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Jaime Eduardo Robledo Rengifo

Bio – Summer 2010

1. I was born on July 6th, 1964 in Tuluá, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, into the humble home of Jaime Robledo Restrepo and Amparo Rengifo Cano. My home was blessed by the direct and influential presence of my paternal great-grandmother, who was also my godmother, and my grandparents, both paternal and maternal. My maternal grandfather was also my godfather. Each one of them, in their own way, contributed greatly to my development as a person. Mine was an average nuclear family and it was there that I acquired certain values that I still hold and appreciate today, among them a strong work-ethic, respect and affection for family members, respect for one's country, concern for and generosity toward the suffering, as realities inextricably linked to faith in God, and especially the welcoming of and hospitality toward pilgrims and the poor.

2. I attended Catholic school, a grace that with the passing of years I recognize as very significant in my life. I had the good fortune to grow from kindergarten until graduation from high school under the pedagogical orientation of the Salesian educational system that proposed Holiness as an ideal of life and the love of Mary, Help of Christians, as a constant help in the realization of said project.

3. The home of my parents, which lasted a mere nine or ten years, was destroyed by my father’s bigamy. I remember the process of my parent’s separation, which coincided with the time I had to abandon Catholic school and my native city for the space of one year due to my father’s work; a lost time that with the help of my professors and my dedication to study and love of school I was able to recuperate. It was a very difficult time, but with the passing of years I have learned God used it to fortify and protect, in a special way, my vocation to the priesthood. It was a complicated year for my mother who suddenly had to assume labor and economic obligations that had been irresponsibly and immaturely ignored by my father.

3. We moved to San Agustin, Colombia, a tourist destination with great archeological richness. There, I went on to become the altar servers’ coordinator for the only parish in town. It was an immense church, with its own radio station and many missions. I had the opportunity to receive spiritual support from the town’s pastor and his vicar. I also recall another elderly priest who worked as Chaplain of a girls’ school, run by nuns in the town. Without doubt, my relationship with these priests, who offered me their respectful closeness, was a determining factor in my formation and in my vocational discernment. I learned many liturgical duties, but most importantly I learned of the generosity and of the promise of an inexhaustible priest abnegated by his people, and of the poorness of the area.

4. With my home destroyed, we returned to my hometown, to my school and to the closeness and support of my grandparents. I especially remember the parental figure and wisdom of my maternal grandfather and the simplicity and devotion of my maternal grandmother. My mother and I lived with them in the same house. My mother would plug ahead in the midst of more than a few difficulties. She was a young abandoned mother questioned for being separated from her husband at a time when it was still not a common occurrence in the “machista” society prevalent in Colombia, where women always carried the brunt of the moral weight of a broken home. Three or four years later, having faced many difficulties, my mother formalized a civil marriage with Hernando Lasso. From that union, my sister Viviana Sofia and my brother Hernan Felipe were born. They arrived at a very difficult time for our family, but their presence transformed it into happy times. Viviana was our hope following the death of my maternal grandmother, who passed away when Viviana was six, and my brother Felipe was the strength for all of us after the tragic and unexpected death of Hernando, my step father. Today, Viviana is 25 and Felipe is 17 years old. Their presence was a real blessing and a wonderful gift for us. From that moment on I never missed school and school became for me, without a doubt, my second home. Slowly, my leadership skills began to develop, especially with regard to the organization of school events, the ability to study without sacrificing participation in extracurricular activities, and the excellent relationships with my professors and priests who served my school. The latter went on to become models of the priest I wanted to be one day, a priest dedicated to education. 

