Bishop Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar

Bishop Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar, a Redemptorist Missionary, was born in the municipality of Genova, in the Diocese of Armenia, on 4 March 1958. He completed primary studies in his native town, then entered the minor seminary of the Redemptorist Fathers, San Clemente Maria Hofbauer, in Manizales, where he completed secondary school. After the novitiate in Piedecuesta, Santander, he made religious profession on 14 January 1979. He studied philosophy at the Pastoral Center of Philosophy in Bogota and theology at the Redemptorist interprovincial theologate in Tlalpizahuac, Mexico, and at the Pontifical Javeriana University in Bogota. He made perpetual vows in the congregation on 5 August 1984 and was ordained a priest in Buga on 29 June 1985. After his priestly ordination, he continued studies at Santo Tomas University in Bogota, where he obtained a licentiate in Educational Sciences, and at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology. He was an itinerant missionary in Manizales in 1985-1986; parochial vicar of San Alfonso and formator in the house of theologians in Bogota in 1986; director and professor of the Redemptorist minor seminary in Manizales in 1987-1989; director of the minor seminary of the Apostolic Vicariate of Sibundoy in 1990; rector of the Redemptorist seminary-college in Manizales in 1991-1995; and superior of the theologate in Bogota in 1999-2001. From 1993 to 1995 he was extraordinary provincial councilor, and from 1999 to 2001 he served as ordinary provincial councilor and president of the secretariat for formation. On two occasions he held the office of provincial of the Redemptorists in 2002-2008. On 3 September 2008 he was appointed pro-vicar of Puerto Carreno. On 10 June 2010, His Holiness Benedict XVI appointed him apostolic vicar of Puerto Carreno, assigning him the titular see of Zarna. He received episcopal ordination on 30 July 2010 in the Basilica of the Lord of Miracles in Buga, from the hands of the apostolic nuncio Aldo Cavalli. He took possession of the assigned see on 22 August 2010. From 25 March 2015 to 16 June 2016, he served as apostolic administrator of the Vicariate of Puerto Gaitan until the arrival of its titular, Bishop Raul Alfonso Carrillo Martinez. On 22 April 2020, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of the Diocese of Riohacha. He took possession of the see on 4 June 2020. In the rugged mountains of southern Quindio, in 1.903, Don Segundo Henao founded Genova, recalling the homeland of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America. Its beautiful church, with its two towers and its dome looking toward heaven, speaks to us of a tenacious and religious people, lovers of Mary, rising among the mountains as Our Lady of Peace of Genova. It is fertile land of sawyers, muleteers, and farmers, washed from south to north by the Gris, San Juan, and Rio Rojo rivers. His ancestors arrived there from cultured Salamina and from Pacora, Caldas, by different roads and at different times. In Genova, on 4 March 1958, Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar was born in the home formed by Julio Ceballos Martinez and Rosalbina Escobar Arango. He is the fifth of thirteen children, seven women and six men, of whom three went to the Father's house in childhood. He was brought to the waters of baptism at eight days old and was anointed with the chrism of witnesses to the faith before he had reached four years of age, during one of the pastoral visits made by the newly appointed bishop of Armenia, Bishop Jesus Martinez Vargas. Having reached eight years of age, when, according to the period, he had acquired the use of reason, he received the sacrament of the Eucharist, which, in the end, meant for him the spiritual nourishment that allowed him to adhere more closely to Christ and care for the seed of vocation that was beginning to appear. The Lord called him from childhood. With his little brother Carlos Alberto, after the 6.00 a.m. Mass, they would repeat the celebration on the old table at home, with a stained tablecloth, a sheet, an enamel cup, a little chocolate, and an arepa; he repeated the Eucharistic gesture of the priest, and why not, that of Christ at the Last Supper. His childhood passed in Genova, amid games, study, household work, and great closeness to the Church, where he found excellent priests and religious women who, by their example, guided him and nourished the idea of becoming a priest. Like the young Samuel, he responded generously to God's call: Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Here I am, Lord, to do your will. From his father he learned to read and love the Word of God, and from his mother the love of study, since through poems and songs she encouraged him toward school and books. Like any adolescent, he also fell in love. Adolescent love. Pure and respectful, as in that time. Nourished by the beautiful words of songs, which, more than a repetition of words and sounds, were true poems for highlighting love. At the age of 16 he traveled to the city of Armenia, trying to seek better study opportunities, as his parents hoped. In Armenia he frequented Sacred Heart parish, where Father Gil, his former mentor, officiated. He enrolled at Alejandro Suarez school and, to help with the maintenance of the household, worked in Don Roberto's bindery, Don Roberto being an old friend of the family. After finishing the ninth grade in the city of Armenia, invited by Father Manuel Guerrero, he traveled to the minor seminary of the Redemptorist Fathers in Manizales, where he obtained his bachelor's degree. The graduation speech he addressed to those present on behalf of his fellow graduates became famous. Citing the great Brazilian psychopedagogue Paulo Freire, he invited those present to take the step from a banking education, as was