Pope Leo XIV declares the Spanish missionary Alejandro Labaca venerable

Pope Leo XIV has authorized the declaration of venerable of the Spanish Capuchino missionary Mons. Alejandro Labaca, who was expelled from communist China and gave his life evangelizing in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador.

Born in 1920 in the Guipuzcoan town of Beizama, at age 12 he entered the seminar of the Capuchina Rama of the order of the younger brothers, acquiring the condition of novice five years later, in 1937.

First mission in China, when communism was imposed

When he turned 18, he was called to rows on the occasion of the Spanish Civil War in which he participated without shooting a weapon, given his religious condition. In 1942 he conducted his solemn profession and three years later, he was ordained a priest.

A year later, he asked to be sent to China, where he stayed six years. In A biographical review Made by Fr. José Antonio Recalde, also Capuchino and vicepostulator of the cause, part of the letter in which he described his missionary yearning:

“Here I am, send me. My joy would be immense if the Holy Spirit deigned to choose to extend the Church and save souls in missions. And especially in countries of more difficulty and where I have more than suffering. I put myself unconditionally in their hands to go wherever I have to send me … I communicate that what has attracted me most and the one that attracts me most today is our mission of China”

With the establishment of communism in China in 1949, the situation became increasingly dangerous due to religious persecution that was systematically institutionalized in 1951. Two years later it was expatriate and returned to Spain for a short time.

Aparico Apostolic Prefect

In 1950, the Navarra province of the Capuchin Franciscans had assumed the reconstruction of its presence in Ecuador, which dates back to the end of the 19th century. Thus a new road for labo was opened, which arrived in the country in 1954.

Eleven years later, 1965, he is appointed apostolic prefect of Aguarico, a mission territory created by Pius XII in 1953, with an extension of almost 30,000 square kilometers watered by the Napo River and its tributaries and with just 3,000 inhabitants.

When he was appointed Apostolic Prefect, he had “10 Capuchin religious, 15 Missionaries of Mother Laura; 2 Secular Missionaries, 21 teachers, 17 schools, 6 workshops, 9 boarding schools, 1 Agricultural School, 4 social warehouses, 2 small airports, 5 farms in formation, 3 radio stations,” according to the vicepostulator. All this, without land access from the capital Quito.

His arrival at the Prefecture coincided with the celebration of the Second Vatican Council, to which he contributed a written note on the conciliar decree To the nationsabout the missionary activity of the Church. His episcopal motto took it from number 11 of this document: Seeds of the word (Verb seeds).

Ask Pablo VI, given the fierceness of some natives

According to Fr. Recalde, the missionary transmitted to Pope Paul I saw his doubts about how to take the mission to the Aucas peoples, among which were the Huaorani: “The campaign to approach them is started; Because of the Gospel?”.

During the post -contest years, he decided to make the mission with the poorest possible means, detaching from a plane and other goods such as a farm. “They were months of darkness, because some missionaries chose to get out of the mission,” describes the vicapostulator, which leads him to rethink his apostolic life.

Thus, he wrote in 1969 the Superior General of the Order asking him to be relieved as a prefect, “allowing me to rebuild my life as a simple Capuchin friar,” which materialized in February 1970.

Thus, a period of 15 years of close contact with the Aucas that was embodied in its Huaorani Crónica. It tells how one more of the tribe became, living like them, naked, to the point of being adopted by a family.

“If we don’t go, they kill them”

In 1984, San Juan Pablo II appointed him head of Pomaria and Apostolic Vicar of Aguarico. Three years later, together with the Colombian missionary Inés Arango, missionary of the cappurate tertiary of the Holy Family, also declared venerable by Leo XIV, decided to go to the Meeting of the Tagaeri, a tribe threatened by the exploitation of the oil companies in the area, to which the prelate was opposed. The religious had been in Aguarico for ten years, dedicated to the apostolate with the Huaorani.

They arrived by helicopter to one of their settlements. As detailed on the website property of the Aparico Aparaico Vicariate Alejandro and Inésthe bishop “feels pastor of that ethnic minority threatened. He will say: ‘If we are not going, they kill them.”

They were both who were killed by the spears of the Tagaeri. “The Aragonese missionary Javier Aznárez, a diocesan and medical priest, was one of those who, made the forensic recognition, were acting on the bodies until 9 p.m., cleaning them, extracting worms that had been introduced in the wounds, sewing … He tells his mission companions that he told in the body of Monsignor about 160 holes and in the one of the hna 67 ”, collect the website.

His testimony for the delivery of life was chosen by San Juan Paul II in the act of thanksgiving and recognition to the missionaries held on May 7, 2000 with the Roman Colosseum, as an example of the “Christians who have given their lives for the love of Christ and the brothers in America.”

In 2008, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the community of San Egidio, Benedict XVI presided over the opening mass of a temple dedicated to the martyrs of the twentieth century, where two relics were left: a pectoral cross that the bishop used and a missionary sandal used.