5. Something that may have been another blessing for me was living at the boundary of two abutting parishes. One, Saint Bartholomew, was run by diocesan clergy and was the main temple of my native city, Tuluá, where a few years later I would be ordained. The other was Maria Auxiliadora, administered by the Salesian priests, a church with a school that facilitated my being involved in parish life as well. I was an altar server, assisted in the liturgical chant, had the chance to participate in Mass daily and in frequent confessions. At the same time, I managed to tie myself in with the work of the Sunday Oratory Parish Holiday. It was a beautiful undertaking that lead me to spend Sunday afternoons at school. It was at a huge and beautiful building and on those days the youth and children from poor schools in my town, or those who simply did not have access to education, the so called “street children,” were invited to enjoy soccer, basketball, board games, prayer, as well as catechism. It was a team of students with a Salesian priest at the helm that were assigned that work. I was involved from a very young age and assumed multiple responsibilities in the hope of making the experience as good as possible. I also took responsibility for many details that ensured the best possible experience for all involved. In November of each year the school organized the feast of Charity and the funds generated were used to buy a present for each of the children who participated every Sunday. At times we had upwards of five hundred children. I remember fondly the preparation of every bag filled with a towel, personal hygiene items, candy and a shirt or Sports socks. I was involved in the whole process, and I felt compelled to excel in academia as well.

6. At the end of 9th grade (I was around 14) I received a merit medal from the school for my participation in school life, my social projection and my academic work. I was also a scout in my school’s troop for four years. I was soon given the position of scout leader and the relationship I had with my troop soon became a model for other troop leaders. I always told them “Let’s do” rather than merely “Go do.” 

7. Since eighth grade I was invited into two activities that made me truly happy. The first was a ministry program in one of the poorest neighborhoods of my hometown, where every Saturday afternoon under the guidance of a Salesian priest a mixed group of teenagers would minister to people in need. I organized an adult literacy school there, thus enjoying my first experience as an educator. I taught them how to read and write, to join me in visits to the sick, to collect food for those in greatest need and to participate in Mass. We had catechism for adults and children and worked with a youth group as well. Those were very happy days. The other mission I remember fondly was my social work, an experience every high school student in my country must have to graduate. Many of my peers and I were assigned to teach in night school. I began as math professor, but was soon assigned as school coordinator. In reality, it was a school for adults. The studies were recognized by the State and I had to direct the teachers, who were not always very willing or responsible, as many of them were just there to fulfill a requirement. For me, however, those nights were my life. I would get ahead with my work and do whatever I needed to do, because I saw it as an enormous opportunity to serve.

8. When school ended, I decided I wanted to be Salesian. My request was denied because I was an only child. Although I believe that my parents’ separation also influenced the decision, I could never be sure. I then choose to go into the field of medicine, which was my backup plan in case the priesthood did not work out. However, Monsignor Julian Mendoza, the bishop at the time, whom I had met personally two years before graduation, had in mind for me to go to Cali’s Seminario Mayor and prepare to become a diocesan priest. My family sent me to Cali, where I took some Basic English classes, as well as some preparation classes for the entrance exam to medical school. I was admitted a few months later and just when I was ready to take that step God used the very event to help me reconsider my first choice. I was able to speak to a priest and went to a small church where, coincidentally, the Blessed Sacrament was being exposed and it is there that I decided to abandon my entrance into medical school and began the steps needed to enter Seminario Mayor. I spoke to the Bishop, as the selection process for the seminary had already passed, and he spoke directly to the superiors and asked a diocesan priest to personally take me there. In a matter of twenty four hours I was accepted into the Cali Seminary.

9. A month later, in August 1982, I entered the Seminario Mayor, which was run by the Sulpicians. The decision to enter the seminary was supported by my paternal grandfather, who always respected and backed my choices, both economically as well as morally, but not by the rest of my family, including my mother. Nevertheless, my family paid for my formation at the seminary, with the exception of my last year in which the then Bishop Rodrigo Arango decided the diocese would assume the responsibility. The fact that they supported me financially showed that in spite of their reluctance my family supported me in a very concrete way. Even so, until my third or fourth year, my mother would ask me if I was completely sure, what they could do for me and to desist with the idea of becoming a priest.

