro Borda, unfortunately confirms that the search for Fr. Asencios so far has had no success. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 02/12/2011)


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