“I am a missionary by vocation, but a nurse by profession. My formative journey was about moving from profession to vocation. So I left my work as a nurse and began studying philosophy in Bogotá. Then I completed the Novitiate in Bucaramanga, an extraordinary experience because I learned who the Consolata Missionaries are.”
By Jaime C. Patias *
With these words, Father Danilo José Baballero Cantillo summarizes his educational and vocational journey in the context of his priestly ordination Jubilee (25 years) and in harmony with the Jubilee of Hope. Originally from Pasacaballo, a village in the municipality of Cartagena on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, where the Consolata Missionaries have been working for several years, Father Danilo is currently in Spain, where he is responsible for the Missionary Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese of Málaga.
Father Danilo studied theology in London, England. In 1999 he was ordained a priest in Pasacaballo and sent to Venezuela, where he worked for 10 years, a life of dedication and service. “I worked in a very needy Afro-descendant community (Barlovento), where I truly felt like a missionary among the least, because it was a population abandoned by the entire world,” explains the missionary, who in Venezuela was also involved in formation work before later being transferred to Spain.
“Being responsible for the Mission in the Diocese of Málaga makes me feel one hundred percent a missionary. Because this is the charism we share with Saint Joseph Allamano. In the Institute, we are invited to foster the missionary spirit of the diocese in which we are located. So I feel fully fulfilled. I am working with conviction, with closeness, with prudence, and with discernment.”
For him, the canonization of Saint Joseph Allamano (October 20, 2024) represents a milestone that drives the mission forward. This year, Father Danilo celebrates 25 years of ordination and considers the Founder’s canonization an important moment in his life because “it has given me momentum and reminded me where his sanctification began: among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. This makes me reflect on where I should place myself as a Consolata missionary and what my priorities should be,” he notes.
“I want to celebrate my 25 years of ordination in the light of the sanctification of Saint Joseph Allamano, which gives me great motivation to always be at the side of those most in need, because his sanctification came precisely through the miracle granted in favor of the indigenous Sorino (Yanomami),” explains Father Danilo. He adds that the Founder’s sanctification “is what drives me and makes me feel I am on mission, not to be served but to serve, always seeking out those most in need. And I am experiencing this Jubilee in an incredible way because I have met several fellow priests who are also celebrating their 25th anniversary of ordination,” he affirms, referring to the renewal course held in Rome in May 2025 with the participation of 16 missionaries (15 priests and 1 brother).
All of this reminds him that he is on a journey of ongoing formation and that without the Word of Jesus lived daily, he could not move forward, knowing that the context of mission changes and must be constantly renewed. The course reminded him of two principles of mission: 1. “I cannot live without the Word of God;” 2. This bond with the Word “makes me feel that it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me and sends me forth as a Consolata missionary.”
Among the issues raised by the Jubilee, Father Danilo highlights the challenge of rekindling his “being a missionary” in a European context with so many needs. “During this Jubilee, with the theme of missionaries as witnesses of hope, over the past year a group of nine Spanish young people has been preparing to share hope with the poor of Barú, on Colombia’s coast. We hope that the people of Pasacaballo will feel filled with hope and that this group of young Spaniards will return from this mission experience with greater hope in this Jubilee Year.”
* Father Jaime C. Patias, IMC, Communications Office
