The Catholic Church in Paraguay called on all the faithful in the country to join in prayer “for the prompt beatification” of Father Julio César Duarte Ortellado, a Servant of God who is on his way to the altars.
In a statement broadcast on July 4, Cardinal Adalberto Martínez Flores, Metropolitan Archbishop of Asunción and President of the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference, recalled that that day marked “81 years since the birth to Heaven of the Servant of God, Father Julio César Duarte Ortellado.”
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Cardinal Martínez Flores, the first cardinal in the history of Paraguay, recalled the recent announcement from the Vatican that 14 Catholic blesseds will be canonized. “Holiness that has to do with men and women of faith who have known how to express in their lives the love of God and the love of their neighbor,” highlighted the Archbishop of Asunción.
These people, he highlighted, are “like the Servant of God Fr. Julio César Duarte Ortellado, with his virtues and his weaknesses, but who lived heroically according to the spirit of the beatitudes.”
The Paraguayan cardinal recalled the words that the Servant of God addressed to his mother: “It will be of no use to me to be wise and to preach well and to be applauded by the people, if I am not a saint. The priest, my mother, is and must be another Christ.”
For the Paraguayan archbishop, “the life and works of Fr. Julio César show us the path of the disciple who bears witness to his faith with works, an operating faith, translated into charity, solidarity, fraternity, for the promotion of those most in need. ”.
“Son of our lands, Father Julio César was a virtuous man, both in his human dimension and in his priestly ministry and his fruitful shepherding of the people of God.”
The cardinal encouraged Catholics to ask “for the prompt beatification of Father Julio, with the prayer made by + Mons. Celso Yegros Estigarribia”, Bishop of Carapeguá (Paraguay) between 1983 and 2010:
Father God, Almighty, we ask you with great confidence to grow in Faith, to be constant in Hope and persevering in Love. You granted your servant priest Julio, constancy and strength in the priestly service to the entire church.
Grant us the grace of seeing his merits recognized, as a model of Christian life and the honor of the altars. Grant us to imitate his example and always love your Will.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Who was Father Julio César Duarte Ortellado?
Father Julio César Duarte Ortellado was born in Caazapá (Paraguay), on April 12, 1906. According to the website of the Paraguayan Episcopate, his father was “a rancher-merchant” and his mother “was noted for her particular charity.” .
Father Duarte Ortellado entered the Conciliar Seminary of Asunción in February 1921, at the age of 15, and then continued his priestly formation at the Pontifical Pío Latin American College, in Rome (Italy).
Pope Saint Pius X ordained him a priest on October 27, 1927, the day of Christ the King. Three and a half years later, in May 1931, he returned to Paraguay.
In his native country he promoted the construction of the Ybycuí Hospital, in the south-central part of Paraguay, and some time later he managed the construction of the “Hogar San José”, to house orphaned or abandoned children.
The investigation into his life, according to pick up the website of the Diocese of Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), revealed that the Servant of God predicted his death three years in advance.
Talking to a sick old woman, she told the priest: “Father, I am going to die! I am afraid, very afraid of death! I don’t want to die yet! Help me, Father, pray to God to restore my health!” In response, Father Duarte Ortellado told her: “Madam, there is no reason to be afraid of death. Death is a good that God sends us, because it is a liberation for the truly Christian soul. I will also die in three years.”
Indeed after that time, on July 4, 1943, when he was 37 years old, Father Julio César Duarte Ortellado died, apparently of typhus, a bacterial disease that is transmitted through lice or fleas, and that he would have contracted when visiting to a soldier who arrived in Asunción.
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.