A Mission Rooted in History
The Bethlehem Mission Society arrived in Colombia in November 1953, in response to a call from the Archdiocese of Popayán. The first missionaries settled in remote villages of the Andes, where the Catholic faith was alive but often mingled with superstition, the churches and presbyteries were in disrepair, and poverty was everywhere.
From the beginning, the Bethlehem missionaries refused to limit their ministry to the sacraments alone. In close partnership with local communities, they engaged in every dimension of daily life: accompaniment of the indigenous peoples, construction of roads and bridges, building of clean water networks, restoration of ecclesial buildings, and animation of community life.
The ecclesial currents of the 1960s — the Second Vatican Council, the encyclical Populorum Progressio and the Conference of Medellín — opened a new pastoral horizon. The missionaries reoriented their engagement toward integral evangelization, the formation of lay leaders, the responsibility of local communities, the struggle for justice and the integral liberation of the human person. A "mobile" team carried out a systematic work of formation across the archdiocese.
This patient work, continued over decades, has left lasting marks across many regions of the country. The parish of La Medalla Milagrosa, close to the Regional House, was built thanks to the Bethlehem missionaries — and its first parish priest was himself an SMB confrere.
The Regional House Today
Today, three SMB confreres are based at the Regional House of Popayán.
Father Josef Schönenberger, known affectionately by the local Church as Chepe, serves as confessor of the Cathedral — a ministry of welcome and accompaniment that he carries out with great delicacy. Father Ernstpeter Heiniger (Aepe) has recently taken over the legal representation of the Society in Colombia and continues to offer his pastoral and academic service to the archdiocesan seminary.
A new presence has joined them: Br. Jackson Mutua, a confrere SMB of African origin, who arrived in September 2025. After an intensive Spanish course in Medellín alongside seminarians of the Yarumal Mission, he will begin pastoral practice in the archdiocese — the first concrete sign of the Society's internationalisation reaching Colombia.
We still need you
During his visit to Popayán in January 2026, the Superior General met Archbishop Omar Alberto Sánchez Cubillos OP to discuss the future of the Bethlehem presence in the archdiocese. The Archbishop's words speak for themselves:
A charism is a gift of God given as an answer to a concrete need. The decisive question is not whether we must close, but whether we are still needed. The answer is clearly yes. The missionary presence is still urgently necessary in our archdiocese. This year alone, three parishes have no resident priest.
The Archbishop also expressed his explicit openness to the international renewal of the Society:
The presence of new SMB members from Africa would be more than welcome. Their presence will be a great enrichment for us — especially for the pastoral accompaniment of our Afro-Colombian communities.
In Dialogue with the Yarumal Mission
The Bethlehem presence in Colombia unfolds in fraternal dialogue with the Yarumal Mission Society, a Colombian society of apostolic life founded a century ago and very close to the SMB in spirit and formation path. Most of its young members today come from Kenya, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. The Yarumal Mission will celebrate its centenary on 3 July 2027.
