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At the beginning of the funeral Mass of our brother Alfonso Andueza Artázcoz, who died in the peace of the Lord at the convent of capuchins in Mexico City on the afternoon of Sunday, November 18, 2018
In this funeral Mass of our brother Alfonso, here, before his recumbent body, we want to make a simple evocation of his life to share our prayer with more feeling. It is not an inopportune panegyric in
this sacred moment, but to evoke before Jesus the memory of a brother, very dear, who leaves us at 92 years of age, on the day of St. Jude Thaddeus, after a residence and service of 26 years in this Mexico,
which he carried in his heart, and in this concrete fraternity of Las Águilas.
He was born in a small village in Navarre, near Pamplona, called Urdánoz in 1926, and as Fr. Alfonso de Urdánoz was recognized in his ministerial years in Spain, although his family kept calling him “Paquito”,
because Francisco was the name of baptism. Son of a family of deep catholic roots, when he was about to turn 11, he entered the seminary.
We are in time of the Spanish war. At age 19 in August 1946 (that is, 72 years ago) he professed religious life as a Capuchin religious, under the Rule of Saint Francis. On the eve of Christmas 1950, at 24 years old, he was ordained a priest.
In this time there was something surprising, for him miraculous. He suffered a severe pulmonary tuberculosis. It was entrusted to Father Esteban de Adoáin, a Capuchin of Navarre who in the 19th century evangelized in various countries of America,
asking for a miracle. And he was cured. It was considered that the event could be presented in Rome, with the opinion of the doctors, but the ecclesiastical court did not accept it. The truth is that the disease did not leave any sequel.
Alfonso radiated enthusiasm and sympathy and well demonstrated it in the thirty years he was in Pamplona, living in the church of S. Antonio, in the center of the capital, of much cult. The first was dedicated teacher and educator of the Choir
of the singing children who embellished the cult, and who at the same time studied Secondary in the halls of the convent. But more than this we want to highlight two aspects of his personal charisma, which define his apostolic profile: the young
and the sick. For almost twenty years he was the chaplain of the San Francisco Clinic, near the convent, with daily mass. In 1975 the Archbishop appointed him diocesan Charge of the Catholic Fraternity of the Sick and Handicapped. It was admirable to
see the redhead P. Alfonso, full of energy, sharing love and joy to the sick, and see him take the wheelchair to the handicapped, organizing their own celebrations. The same is said about the Youth of San Antonio de Pamplona, of which he was a Councilor,
as he was also a Chaplain for several years of the Cycling Union of Navarra. He was the Chaplain of the Lecároz University Residence in Pamplona during the two years that existed. The ex-lectors of Lecároz, who have come to Mexico, have been able to deal
with Fr. Alfonso as with a friend.
He was Guardian of the convent of San Antonio de Pamplona, of the convent of Estella and of the convent of San Antonio de Zaragoza, sign of the prestige and authority that he enjoyed among the brothers. When he was older, in April 1993,
he received obedience to come to this demarcation of Mexico, where the Spanish Capuchins began to take hold in the face of a vocational future. Their destination was Las Águilas, and from the beginning to the end this has been their home.
Who he was and what Father Alfonso did you could see, with much gratitude. Good man of heart, frank for friendship, lover of his family and of his land of origin, with extraordinary gift of people. His campechanía in any way was frivolity.
He was simply a capuchin and a priest. Father Alfonso considered himself a very Capuchin friar and a very priest all his life. At 88 years old, about his ministry, he wrote to a friend of the order: “… at least, I do not act mechanically
in the Sacraments. I put all my interest, as if it were the first time. I do not make it happen, as if it were anything. “We, the Capuchin brothers, Spaniards and Mexicans, will keep an indelible memory of this our elder brother.
Attentive and helpful to everyone who came home. We also believe that the brothers have been wise to behave like brothers, providing all the necessary services in the process of their long illness.
Pious man, lover of the Virgin …, which has been a blessing for this parish of the Immaculate and St. Pius.
Brother Alfonso, rest in the peace of the Lord.
(Note: Text prepared by Fr. Rufino María Grández, in the impossibility of attending this funeral Mass. Guadalajara, November 19, 2018)