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Since the first Oblates sent to establish a mission in Uruguay came from the former Southern Province, the provincial asked Fr. Salvatore DeGeorge, OMI, to represent the US province at the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Oblate presence in that Latin American nation.
In 1930 the bishop of Salto, Uruguay asked the Oblates to come to his dioces. The Superior General, Archbishop Augustine Dontenwill, asked that missionaries from Texas be sent. The first to go was Fr. Jesus Prieto. He arrived, fell ill, returned home and died.
On May 1, 1930, three other Oblates left San Antonio for Uruguay. They were: Pierre (Pedro) Centurione ( born in Marseilles of Italian parents, educated in France, Italy, and Texas), Emilio Diaz, and Jesus Calleja (both born in Spain and educated in San Antonio)
The journey from San Antonio to Salto, via New York and Buenos Aires, took 37 days. The missionaries arrived in Salto on August 6. Soon afterward they were joined by Santiago Martinez, an Oblate brother.
From Uruguay the Oblates later went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other Oblates followed the original four...one notable being Fr. Castellanos.
Today the mission in Uruguay is exciting. There is much youth work and preaching. The country is very secularised, reminiscent of many areas of the northern Europe and other parts of the first world. The work of first evangelisation is demanding. Today, the mission is in the responsibility of the Province of Italy.
The spirit among the Oblates there bears all the zest and energy of Italy, the love of preaching of Spain, and the charming, and shall we say, “minimal scripting and independence of spirit” that is a recognizable legacy of the founding province.
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