A Spaniard from the Basque Country, little Juan Carlos was born in 1952 in Bilbao, and was later baptised in Barakaldo. Brought up in the faith by his mother, a very religious woman, he met the Salesians during high school, then entered the Salesian novitiate in Urnieta, and continued with the traditional religious formation until perpetual profession, in 1975, and priestly ordination, in 1978.
Already during his studies of Philosophy and Theology he began to sense a missionary vocation, expressing this to his superiors. So in 1997 he was sent to Africa, to Benin, on a very small mission where he found many difficulties due to the local language. "For me it was very complicated to celebrate Mass, especially preaching, and it always ended up with someone needing to do the translation", Fr. Ingunza recalls today.
However, his apostolate, together with that of his mission companions, must have been equally effective, if it is true that within five years the then Province of West Francophone Africa (AFO) had started five presences in the same region.
By virtue of this fruitful experience, he was destined to open a new parish in Cotonou, the Capital of Benin, and then he would have to work on the formation of a local novitiate. But the outbreak of clashes in the country prevented this project and Fr Ingunza – who in the meantime had returned to Spain to train for that position – was then assigned to Porto Novo, where he served as Rector and Parish Priest, and then to Togo and Ivory Coast, the latter a country "where I was again ‘persecuted’ by clashes and war" he says.
However, his pilgrimage to the countries in the region had not yet ended: Fr Ingunza still served in Mali and then in Burkina Faso, a very special experience: "I worked in a parish founded by people from Burkina Faso, where people complained and said they were fed up with European priests and wanted African priests" he adds.
Perhaps this is why Fr Ingunza, after thirty years spent on missions in West Africa, felt the need to ask for some time for recovery, "It was 2016 and I asked the then Provincial of St James the Greater Province in Spain, Fr Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy, to be able to return to Spain," he admits.
Even at home, he found a way to make his missionary experience bear fruit, putting himself at the service of immigrants from Africa. "But after a short time I felt the missionary ardour reborn. So, it was 2019, and I wrote to the Rector Major asking to go on mission again. And he sent me to Brazil, in the Campo Grande Province, to work with the Xavantes".
Fr Ingunza's 'third life' then began, catapulted to Brazil without ever having studied Portuguese. "Providentially, once there I was able to attend at least a short course of a month to learn how to communicate and then I immediately went on mission." He is stationed there still today, in a historical and significant work for all the Salesian missions in Sangradouro, where the Salesians began in 1957 to take care of the elderly and hungry locals who presented themselves to him.
At the end of his sharing, Fr Ingunza wanted to offer some small "pearls" collected during his missionary life: "Taking care of your spiritual life is fundamental for a missionary. It is often difficult to find personal time for prayer, but this is the basis of perseverance in mission”.
And again: "Wherever a missionary arrives, he must remember that there were other missionaries who worked there before him, making motivated and committed choices: we must respect and try to give continuity to what has been done. So, first of all my advice is to listen to the past before you start working. Because the first inculturation takes place within the community."
