On October 21, Father Pedro de San José (Rafael Zubieta) celebrated his 75th anniversary of religious profession. It was on October 21, 1946, in the monastery of Larrea (Spain), that the young Pedro consecrated himself to the Lord, with the desire to follow Jesus by making religious vows in the Discalced Carmel.
He trained in Vitoria, Bilbao and Rome, and was ordained a priest in 1954. His long religious life can be summarized very simply: from 1956 to 1991 in Rome and from 1992 in Peru. In Rome, he worked first as a professor and then for almost 25 years as Secretary General, in the period of the post-conciliar revision of the Constitutions of our Order, in which he actively participated. In Peru, he worked mainly in the Pando and Cercado Training House, both of them in Lima. Here he feels at home and, as he himself says, it was precisely here that he learned to be a priest ─ during many years of administrative work, he had almost never exercised a pastoral ministry.
Let us join in the thanksgiving for the gift of religious life to Fr. Pedro, who with his simplicity, cordiality and tireless work, encourages us all to follow Jesus.