The seminary brought me lots of blessings, dedication to my studies, spiritual formation, apostolic commitment, great and healthy friendships and love for the church among them. I was in the same seminary from 1982 until 1989; I studied three years of philosophy and four years of theology. The difficulties came shortly. The second year of seminary I became academic secretary under very difficult situations. Since the seminary had been closed for more than nine years, it was a new building and had a new administration. The least severe thing that I had to deal with was to organize the last file with grades in pencil, with the danger that this entailed, and the student records. Having that job at the same time as I was a student brought me a certain closeness with the two studies’ directors with whom I worked: Father Jacques D’Arcy p.s.s, and today’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet. Because of my position, I had to be supportive of the decisions that they took to organize the academic office. This brought upon me the sympathy of some, the apathy of others, excessive late hours to fulfill my academic responsibilities and the expectations of the group of priests. I was there for two years until it was all finally organized. 

Having finished that job the priests at the seminary then asked me to organize the liturgy and I was named Master of Liturgical Ceremonies. The seminary was growing and the Archbishop was asking for more of a presence in the liturgical events at the Cathedral, which brought a lot of achievements and satisfactions but also quite a few headaches. After those experiences they linked me with the Pastoral Vocation and a semester later they asked me to collaborate with the priest in charge of the introductory course. This meant, of course, that I had to devote more time to the first year students, and at that moment my superiors suggested the possibility of my dedicating my life to the formation of young priests. It was a wonderful time because of the experience I gained, but at the same time difficult because it attracted a lot of jealousy from my peers. These envies were reflected in gossip, libel to my superiors who, thankfully, never listened. However, despite having taken on positions of increasing responsibility in the seminary, I also picked up garbage or cooked hotdogs when needed, which disturbed some of my teammates and the priest or priests who protected them.

10. I had been ordained a Deacon in July of 1988 and I finished my seminary formation in the summer of 1989. The bishop asked me to take a few days of vacation and prepare myself to work in the Pastoral Center of my Diocese with a very clear purpose: organize the diocesan office of Evangelization, Catechesis and Liturgy and begin the Diocesan library which to him was a priority, as well as programs to form parochial catechists and agents in evangelization. This gave me the opportunity to work closely with him. I saw him practically every single day, dialogued, listened to his projects, his dreams, shared his anxieties and preoccupations, learnt from his organization and structure as well as from his wisdom. I worked without end, but was convinced it was for the good of the church. This gave me great motivation.

11. Six months later, I was ordained a priest. The clergy viewed me as a person close to the bishop. It was for many a good thing, for these loved and cherished me, but it bothered others. I was ordained into priesthood on January 27, 1990, through the imposition of hands by Monsignor Rodrigo Arango Velásquez, p.s.s. It was an amazing day, simple, but full of significance. I started my priestly ministry doing the same job in the curia that had been assigned to me a while back. A few months later, in September, 1990, I was named pastor of San Antonio de Buga, without abandoning the Diocesan responsibilities that I had been given.

12. In August of 1992 I was invited to be part of the formation team at the Archdiocesan Seminario Mayor “San Pedro Apóstol” of Cali, where I had studied. I started as the director’s assistant in the Propaedeutic year, and in the first semester shared this responsibility with another priest. At the end of that semester, the Propaedeutic director had to return home and I was left in charge of everything, of the students’ introductory year and of their Christmas mission, a difficult academic load. I had to practically take on the responsibility of seventy percent of their courses, as well as the orientation of the formation process. Knowing that I was going to be part of the Seminary team in Cali, the bishop asked for my help in coordinating the formation of the seminarians in the Diocese of Buga who studied there, as well as leading the Pastoral Vocation events in my diocese, even if only for a few weekends.

13. Before the end of that academic year, the bishop offered me the possibility to study abroad and I decided to study Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, while living at the Pontifical Latin American College. A week after arriving in Rome, I received the news of my stepfather Hernando’s death. He was a man that I had learned to love and respect because with all his personal limitations he was able to confront the incomprehension of people for marrying a woman, my mother, who had been abandoned by her husband and had a child. At the time of Hernando’s death, my mom was left with my 8-year-old sister and my little brother of five months, with me half a world away, with my 85 year-old grandfather and with an incredibly difficult and indefinite economic state. I returned to Colombia to be with my mother during such difficult moments. The rector in Rome gave me leave, but asked me to return so as not to lose the opportunity to study in Rome. After the storm passed and I returned to my studies, my experience was fantastic. Aside from my STL in Dogmatic, I also had the opportunity to take courses in Spirituality and Spiritual Direction, among others. My stay in Europe ended in 1995 with the experience of Saint Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises for thirty days, an encounter which marked my life and has helped me enormously with my priestly ministry and with the growth of my faith.

