RIP: 06/02/2023 - Medellín
Fr. Julio César Castaño García was born and baptized on 17 November 1941 in Granada, Antioquia in Colombia. He did his primary schooling at the Urban School in his home town and from there, on 5 February 1955, he went to the Divine Saviour Seminary in La Estrella-Antioquia to do his baccalaureate. He entered to the novitiate in Bogotá on 1 February 1960 and made his religious profession, one year later on 2 February 1961. After having finished novitiate, he was sent to the Pontifical Javeriana University to do a year of science, followed by three years of philosophy. Once he had finished Philosophy in 1964, he was sent for two years regency to Logroño-Spain at the Hispano-American Seminary. His first two years of Theology, he did in Rome, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but, as in 1968 the international studentate in Rome was closed, he turned back to Colombia to finish the studies at the Pontifical Javeriana University in Bogotá. He was ordained to the priesthood in Granada-Antioquia by the imposition of hands by Bishop Alfonso Uribe Jaramillo on 10 October 1970. During his entire apostolic life, Fr. César was pastorally very active in Colombia and Ecuador. He served in different parishes and apart from training and forming the faithful, Fr. César liked to keep updated on pastoral insights and new developments in the church. He was always a promotor of pastoral commitment and furthered it among the confreres in the Province. Internally, Fr. César served as provincial superior, novice master, and rector of scholastics. In mid-January 2023 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which led the provincial superior to transfer him temporarily to the Casa Maurino Rast in La Estrella- Antioquia, where he could receive the necessary medical care. But time ran out relentlessly, and on 6 February he died at the Clinica Las Americas in Medellín. Fr. César was 81 years old and had been a Salvatorian for 62 years.
