“He was the youngest of 11 brothers and sisters and he lost his parents when he was very, very young,” said Filice. “He was raised by relatives and I think the situation made him very sensitive to the needs of people.” And he had an innate sense of justice, Filice said. “He was a spiritual young priest and well recognized as such by the parishioners.”
Celeste Iacobelli, a parishioner and vice-chair of the finance council at St. Mary Margaret parish, knew Fr. Naranjo since he first came to the parish in 2002.
“He took over the parish at a time when we had some capital renovations and works to do and he directed all of that, always worked with his finance council, always sought advice and always encouraged us,” he said.
Fr. Naranjo had a calm and spiritual presence, said Iacobelli. But what stood out was his commitment to his parish. “He loved this parish and as a young pastor, he saw that as his mission… It was a privilege to have worked with him and we’re going to miss him.”
As spiritual director for the Hispanic Cursillo movement, a Catholic lay organization, Fr. Naranjo was available to its 2,000 members for spiritual direction, said Boscan. He was active in the movement’s retreats, called cursillos, three-day long retreats made up of various spiritual exercises and talks, which take weeks of preparation to run successfully.
Boscan said Fr. Naranjo became “in love” with the movement, keeping it as a priority even during his chemotherapy.
“As spiritual director, he knew how to enhance our strengths and acknowledge our weaknesses and to walk with them in order to create a harmonious environment,” said Elsa Leo, president of the Hispanic Cursillo Movement in the archdiocese of Toronto.
On July 31, Jesuit Father George Hoffman also passed away at Rene Goupil House in Pickering, Ont. He was 87 years old and in his 56th year of priesthood with the Jesuits. Fr. Hoffman was a professor of philosophy and theology at Loyola College in Montreal and Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
Fr. Naranjo ministered to migrant workers
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic RegisterTORONTO - Fr. Jose Maria Naranjo took his mission as an Ardorini Missionary of serving people in rural areas seriously. As chaplain of the seasonal Mexican workers labouring in the Holland Marsh lands north of Toronto, he ran a weekly Mass in Spanish.
“When they were losing their faith or depressed, he was there for them,” said Ricardo Boscan, national president of the Hispanic Cursillo Movement. “And that definitely did a lot for this group of people.”
Fr. Naranjo passed away July 31 after months of battling cancer. Only 42 years old, he was in his 11th year of the priesthood with the Ardorini Missionaries. He was pastor of St. Mary Margaret parish in Woodbridge, Ont., where he had previously served as associate pastor and administrator.
Born in Colombia, he came to Canada in 1994 with the sponsorship of Fr. Eugene Filice, local superior of the Ardorini Missionaries. Fr. Naranjo studied philosophy at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Colombia and theology at the Toronto School of Theology.
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