The Missionary Society of Christ the King has confirmed the death of Fr. Antonio Turú Rofes, mCR, its Superior General. The news, communicated by the Fathers, Sisters and Brothers of the Congregation, is accompanied by a fraternal request for prayers and suffrages for his soul. In the coming hours, the place and time of the lying in state and of the funeral Mass will be announced.
A priest of the old school has passed: one of those who understood ministry as an unconditional and unreserved self-giving, and who made fidelity to the Church and love for the Virgin Mary the silent path of an entire life.
Forty-two years of priesthood
Ordained a priest in 1980 by Bishop José Guerra Campos, then Bishop of Cuenca—one of the most distinguished episcopal figures—the Fr. Turú carried out his ministry for six years in the villages of the diocese of Cuenca. They were years of rural parish work, catechesis and pastoral closeness, in a Spain still marked by the ecclesial transition.
In 1986 he received a new assignment that would become definitive: the Immaculate Heart of Mary School, in Sentmenat (Barcelona), mother house of the Missionary Society of Christ the King and the place where the remains of its founder, Fr. José María Alba Cereceda, SJ, rest. There, in the shadow of the founding charism, most of his priestly life unfolded, and from there, already as Superior General, he guided the Congregation’s destiny.
A spirituality without rhetoric
Fr. Turú himself had written, upon completing forty-two years of priesthood, that he “would not change any of them,” because in each one he had been able to learn something that brought him closer to the Lord, made him long for eternal life and rekindle his self-giving. A simple confession, without rhetoric, that says more about a priest than many official biographies.
The Lord and the Blessed Virgin, he said, were his two pillars: in them he found refuge, security and consolation, and from them he drew the strength to persevere—his own words—“in the struggle to be holy.” Such language is seldom heard in the Church today, and it is worth listening to precisely now.
The Missionary Society of Christ the King
Founded by the Jesuit Fr. José María Alba Cereceda, the Missionary Society of Christ the King belongs to that network of congregations of Hispanic origin which, without great media spotlight, have for decades sustained Catholic education, parish life and the ad gentes mission.
Funeral rites
The Missionary Society will announce in the coming hours the place and time when the lying in state will be set up, as well as the day and hour of the funeral Mass. His brothers and sisters in consecrated life ask readers to offer prayers and suffrages to God for the soul of Fr. Turú.
May he rest in peace.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.