The bishop of Paterson, New Jersey (USA), Mons. Kevin J. Sweeney, presided this morning the exequial mass of Fr. Rafael Ángel Ciro, 45 -year -old Colombian priest who committed suicide on August 27, and in a feeling Homily recalled that Jesus, who understands our pains and sufferings, “is here.”
In his words at the beginning of the Eucharistin English and Spanish, and before the mother of the priest, Mrs. Elena Guarín, and his brother Jairo, the bishop addressed her and said: “We are with you, with you and the whole family there in Colombia. We are all a single family, with our bishop emeritus Mons. Serratelli, with all the priests. We are also your children Doña Elena: the mother of a priest is the mother of all the priests. It is also our mother. ”
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“We share the pain, but we also share the faith, especially with the community of San Esteban and all the parishes where Father Rafael served as a priest,” the prelate continued.
Jesus understands our pains and sufferings
Then, in his homily about the gospel of the death of Lázaro, and always speaking in English and Spanish, the prelate began remembering the lyrics of a well -known song: “God is here, as true as the air that I breathe, as true as in the morning the sun rises, so true that when I speak to him I can hear me.”
“We believe this, Jesus our God is here, in the house of Doña Elena and Father Rafael in Colombia, in the heart of each one here, Jesus speaks to us and comforts us. He comes to us, as he went to that house in Bethany, who was also duel,” said Mons. Sweeney.
The Paterson bishop later indicated that “maybe we are like Martha, with anger, asking Jesus where he was and if he had been perhaps my brother would not have died. He does not answer Martha’s question with an explanation and does not give us an explanation today to all our questions, but he answers how Martha answers. ‘Your brother will resurrect.”
“And she says with pain that she knows that she will resurrect at the end of the days. And Jesus says, she tells Doña Elena and we are the resurrection and life, the one who believes in me will not die forever.”
The Prelate said then that “Jesus is here at this time and walks with us and will accompany the priests who will go with Father Rafael for his burial in his beloved Colombia.”
“The shortest line of the Gospel says: ‘Jesus cried.’ He understands our pains and sufferings and invites us to walk with Him and Mary Most Holy to Calvary. Only God knows the path of Father Rafael, his day to day, only God knows how many families and individuals accompanied, and who now cry.”
Mons. Sweeney later thanked Mrs. Elena for giving the Church “a great priest. A applause for our beloved Father Rafael! To his brother Jairo, the priests are your brothers too.”
At the end of his homily, the bishop said: “Anyone who now feels alone or anxious, I want to tell him ‘you are not alone’. God does not leave us alone. If you are fighting with difficulties, psychological emotions, depression, you are not alone, you are not alone, we want to walk with you.”
“We thank Father Rafael Ángel Ciro’s priesthood, we entrust him to God now,” he concluded.
Biography of P. Rafael Ángel Ciro
Rafael Ángel Ciro He was born on October 29, 1979 in the municipality of Alexandria, in the department of Antioquia in Colombia. He was 45 years old.
He obtained a degree in Philosophy of the Bolivarian Pontifical University in Medellín, Colombia, in 2006.
He followed his theological studies at the Intercontinental University in Mexico City (2007-2009), Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut (2011-2012), and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Immitsburg, Maryland (2012-2013).
Before joining the Diocese of Paterson as a seminarian in January 2011, he dedicated almost three years to the missionary work in Medellín and another three years in Mexico City. He also attended to Hispanic migrants in Alabama and New Jersey.
He was ordained a priest on March 25, 2013, in the San Felipe Apostle parish in Clifton, New Jersey.
After his ordination, he served in the parish communities of the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in Paterson, the Santa María de la Asunción parish in Passaic, New Jersey, the San Nicolás parish, also in Passaic, and the Sacred Heart and Holy Rosary parish in Dover, New Jersey, before being appointed pastor of San Esteban in Paterson.
He died on August 27, 2025.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.