14. I returned to Colombia in September of 1995 and was named pastor for Sacred Heart Church in Buga, professor in the “Julian Mendoza Guerrero” Institute and also assigned the task to write a formal proposal for the Seminario Mayor project in my diocese, for which the Bishop named a diocesan committee to meet with him to find ways to make this project viable. On August 4th, 1997, the Seminario Mayor Diocesano “Los Doce Apóstoles” was opened. It was a seminary experience anchored in the life of a parish, which tried to harmonize the four pillars of formation: a solid spiritual formation, an authentic pastoral formation, a dedication to academics and a strong experience in daily community life. Although the process of founding apostolic work is hard, it was something to which I generously dedicated my life and all my energy. I fulfilled this responsibility for more than four years, until the new Bishop, Monsignor Hernan Giraldo Jaramillo, who had been Bishop since March 2001, decided to name a new rector and moved the headquarters of the seminary, asking me to continue my work as professor and as Director of Studies as well as taking the reins as principal of the Diocesan school “Gimnasio Central del Valle”, which at the moment was in a complete crisis.

15. It was a school that offered kindergarten to 11th grade and at one point had reached almost one thousand students. The year I started enrollment was at 360, there had been no investments in the previous six years, it had a checkbook with delinquent accounts for more than 70 thousand dollars, which completely compromised the economic viability of the school. I was to succeed an extraordinary man to whom I surrendered all my admiration and appreciation and had been rector and professor at that institution for over thirty years. This ministry of being director was one with great challenges, and it taught me a lot of things like educational administration, personnel administration, financial administration in times of limited budgets, and the capacity to conciliate and resolve conflicts, among many others. There were challenges from every aspect. I had to accompany the new rector at the seminary and sustain the academic challenges of the seminary, while trying to take the Diocesan school out of the abyss it was in. Finally, when everything stabilized, I asked for a four month leave and was allowed to take time off at Saint Agatha Catholic Church in Miami.

16. It was then fall of 2003. My sabbatical experience was spent lending help as a priest in this parish, while at the same time dedicating three hours a day to prayer and to the practice of the Lectio Divina. I also offered spiritual direction, confessions every day, as well as daily Eucharist. That November they offered to let me stay for a year to learn English, but my Bishop answered right away that this was impossible for the moment.

17. I returned to Colombia in January of 2004, and the bishop asked me to resume my Theology classes at the Seminary and to take on the “Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquirá” Parish in Presidente, Valle. It was a small church in territory, but immense in population, and with great economic, social and pastoral difficulties. The people did not have potable water, even though they were only a mere eleven miles from the Capital city of my diocese, Buga. It had a thousand problems and was poor in every sense. Aside from this pastoral responsibility, the Bishop asked me to become rector of the Julian Mendoza Guerrero Institute where I had been a professor. The institution worked in agreement with the International Institute of Theology in Madrid and the Pontifical Javeriana University in Bogota. I took on this responsibility at the most difficult moment in the institution’s history. There were financial problems and loss of identity that made the situation very complex to the point that we began to question whether it was worth it to continue with this diocesan institution. Moments of great uncertainty and disappointments made it difficult to live my ministry. It was a time to make major decisions, very difficult ones, misunderstood by many, but God knew that the Bishop was making the decisions that were best at that time for the good of the institution.

With significant international aid we were able to save the institution and create a strategic plan that allowed us to rethink and project the institution forward. It was a hard and painful process, but the positive effects were soon seen.

