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 wake and the funeral Mass will be announced.
A priest of the old school has passed: one 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 towns 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 desire 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 is part of that network of congregations of Hispanic origin that, without great media attention, have sustained Catholic education, parish life and the ad gentes mission for decades.
Funeral Rites
Wake and Holy Mass for the eternal rest of Father Antonio Turú, mCR
On Sunday, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the wake and the Holy Mass for the eternal rest of Father Antonio Turú, mCR, will be held in the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Sentmenat.
Wake: from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., continuously.
Mass and burial: at 8:00 p.m.
May he rest in peace.
Grant them, O Lord, eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them.