Last goodbye to priest José Luis Orozco Castañeda, emergency chaplain in Mexico

On September 10, the Mexican priest José Luis Orozco Castañeda, chaplain of emergency corporations in the state, died in Jalisco. For almost three decades of ministry, it was recognized for its proximity to firefighters, paramedics and patients, whom he accompanied in pain with faith, humor and hope.

He was born in Guadalajara on August 23, 1965 and was ordained a priest on June 11, 1998. Throughout 27 years he exercised his ministry in different parishes of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, but his true vocation flourished in the Pastoral of Health. In 2021 he was appointed chaplain of institutions such as Red Cross or Civil Protection and Firefighters.

Since then, between mermaids and emergencies, he became a shepherd with a helmet in his hand and always with a prayer.

An evangelizer in the middle of the emergency

Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Guadalajara, described it In your social networks As a “cheerful person, endearing in dialogue with everyone, dedicated to this particular and exemplary task of the pastoral of health” and asked the Lord to have it “already enjoying the place where no one will have to cry, because everything is peace and joy.”

For years, Fr. José Luis not only went to give help to the victims, he also became a spiritual guide of the emergency staff. He offered them talks, prayers, blessings and, above all, he approached God with simplicity.

This was recalled by Edgar Oswaldo Lara, collaborator of the State Unit for Civil Protection and Firefighters, who told ACI Press that he witnessed how the priest “sought to approach God and the Virgin.”

“I was always behind everyone, seeking to approach God, through confession and communion,” he added. “He gave us the blessing, prayed for us and offered the Holy Mass for firefighters, paramedics and emergency bodies.”

For Lara, he was a person who “knew how to listen, advise and if necessary, he rebuked in a loving way.” Therefore, he defined it as “an incredible person and worthy of continuing, respecting, knowing and imitating his example.”

Vocation without rest

Fr. Héctor Manuel Pulgarín Ayala, close friend for 17 years, shared with Aci Prensa that Fr. José Luis “was a man delivered, was a man who had no view to anyone.”

He recalled that he never took vacations in order to “continue helping, to always be willing to help.” Even after an operation, he said that he could barely rest for a few days when, when he learned of a fire “he put on his helmet and left, and there he was something if he could help.”

“I was very confident in God,” said Fr. Pulgarín Ayala, and that certainty “was transmitted to everyone who met him, even fellow priests.” It was, he said, “of a firm faith, a determining faith.”

The disease faced with joy

His niece, Viridiana González Orozco, a nurse at the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara where he also exercised his pastoral mission, described him as a “charismatic, kind, child’s soul, she always liked to joke, she was very happened.”

She took care of him during her last years and ensures that “she never complained, offered her pain and suffering to God.” Despite the hardness of the diagnosis, he faced brain cancer “with courage and love”, always faithful to his ministry, devotee of the Virgin of Zapopan.

As his niece recalls, in his last moments of life he expressed his desire: “That he wanted to go to heaven to continue interceding for the souls who will need it.”

Institutions such as Red Cross, Civil defense and their respective local managers shared farewell messages on their social networks. They remembered him as a priest who was with them in emergencies and celebrations.