Viatorians have been in Tunja just four years — since taking over a school started by another religious community — but their reputation for providing a quality education is growing, and so is the stature of their members.
Fr. Pedro Herrera, Br. Juan Carlos Ubaque, Fr. Fredy Contreras and Bishop Luis Augusto Castro during a confirmation ceremony in 2017.
In a farewell letter, published over the weekend in the local Catholic newspaper, Puente Boyacense, Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro credited the Viatorians with raising the level of education in the Archdiocese of Tunja and setting a standard for others.
“We have received with joy, in recent times, a very educational community, with great pedagogical experience and with a spirituality that wants to follow Christ in a determined way,” he wrote. “I refer to the Clerics of St. Viator who, with great pedagogical competence, gave life to Colegio San Viator, of high quality and characterized by an integral and international education. It is established in Tunja.”
Fr. Fredy Contreras, foreground, during 2017 confirmation procession.
For the past two years, Fr. Fredy Contreras, CSV, has served on Archbishop Castro’s team, as Vicar of Religious Life, whom he described in the letter as “a very important task to generate proper communion among all communities.”
It has been Fr. Contreras’ responsibility to serve as the liason between leaders of the nearly 30 religious communities in the Archdiocese, and with the Vicar, or the assistant to the Archbishop.
Next month, Bishop Gabriel Villa, from the diocese of Ocaña, will become the next Archbishop of Tunja and Viatorians look forward to working with him closely. In the meantime, Colegio San Viator opened this month in Tunja for its fourth year, with more than 650 students and 100 faculty and staff members.