Pope drives the holy cause of missionaries who were killed to save indigenous ones

Vation City (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has promoted two missionaries, whose murders in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador led extracted industries to protect the remote indigenous peoples.

Among a Series of Decrees Published by the Vatican May 22, Pope Leo Recognized the Sacrifice of Spanish Bishop Alejandro Labaka Ugarte of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico, Ecuador, and Colombian Sister Inés Arango Velásquez, A Member of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, as an “Offering of Life,” a Category Distinc from Martyrdom that Pope Francis founded in 2017.

The category and its demands on holiness are explained in the apostolic letter “Maiiorem Hac Dilectionem”, in which a category of heroic life from the loving service of others was defined. The recognition brings the two missionaries closer to the satification until a miracle that is attributed to the intercession of each individual.

Ministry and Death of Bishop Alejandro Labaka Ugarte and sister Inés Arango Velásquez

Bishop Labaka was born on April 19, 1920 in a remote village in Spain and joined the Capuchins in 1937 after he was combined to combat the Spanish Civil War. It was consecrated in 1945 at the age of 25.

He had a strong mission spirit and went to China with three other companions in 1947. In 1953, however, the communist regime distributed all religious medals, including the Capuchins.

He then went to Ecuador, where he served for 33 years, especially the indigenous peoples in the Amazon forest.

After he was appointed Aguarico prefect in 1965, he was invited to take part in the last meeting of the second Vatican Council, where he was particularly moved by his decree “Ad Gentes”, in which the missionary activity of the church and the expression of the “seeds of the word”, which related to the truth of the evispel and grace in the entire human culture.

He resigned as a prefect in 1970 to completely devote himself to the cooperation with indigenous communities, especially with the Huaorani: “With them to discover the seeds of the word that are hidden in their culture and in their lives; and through which God showed his infinite love for the Huaorani people and gave them a chance of salvation in Christ,” he wrote in his diagram.

He was still close relationships with remote communities, even after St. John Paul II was granted when he was the first bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico in 1984.

Oil workers were sometimes exposed to violent attacks when they lived in remote areas of the Tagaeri in 1987, which in turn provoked armed attacks by mercenaries that protect the interests of the oil companies.

Bishop Labaka and Sister Arango feared that the Tagaeri would be exterminated, a helicopter in the ownership of oil companies. They knew the risk, but felt “if we didn't go there, they will (mercenar) kill them,” said the bishop.

The next day, the workers found their two bodies through spears and arrows. After her death on July 21, the government ordered all extracted activities to stop in areas that were inhabited by the Huaorani and Tagaeri colonies.

Finally, in 1999, the government defined and established a protected “Tagaeri -Taromenan -Immaterial Zone” to protect remote communities from extractive activities.

Sister Arango was born on April 6, 1937 in Medellín, Colombia, and taught for 20 years before becoming a missionary and entered Aguarico in 1977. She was assigned to share the Gospel in 1987 with the Huaorani people.

During the meeting of the Pope Leo on May 22 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Dicastery for the causes of saints, the Pope also signed a decree that the causes of the sanctuary of Bishop Matthew Makil, the first local apostolic vicar Kottayam of the Syro-Malabar Church in India, in India in the India Syrro Malabar Catholic Church. Born on March 27, 1851, he promoted catechism, education in Catholic schools and the establishment of religious communities and pious associations. He died on January 26, 1914.