✝ LUIS EMILIO OBANDO YEPES SDS
RIP: 08/07/2025 - Envigado, Antioquia, CO
He was 80 years old and had been professed for 60 years.
Father Luis Emilio Obando Yepes was born in Medellín on May 24, 1945, one of six children. After his primary school studies, he attended high school at the Divine Savior Seminary in La Estrella-Antioquia (1957-1963).
He entered the Salvatorian novitiate in Bogotá on January 24, 1964, and professed his first vows in Bogotá on January 25, 1965, where he took the religious name Frater Ricardo. After three years of professed vows, he withdrew for two years, and upon his return he went to Cali and from there to Bogotá to continue his studies in philosophy at the Pontifical University Javeriana (1970-1972).
He professed perpetual vows on January 25, 1973, in Medellín. In February 1973, he enrolled at the Pontifical University Bolivariana of Medellín, faculty of theology, and there he concluded his formation for the priesthood. He received the diaconate in La Estrella, on March 19, 1974, and the priesthood, also in La Estrella, on June 29, 1975.
Several times he taught religion in different schools, sometimes with twelve classes a week. He was also a professor at the Divine Savior Seminary in La Estrella, where he taught religion in the first year of high school. In 1978 he was appointed member of the provincial council. In 1981 and 1983 he was again re-elected as a councilor.
He did a specialization at the Catechetical Pastoral Institute of Lumen Vitae in Brussels, Belgium, from 1987 to 1989. His thesis was entitled: “The commitment and action of the priest today in Colombia”. In 1996 he was elected provincial superior.
He served in the Divine Savior Seminary of La Estrella in charge of interns, rector of scholastics in Bogotá, novice master in La Estrella, vicar provincial, pastor in the Parish Queen of the Apostles of Niquía-Bello, collaborator in the novitiate of Manizales, rector in the Divine Savior College of La Estrella, vicar and pastor in the Parish of Santa Cruz de Manga de Cartagena, provincial superior and pastor in the Parish of San Pedro de Cumbayá, Ecuador. On June 18, 2013, the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference proposed him to the provincial government as responsible for the pastoral area of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.
In February 2018 he was appointed pastor to be part of the new Salvatorian foundation in Chiquintad, Ecuador, in the San Marcial Parish (near Cuenca). He was there for a short time because the cold weather was affecting his health. It is at this time when he asked for a time away from the community, to live an experience in the Archdiocese of Quito. In July 2021, he decided to return to the community, joining the San Sebastián de Pifo Parish as a vicar. In May 2024, he was transferred to the Maurino Rast SDS community of La Estrella-Antioquia, where he celebrated his 80th birthday on May 24, 2025.
Due to his health condition, he could not celebrate his golden jubilee of priesthood on June 29, 2025, because he was hospitalized. On July 8, in the afternoon, he rested in the peace of the Lord. His funeral was held on July 9, in the chapel of the Colegio Divino Salvador de La Estrella-Antioquia. He was 80 years old, with 60 years of religious profession and 50 years of presbyterate.
