Spanish priest Father Alfonso Delgado, who arrived in Venezuela in the 70s with a group of fellow missionaries, gradually found himself alone as the years passed and his companions passed away. When the priest, who was widely loved in the diocese, fell ill with cancer, he found his final home among the Sisters of the Missionary Work of Jesus and Mary, a congregation that he had helped establish in Carora, in western Venezuela, over 50 years ago.
“A few months ago, when I was struck down by cancer, I did not know where to go. I was alone, weak, and had nobody to care for me. That was when the sisters took me in. They opened the doors of their home to me and lovingly cared for me,” Fr Alfonso Delgado wrote, in a letter to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). In the letter, sent to the pontifical foundation shortly before his death, the priest asked that ACN support the sisters so that they would be able to purchase a vehicle that would help them carry out their mission, but he also described his life with them, providing a moving witness of the love and generosity they show to all those who are in need. “They care for children, the sick and the elderly. And now, they also care for me,” the priest wrote. “They perform many works of mercy with the poor and the needy, taking the sick to clinics, carrying out their work of evangelisation, helping the girls they look after and giving assistance to families in emergency situations.”
Father Alfonso died in October 2024, after serving for 71 years as a priest.
“I know Fr Alfonso’s story. He was widely loved by everybody in the diocese. When he found himself ill and alone, with no one to look out for him, he asked to move in with the sisters,” the current Bishop of Carora, Carlos Enrique Curiel, tells ACN. “They gave him all the care he needed, with much love, and they would take him to the hospital, since he was suffering from cancer and had heart problems. What the sisters did for him is a reflection of their generosity,” the bishop adds. “During his final years many priests, including some of the youngest among them, went to confession with him, drawn by his strong charisma,” the bishop recalls.
The vehicle arrived: the mission continues
“The sisters have been here for over 50 years, doing good and asking for nothing in return, caring for the needy,” Bishop Curiel says. The Missionary Work of Jesus and Mary is dedicated to caring for and educating children, giving them an environment of love and Christian values, and creating spaces for them such as kindergartens. They also dedicate themselves, with great love, to the elderly and the sick, providing the neediest with food, clothes and medicine, as well as a spiritual accompaniment that allows them to offer up their suffering with hope.
Thanks to the generosity of ACN benefactors, the sisters have been able to acquire the four-wheel drive vehicle that they desperately needed for their mission. This support has made their work much easier, allowing them to help more people, at greater distances.
In his letter, Fr Alfonso did not only share his gratitude, but also a serene farewell, fully trusting that the requested help would arrive. “Dear ACN benefactors, may God reward you a hundredfold for everything you do for the sisters. May the Lord bless you always.” And the vehicle did arrive, as did the support and the aid. But something else remains also: the memory of a priest who, at the end of his long missionary journey in Venezuela found solace in the very same community of sisters he helped set up.
By Lucia Ballester.
