The heart of the missionary who is still alive in “Rescue”

Without letting go of his black briefcase, the Spanish priest Rafael Pascual Salustiano, a Trinitarian missionary, walked through the streets of the human settlement “Rescate”, a mission sector of the Trinitarian order in Lima. This is how María Luisa Montealegre tells it, during the interviews that the Spanish priest Ángel García conducted on his arrival in Peru, to complete a book detailing 50 years of mission on Peruvian soil.

“Never give up!”, “Always go forward!” “Father Rafael used to say to me”, when I visited him in the parish of Santísima Trinidad. “Now my heart remembers him always happy, persistent in his work of bringing children closer to the sacraments”, said Maria Luisa while she treasured in her hands a medal of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, given to her by Father Rafael.

After “Mission to the Rescue”

After the announcement of his cause for beatification in 2021, his remains were transferred from the convent of the Holy Trinity in Barrios Altos to the house of the Trinitarian missionaries in Chacra Rios Norte, Cercado de Lima, on 3 March 2023. “Father Rafael lives in all those who shared his mission”, commented the Trinitarian missionary.

Father Ángel García, the author of the book

It is 20 years that we have lived the mission in Peru together. During the 1990s, they both promoted the construction of the church, the consulting rooms, and the social work. Father Rafael’s desire to assist the sick and the most vulnerable is the foundation of the charism that he reaffirmed with his spiritual leadership in the mission.

With the new challenge of preparing a book that brings together his memories and the souls of all those who shared his mission with him, Father Angel conducted interviews with those who knew him.

The road to the altars

After receiving a visit from the provincial, Father Javier Carnerero, postulator of the cause, Father Ángel was asked to compile in a book everything he had experienced since Father Rafael’s arrival in Lima. With the publication of the book, which already has 100 written pages, it will be possible to gather more information about miracles attributed to the priest who still lives in “Rescate”.

The Trinitarian missionary, born on December 3, 1918, left the community of Santiago de Chile, in his native Spain, to assist the most vulnerable as part of his mission.