18. In 2005, the Bishop asked me to change parishes, but keep the rest of the offices he had assigned me. I went to the Holy Family in Buga, poor and big, but not with as many difficult situations as the one before. The work in this parish was a blessing for my personal faith and for me. It was a parish blessed in a special way by the Lord. Seven communities in the Neocathecumenal Way, amidst poverty, was an opportunity to see evangelization work in its entire splendor. Community living in the Word of God, splendid liturgy and a concrete compromise of solidarity were the eloquent signs of this community. God encouraged me in my faith greatly through my pastoral experience at Sacred Family. 

19. From the moment of my sabbatical in Miami in 2003, I had decided that I wanted to continue my studies. Years had already passed without returning to the University and every time I would talk to the Bishop; his answer was always the same: “We need you now, maybe later”. I started the 2006 time of Lent near the ocean in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, where I had gone to visit a Colombian priest whom I had mentored. During that time he was setting up his first parish. I shared with him my wish of continuing my studies, something which urgently required mastery of the English language. My friend told my story over the phone to Father James Tucker, ss, and Father Lawrence Christian in San Antonio, Texas, and a few days later I was invited to live there.

20. I reached San Antonio on Easter Monday of that same year, and after two interviews, I was surprised by an invitation to become part of their faculty, as well as by learning they would be willing to provide English education for me for two years. This proposal changed my initial project to first study English and then continuing my studies, and it was also a proposal that my Bishop denied at first. However, after some time he approved my plans, but only for one year. At that time, April was ending and I completed the required documentation. On June 13th I received my first religious visa to come to the United States. I traveled on July 1st with plans to stay a month in Miami and then travel to San Antonio on August 1st.

What I thought was only going to be a year turned out to be longer; I just recently finished my fourth year. I reached San Antonio without knowing English and linked myself with MACC, which at that moment was the Mexican American Cultural Center. While I studied I was also part of the faculty. They asked me to be Liturgy Director from the moment of my arrival and I collaborated with spiritual direction. A semester later, they assigned me my first seven advisees and four spiritual directees. From 2006 on, aside from the Liturgical Direction that I have fulfilled for four years at Assumption Seminary, they asked me to teach the “introduction to Liturgical Celebration and Practice” class, and it is because of this that I became an adjunct faculty at the Oblate School of Theology. I have also had an average of 14 advisees and seven spiritual directees. My dream to come to San Antonio was to continue studying. In prayer and spiritual insight I started to reflect on a variety of things: my personal wish to study, to which I was dedicating time to English; a personal feeling of happiness and interior peace in the ministry of the formation of priests in a difficult and challenging context; the need for priestly educators in the American church with a growing population of seminarians; urgent needs and great challenges. Two months after getting to San Antonio, the opportunity presented itself for me to be able to study a doctorate program in Rome while living in San Antonio, which would allow me to continue serving the Church that supported me in San Antonio, and at the same time advance my studies. This has been the situation since November of 2006. I developed my doctorate program in the Pontifical University “Regina Apostolorum” and at the same time helped Assumption Seminary as a Director of Liturgy, as a member of the Faculty and as Instructor in the Mexican American Catholic College. I have also taught “Fundamental Christology” and “Introduction to History of Catholic Theology” at OST and “Introduction to Sacramental Theology” and “Introduction to Dogmatic Theology” and “Faith and Culture” this coming semester, Fall 2010, at MACC. I am co-founder and faculty member of “www.convergingroads.com”, a special program to educate people in the fields of Bioethics, Health care issues and Magisterium of the Church. I also help as instructor at the Biblical and Catechetical Program and at the Diaconate Program of the Archdiocese of San Antonio and, since last October, was appointed Spiritual Director of the Catholic Medical Association in San Antonio, which is in the beginning of its formation. Assumption Seminary has been a source of many blessings in my life and my ministry. Amidst many difficult challenges, such as a new language and a new culture, I have experienced the greatness of God’s love in a special way. Assumption Seminary faculty, staff and community have been a very great gift from God to my life and to enhance my ministry as a pastor and educator.