being given at the time, to a liberating education, as new trends in the field of education suggested. Convinced of his option in following Christ in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, he made the novitiate in the city of Piedecuesta, Santander. The novice master wrote of him in the final report sent to the provincial council for acceptance to religious vows: young man who awakens good hopes... he has a determined will and great rectitude. The effort he has already made gives hope that in this plan he can become an excellent religious and a zealous priest. He has very good aptitude for pastoral work, especially with young people... He professed as a Redemptorist religious on 14 January 1979. He studied philosophy at the Center of Philosophy and Pastoral Ministry, an institution founded by the Redemptorist Missionaries and Missionaries of the Consolata. After finishing his philosophical preparation, alternating it with many experiences of popular missions, he was sent to Mexico City, where he studied theology; he had to interrupt those studies because of the death of his father, but without losing time he enrolled at Javeriana University in Bogota. On 4 August 1984, before the Father General of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, in the Basilica of the Lord of Miracles of Buga, he pronounced his perpetual vows. On 13 October of the same year he received diaconal ordination from Bishop Arcadio Bernal Supelano. He received priestly ordination on 29 June 1985, in the Basilica of the Lord of Miracles, from Bishop Rodrigo Arango Velasquez, bishop of the city of Buga. Bishop Francisco's pastoral life in the congregation was varied and fruitful. Newly ordained a priest, he was an itinerant missionary along the roads and paths of Caldas. A year later he was enlisted in the formation of future Redemptorist priests, as associate of the theologate, later director of the minor seminary of Manizales, professor, and chaplain. In 1990 he worked in the Apostolic Vicariate of Sibundoy as director of the seminary and rector of the seminary-college. The following year he was transferred to the city of Manizales, where he assumed the rectorship of Colegio-Seminario San Clemente Maria Hofhabuer for five years. His time at the Shrine of the Lord of Miracles of Buga was brief, for he was sent to the city of Rome, where he obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology at the Alphonsian Academy and an advanced course in Bioethics at the Catholic University of the Sacro Cuore. He also knew how to alternate in the animation of the province as extraordinary and ordinary councilor, vicar of the provincial, and provincial superior of the Redemptorist missionaries of the Province of Bogota for two consecutive three-year terms. At the end of his service in Colombia, he was called by the superior general of the Redemptorists to be one of the three moderators of the General Chapter, exercising this function first from Boston, Massachusetts, and then from Manhattan, the Big Apple, where he alternated it with studies of the English language. In September 2008, without fulfilling the objective for which he had traveled to the United States, he was called to govern the spiritual destinies of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Carreno, first as apostolic administrator and later as bishop, an ordination he received in the Basilica of the Lord of Miracles of Buga from the apostolic nuncio Aldo Cavalli on 30 July 2010. Bishop Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar says that he does not belong to any priestly or episcopal caste, nor to a Levitical family; nevertheless, in his family trunk of the Escobar, Arango, Isaza, and Gomez families are found several priests and bishops who have served the Church with glory, among them Bishop Augusto Trujillo Arango, archbishop of Tunja; Bishop Ruben Isaza Restrepo, archbishop of Cartagena; Bishop Hector Jaramillo Duque, bishop of Sincelejo; Bishop Jorge Garcia Isaza, bishop of Tierradentro; Bishop German Garcia Isaza, bishop of Apartado; Bishop Rodrigo Escobar Aristizabal, bishop of Girardot; and Bishop Luis Horacio Gomez Gonzales, bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Gaitan. Having received episcopal ordination, he took possession on 22 August 2010 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Carmen of Puerto Carreno, where he continued the work he had brought as pro-vicar, now in his own right. During the twelve years of presence in Puerto Carreno he was concerned with the extraordinary proclamation of the Gospel through popular missions, proper to the charism of his congregation. With the help of his priests he built chapels and churches and acquired land thinking of the future of the Church of Carreno. The Indigenous world occupied an important place in his ministry. He responded promptly to natural emergencies, to the migratory phenomenon, and to Covid-19; for this he strengthened social pastoral ministry and sought financial assistance to attend to those most in need. The poor were always at the center of his episcopal ministry. Wanting to attend to young people, he created the student parish, supported concerts, meetings, gatherings, etc. He used the media to spread the word of God and to empower in society the pastoral and social work of the vicariate. During his episcopal ministry he has ordained ten priests for the vicariate and a dozen for the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in Colombia, Venezuela, and Central America. On the past 22 April 2020, the Holy Father Francis called him to be the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Riohacha, which he accepted with obedient readiness, honoring the programmatic words printed in his heart and on his episcopal coat of arms: Here I am, Lord, to do your will. He took possession as fifth bishop of the Diocese of Riohacha on 4 June 2020.