Three New Basilian Candidates in Cali, Colombia

The Basilian community recently welcomed three young men as candidates. Jhoan Esteban Rojas Parra, Yeison Eduardo Salasar, and Juan Andres Vasquez Gutierrez informally joined the Basilian community in Cali, Colombia on January 30. For about six months they will help in the local parish and school, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. This allows them the opportunity to come to know the Basilian Way of Life in preparation to continue in their formation journeys as postulants.

These young men came to know the Congregation in a variety of ways. Jhoan heard about the community through a friend of his mother who cooks and is the housekeeper in the Basilian house in Bogotá. Jheison came to know the Basilians through his friendship with Luis Suárez, CSB, a Basilian scholastic who is from the same small town as Luis. Juan Andrés learned of the Congregation through a religious sister who lived and worked in the Basilian parish in Medellín. In each case, they are contacted by Father Oscar Gómez, CSB, the vocation director in Colombia, and attend a series of meetings and are visited in their home before they arrive in Cali as candidates.