On Saturday, April 15, Edison René Padilla Jiménez, a Piarist from Ecuador, was ordained a deacon. The ordination was presided over by Msgr. Norberto Strotmann, Bishop of the Diocese of Chosica (diocese in the northeastern part of Lima, to which our works in Peru belong). The ceremony took place in the Cathedral of Huaycán, in the district of Ate in Lima, making it the first ordination of a Piarist in Peru.
Along with Edison, a seminarian of the same diocese was also ordained a deacon, so the ceremony was well attended by lay people and diocesan clergy. Edison was accompanied at his ordination by his mother, by Father Provincial Oswaldo Espinoza, by all the Piarists working in Peru, by some Piarists invited from Colombia and by people from the Piarist works in Lima.
At the end of the liturgical ceremony, a pleasant exchange took place in a parish hall near the Cathedral. It was a beautiful moment for the Calasanctian family emerging in Peru to meet and celebrate this historic moment. The celebration was attended by alumni, students and parents of our schools Fe y Alegria 5 and Fe y Alegria 41 (school where Edison lives his mission), neighbours of Ñaña and San Juan de Lurigancho (the two Piarist presences in Peru), Edison’s mother and a large number of Piarists. At this moment, one can see that the Pious Schools in Peru are already a reality and that they are moving strongly toward their consolidation.
By Fr. Sergio Andrés Suárez, Sch. P.
