Fr. Pedro Sánchez Acosta, TOR, aged 78, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Vice-Province of Santa María de Guadalupe, Mexico, was visited by Sister Death on Sunday, February 2, 2025, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Day of Consecrated Life.
The son of Pedro and Catalina, he was born on June 2, 1946, in Inca, a town on the island of Mallorca, Spain. At the age of 11, he entered the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Assisi, where he made his solemn profession on October 4, 1972, at the Porciúncula, Mallorca, Spain. He pursued his theological studies at the Franciscan TOR Seminary in Palma de Mallorca and, at the age of 26, received the sacred order of priesthood from His Excellency Bishop Francisco Planas on December 7, 1972, the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
On May 13, 1973, he was sent to Mexico City, where he served as vicar at the Parish of Divine Providence in Colonia Moctezuma until 1979, when he requested to have a missionary experience in Huamachuco, Peru. From 1980 to 1983, he was vicar of St. Pius X Parish, Colonia Moctezuma; from 1983 to 1993, again vicar at the Parish of Divine Providence, Colonia Moctezuma; and from 1993 until the time of his death, he served as vicar at the Parish of the Holy Kings in Colonia Peñón de los Baños. In this parish he carried out several social and charitable apostolates.
In 2017, he published a book entitled To Heal, to Liberate, and to Exorcise: 20 Years of Experience, edited by the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (BAC), in which Father Pedro shared the following: “In 1993, I met María Teresa Ochoa while assisting a very sick and destitute Canadian religious, Sister Cecilia. In August 1994, together with María Teresa, Jesus led me to begin a prayer group. She fasted and prayed three hours daily before Jesus in the Eucharist, and we confirmed that Jesus was sending us to heal the sick through this new group. Soon more than two hundred people came to pray with us; we chose thirty among them to train as healing assistants. Surprised by how quickly Jesus sent so many people (in a couple of months we surpassed three hundred attendees), we set out to evangelize and to heal.We learned that we should pray for long periods in front of Jesus in the Eucharist. While the group of assistants taught people why and how to go to confession, I spent nearly eight hours every day hearing confessions, celebrating Mass, praying the Holy Rosary, and adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
In November 1996, the Lord Jesus told us: ‘If you want more miracles, you must feed and clothe the beggars. You must perform works of mercy, works of reparation, as many as you can.’ And we began by feeding about fifty people.Now, after twenty-two uninterrupted years, we not only feed the hungry but also help to clothe many people. We provide them with medical attention, hygiene, and haircuts; we give them eyeglasses, canes, crutches, and we wash the feet of the sick. We pay for schooling, housing rent, and surgical procedures; we help them to die well and with dignity, we evangelize them, administer the sacraments, listen to them, and accompany them. Thus, on the Fridays of Mercy, we serve more than a thousand people in the Chapel of St. Philip of Jesus: 70% of them live on the streets, and the remaining 30% are very poor elderly persons.
In 2001, Jesus entrusted me with the office of exorcist priest through the hands of our beloved Cardinal Don Norberto Rivera Carrera, at the request of Don Felipe Tejeda García, M.Sp.S., our auxiliary bishop, and He granted María Teresa Ochoa the title of assistant exorcist. In 2004, we participated in the First National Congress of Exorcists in Mexico City, organized by our diocesan coordinator of exorcists, Rev. Pedro Mendoza Pantoja. As members of his council, we gave our first conference alongside Fr. Giancarlo Gramolazzo, the president of the International Association of Exorcists. On August 15, 2011, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico, granted us a decree formally establishing the apostolic group: La Casa de María Inmaculada, Hospitalidad de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes–Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, whose essential mission was the Works of Mercy.
In December 2016, we began another work of mercy around the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City: setting up a dining hall for homeless people, where we served about five hundred individuals each time. For fifteen years, we have also served as chaplains at the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, where once a year, for one week, we rendered service.
Jesus has been guiding us for over twenty-two years in this ministry, throughout which we have always regarded ourselves as apprentices. Each month, approximately four hundred new people come to the prayer group seeking help with a problem—sometimes accompanied by a priest or bishop—that is perceived as supernatural or openly diabolical in nature. They then undergo a process of healing, deliverance, and conversion, which typically culminates in a union with God that brings them true peace. Moved by this experience, they desire to participate actively in the life of the Church. We then guide them back to their parishes so that, through commitment, they may live out their renewed faith—studying in pastoral schools, serving as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, encouraging their pastors to initiate new works of mercy, or joining existing ones.
Over these twenty-two years, we have traveled throughout many regions of Mexico, the United States, Spain, France, Poland, and Italy, giving retreats and teaching through radio and television about what we consider our charism: to heal, to liberate, and to exorcise. We have attended people of every social condition, academic background, and even of other Christian denominations, other religions, or none. We have collaborated with physicians and specialists in neurology, psychiatry, and psychology, and we have witnessed the immense love that God has for His creatures and His Church — through which His infinite charity flows in many ways. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made us witnesses of His compassion and His glory; this is what we wish to transmit to our readers in the simplest and most direct way possible.”
As we can see, the life and work of Fr. Pedro is a clear example of living the charism of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis and of his profound love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. On Monday, February 3, the Funeral Mass was celebrated in las Criptas de la Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe, presided over by Mons. Enrique Glennie Graue, and concelebrated by Fr. Mauricio Alarcón Martínez, TOR, the Minister Provincial, friars of the Order, in the presence of our Franciscan TOR sisters, brothers in initial formation, faithful, and benefactors. The mortal remains of our beloved Fr. Pedro Sánchez Acosta, TOR, rest under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Lk 2:29–32).