This missionary of mercy accompanied a former prisoner for pedophilia for 20 years

In 2016, when Pope Francis instituted the Ministry of Missionaries of Mercy during the extraordinary holy year, the Argentine priest José Luis Quijano did not imagine that this call would rekindle the fire of his priesthood. With more than three decades of ministry, I thought I had already learned everything.

“I was not an official priest, I was always very pastoral, but this was a real renewal in the intimate fiber of my ministry,” explains to Aci press nine years after having personally received from the Pontiff the commission to exercise the infinite forgiveness of the father in the day to day.

“Mercy is not for those who smell well, for those who are good or righteous. That is easy. The subject of mercy is the bad one, who has committed horrible works, the one who does not deserve it,” he says.

They are not empty words. Before even receiving this mission, the priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires made a radical decision: to accompany a former priest convicted of pedophilia in prison.

It was 20 years in which, despite the difficulties, he never doubted that his mission was to remain next to that man stained forever by a terrible crime.

“When you visit a prisoner of these characteristics, the person did not speak. We were hours and hours in silence. Then, every little time, they were transferred from a penalty. Sometimes I had to do 300 kilometers by car to go see him and they denied me, once there, the entrance,” he says after verifying that his only motivation was the words of the Gospel: “I was imprisoned and you came to visit me”.

Fr. Quijano had met him in the early 90s and, although he never had record of the abuses, he had perceived in him certain worrying attitudes that denoted a “little orderly” life, he says without wanting to go into details. In 1997, the scandal came to light. The priest involved, who was later reduced to the lay state, acknowledged his guilt, was prosecuted, convicted and turned two decades in jail.

“When I saw the call of Pope Francis to the missionaries of mercy, I asked myself: when in my life I was really merciful? Because being good, being tolerant, being cordial, is easy with those who like us. But true mercy is to love who does not deserve it,” reflects Father Quijano, who also knows that the damage infringed by the former priest to the victims is Irreparable, and that divine forgiveness does not erase the consequences of human acts.

“Here you have to divide two things. One is the forgiveness and experience of God’s mercy in the heart. And another is the experience of the rejection of the world. Although a person regrets, social conviction is still there,” he explains.

When the former priest finished fulfilling his grief and regained freedom, he ran into the wall of exclusion. He could not rebuild his life. It was impossible to find work or reintegrate into society. He ended up changing his name and moving to a city where no one knew him.

“For more than internally, he has regretted in his intimate dialogue with God, that does not exempt him from the hardness of the life and resistance of a world that will continue to always condemn him. In a way, the perpetrator is also the victim,” says Fr. Quijano, who does not seek to relativize crime, but to value the complexity of forgiveness.

In this sense, for him, mercy must cover “both victims and perpetrators.”

“Being a missionary of mercy does not mean only to administer the sacrament of confession, but to live mercy with others, even when it is difficult, when it hurts, when it seems impossible,” he says.

A revolution in the priesthood

During these nine years as a missionary priest of mercy he has participated in several meetings in the Vatican as part of his formation. In these meetings, fundamental issues have been discussed that have to do with legal issues, such as how far the power of missionaries comes and how their ministry should exercise in relation to local ecclesiastical authorities, bishops.

“In Rome, Pope Francis expanded the vision of the Ministry. He reminded us that mercy is not only an act, but a way of living the priesthood. It is not only to acquit sins, it is to bring God’s forgiveness to all, without exception,” he explains.

Fr. Quijano is still convinced that mercy is the greatest legacy left by Pope Francis within the Catholic Church.

“Everyone should look in the mirror and wonder: when did I really exercise mercy? Not only forgive in speech, but to love someone who did not deserve it,” he says firmly.

Fr. Quijano is one of the 500 priests who will participate in the Jubilee of Mercy, the sixth great event framed in the Holy Year 2025.

Pope Francis will not be able to accompany them due to his convalescence at Casa Santa Marta after spending 38 days hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital.

However, he will send a written message to give his blessing to these priests who come from countries such as Italy, the United States, Poland, Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico, Germany, Slovakia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Colombia and India, among others.