The entire town of Río Branco, Acre vibrates in the celebrations organized by the twenty-five years of pastoral service of Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández, ordained bishop for the same Diocese of which he continues to be its pastor.
Bishop Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández was born on September 22, 1952, in Monachil, Granada, Spain, and entered the Order of Augustinian Recollects on August 11, 1974, with his simple profession in Monteagudo (Navarra, Spain).
In 1979, Pertíñez was ordained a priest and began to exercise his ministry as a formator at the San José de Lodosa seminary (Navarra, Spain) until 1988. He then left as a volunteer for the Lábrea mission, where he remained until 1998. He was sent as a provincial delegate to Costa Rica and resided in the Pozos de Santa Ana, San José.
While stationed in Costa Rica, in February 1999, he was appointed bishop of Rio Branco, Acre state in Brazil, where he was ordained on May 30. They have fulfilled the requirements for So, 25 years since that event. Sufficient time to make an evaluation that your presbytery considers very positive, and that is why it wanted to highlight this date with an act public of thanks.
The presbytery began the logistics and preparations months before, behind the back of the honored. The program was launched the day before a cultural event on May 31 and the Jubilee mass on June 1. Because the exact day, May 30, was the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, those days were marked immediately.
At six in the afternoon on May 31, in the gymnasium of the Inmaculada Conception Institute, the authorities, guests, friends, and faithful gathered for the cultural event, which consisted of a series of tributes and a tour of the 25 years of the bishopric of Dom Joaquín. A review of his cultural activity throughout his twenty-two years of written books, in which he addresses all topics: social, cultural, religious, world of work, health, ecology, and even Christology. There were interventions by representatives of the various sectors and, as a final touch, the online congratulations from his family from Spain.
Representing the Augustinian-Recollect Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, to which the bishop belongs, there was Father Juan Cruz Vicario Corral, delegate of the same Province in Brazil and companion of Joaquín in the San José de Lodosa seminary and the Prelature of Lábrea (Amazonas, Brazil).
On Saturday the 1st, the prior general of the Order, Miguel Ángel Hernández, arrived, accompanied by the general councilor Ismael Xuruc, the bishops of Lábrea dom Jesús Moraza, emeritus, and Santiago Sánchez, titular; the bishop of Cruzeiro do Sul Dom Flávio Giovernale; many priests, deacons and other guests.
In the morning, Don Joaquín showed the prior general and other companions the “treasures” of his Diocese: the seminary, the Santa Juliana hospital, his ecclesiastical faculty, the cathedral, the center of Hansenians… to reach the climax: the five o’clock mass in the same place where the cultural event had taken place the day before.
Before the mass, the liturgical animation team motivated, encouraged, and spread joy and spirituality of what would happen. A long line of altar boys, seminarians, lectors, deacons, priests, bishops, and Dom Joaquín himself entered in procession before the clamor of the people.
After the penitential act, the different pastorals, movements, and services with their banners and symbols. Dom Joaquín’s homily was a document of a memorable part of these 25 years with its challenges, joys, hopes, and desires still to be achieved.
The very Amazonian offertory is significant. After communion, the tributes, highlighting that of the clergy (almost all ordained by Dom Joaquín), both priests like deacons, who made a ring of hugs around his person, like the seminarians. Other tributes were from the bishops, from the Order from the episcopal vicar, in addition to musicals, presentation of a commemorative plaque, flowers… and delivery of the congratulations of Pope Francis that was read and received with big applause.
Visibly moved, Dom Joaquín Pertíñez expressed gratitude for everyone. He posed happily in an endless photo session and closed the day with dinner with all the clergy in the San Sebastián parish, the site chosen for the receptions.
The Order of Augustinian Recollects is proud, where one of his sons has been working for twenty-five years “where the Church needs us.” Congratulations, Joaquín.
