num. 381 - July-August 1999

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AMERICA

In a March '98 article in Oblate Missions, Fr Terry CONWAY tells about the restoration of "One of Dawson's jewels," Old Saint Mary's church. The second-floor auditorium of a school built in 1904 was turned into a church in 1920, and it still serves as a church today. Thanks to the help of the Catholic Church Extension Society and the Yukon Territorial Government, and a host of many benefactors and friends, the restoration was undertaken and successfully completed. On June 12, 1996, Bishop Thomas LOBSINGER of Whitehorse, blessed the restored church.

Saint Paul's Indian Church in North Vancouver was built in 1884. It is the oldest one in the area. Saint Paul was chosen as patron because of Fr Paul DURIEU (1830-1899), the future Vicar Apostolic of British Columbia and first Bishop of New Westminster. Fr Dennis ALEXANDER is the present parish priest.

At the request of the Squamish Nation, Archbishop Adam EXNER of Vancouver, was the celebrant of the blessing of the refurbished church and surrounding property. The ceremony was a "celebration of creation," which opened to the beat of traditional Squamish drums. Accompanied by the Squamish Princesses, the Archbishop proceeded to bless the exterior of the church, the bell which dates from 1881, the old cross from 1900, then he stopped for a prayer at the memorial for the war veterans. There was another ceremony at the totem.

"The church gardens – about 40m by 10m – are formed by three ponds. The Pond of Creation represents the Creator. There is a waterfall between the Pond of Creation and the Pond of Transition, which represents Jesus coming into the world to teach us a better way to love our Creator. The procession then moved to Adam's Bridge, representing Jesus, the new Adam, the bridge between God and humanity. The lower pond, Tranquillity, represents the work completed in us by the Holy Spirit."

Bishop Exner also blessed a statue of the surrendered heart of Mary, depicted as a native Squamish woman. Squamish traditions and chants had a special place in the Mass. The closing song was the traditional Paddle Song of the Squamish People.

Desert and mountainous areas cover the greater part of the Mexican Baja California Peninsula. The population is concentrated in the North on the United States border, especially in the two cities of Tijuana (2 million people?), and Mexicali which has about one million. This is where Oblates of the former Western U.S. Province founded what was to become the "Baja California Mission in Northern Mexico."

The foundation at Mexicali is the oldest. It dates from 1971. Today, there are three Oblates in charge of the La Sagrada Familia parish, which is really a "community of communities." It is made up of poor worker families gathered around eight churches. Fr William ANTONE, the parish priest, is also Superior of the Mission. "The construction of the new church is progressing very nicely, reports the March OMI USA. They now have a roof.... Pews have been received from Mary Immaculate parish in Pacoima, California. Much of the local funding comes from the sale of tamales and coffee after the Sunday masses. The Oblates have plans to begin three more churches this year."

Fr Roberto CALLAHAN, age 73, is the parish priest at St. Eugene de Mazenod parish near Tijuana. The Oblates accepted to build up this new parish. Thousands of families in the area are struggling to make a living in sprawling shanty towns nestled around maquiladoras. These are foreign-owned factories which "provide employment with wages that compete with the world market (less than one US dollar an hour)."

In an interview by the Italian review Jesus (Jan. '99) the Bishop of Tijuana, Romo Muñoz, explained that Tijuana is "the city with the highest rate of growth in Mexico. It increases by 80,000 new inhabitants every year. It is impossible both politically and civilly to deal with this growth." He also noted that Tijuana is "the busiest crossing point in the world." Each year there are 30 million "crossings" here on the border between the United States and Mexico....

The Casa Estudiantil de Mazenod, one of the three pre-novitiates in the United States Province, has been located here in Tijuana since 1990. Fr Jaime FEE and Bro. Peter VASQUEZ are the formators. Describing last year's group of pre-novices, Jaime says they were all born in Mexico, but had lived in such places as California, New York, Mexico, Veracruz and Chiapas. Age wise, they are in their upper 20's and 30's. This is "a factor we try to respect in the call to personal responsibility and the exigencies of entering into real contact with Oblate history as a group of missionaries in the Church."

"There is no doubt that we are with the materially poor and the many poor in knowing who Christ is. The city jail bespeaks subhuman conditions of incarceration. There is also pastoral care for a colonia, a mission subdivision of the local parish: liturgy, catechetics, youth, family visitation. Three other members minister with Fr Callahan in St. Eugene's parish, where thousands of families live in humble homes, made of orange crates and garage doors, on mud roads, without a church yet. Our pre-novices are with them on the ground floor of a new faith- community."

The Council Chronicle of the U.S. Province, dated 15-21 March reports: "The Peru province (sic) has agreed to assume the responsibility for the ministry in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Province will be asked to continue some financial assistance, as it has done in the past."

The May OMI USA gives more details in an article signed by Fr David KALERT, Provincial of the United States: "The transfer of the mission will take place officially on September 8, 1999, the feast day of the parish of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre.... The Oblates from Peru are dedicated to committing three Oblates for the first three years." Fr Victor TORRES will be the first to arrive. As of December 31, the Peru Delegation, where Fr Victor SANTOYO is Superior, had 13 Oblates in initial formation. The Delegation is part of St. Peter's Province (Canada).

Fr Kalert gives special recognition to Fr Pablo HUGHES, who has been a part of the mission from the beginning – for almost 25 years – and to Bro.Valmond LECLERC, who has also worked tirelessly for seven years with the people of the parish and the poor in the surrounding area.

It is now a year and a half since the Oblates from the Vice-Provinces of Mexico and Haiti have been at work in Cuba. They are now five. Fr Gilberto PIÑON is Superior of the Mission. Fr François THOMAS, from Haiti, as well as two Haitian scholastics still await their visas. Remember that the sea between Haiti and Cuba is only a hundred kilometers across.

In keeping with the initial plan, the Oblates are in charge of three parishes in three different dioceses. These parishes, like many others, have been without a priest for many years, and they impatiently hope for other Oblates to come to their aid. In the Diocese of Matanzas, the Oblates care for the San Francisco Javier parish at Marti; in the Diocese of Cienfuegos, the Ariza parish at Abreus; in the Diocese of Santa Clara, the parish of San José y Nuestra Señora del Carmen at Yaguajay. Procedures with the communist civil authorities and Cardinal Ortega are well under way for another. The Cardinal Archbishop of Havana would like to entrust the Oblates with a parish about thirty kilometers from the capital, where they could set up their central house and a formation house.

Some news on the situation has been received from Fr Pablo FUENTES. In the December Weinberg: "Religious ignorance is widespread. The formation of catechists is most urgent. They would be not only for the children, but also for the youth, for young adults and for couples. There is a need to renovate churches that are threatening to collapse and to build others...." In the November Nosotros: "We have yet to finish the church roof. It is a tile roof, but a temporary tin covering has been used. In another church which I visit on Sunday, only the facade is standing. In the beginning there were only four people coming, now there are twenty or so.... More people are coming to church than ten years ago. So, we are busy rebuilding temples as well as the faith.... People lack all sorts of things, but there is no misery in Cuba where poverty is socialized." These remarks from Pablo were gathered by Fr Angel VILLALBA, a Spanish Oblate who is a missionary in Texas.