 |
|
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan joins hands with boys from La Sagrada Familia Parish during a walking tour of parish programs in the town of Sabana Yegua Oct. 28. Sabana Yegua, located in the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic, is home to the main chapel of La Sagrada Familia Parish. (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero)
|
SABANA YEGUA, Dominican Republic — When invited guests and parishioners sat down for a meal in celebration of the Milwaukee Archdiocese’s 25-year presence at La Sagrada Familia Parish, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan turned a happy occasion into an even happier one.
Following the Oct. 29 meal inside the parish center, Archbishop Dolan presented a check for $25,000 to Fr. Marti Colom, pastor of La Sagrada Familia. The check, a gift from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Supporting Fund (a foundation created by the Erica John family to benefit Catholic charitable causes), will be used to turn the parish’s former nutrition center into an office annex.
A new nutrition center was built in 2005 to accommodate the needs of a growing community. When completed, the office annex, located next to the nutrition center, will include offices, bathrooms, showers, a classroom, and a room for the parish doctor to examine children.
 |
|
Children enjoy a meal at the nutrition center run by La Sagrada Familia Parish. The nutrition center was built with funds donated by parishes in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, including St. Dominic Parish in Brookfield, which raised $28,000 during a 2005 Lenten project. (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero)
|
Fr. Colom hopes to have the building completed by Jan. 1, 2007.
The AMS Fund donation is the latest in a long line of financial gifts that have helped the parish minister to some of the Dominican Republic’s poorest people. Parishes in the Milwaukee Archdiocese are also credited with opening arms and checkbooks to La Sagrada Familia Parish.
Representatives of several archdiocesan parishes participated in an October visit to the Dominican Republic, where they were able to see the good works being accomplished, thanks in part to their faith communities back home.
Brookfield parish supports
nutrition center
Susan McNeil, a pastoral associate at St. Dominic Parish, Brookfield, traveled to the Dominican Republic with her daughter Kayla. They brought with them a quilt made by the parish’s preschoolers. It will be hung in the nutrition center.
In 2005, St. Dominic designated its Lenten outreach collection to the nutrition center at La Sagrada Familia.
“We have a tradition at St. Dominic’s of directing Lenten alms to a particular need,” said McNeil. “Each year we try to do something tangible, that connects with the children. One-third of what we raise comes from the kids.”
The nutrition center, which serves 120 children ages 1 to 6, provides breakfast and dinner for children. They also receive medical attention and preschool education.
“We had a conversation with Fran and Rosemary (Franciscan Sr. Frances Cunningham and Dominican Sr. Rosemary Huddleston of the World Mission Ministries Office) and they said the needs here are so great,” said McNeil. St. Dominic raised about $28,000 for the nutrition center’s construction.
Three other visitors, Les and Edith Hagensick and Barbara Bechtel, members of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish on Milwaukee’s north side, were also able to visit the nutrition center. In 2005, St. Catherine contributed $15,000 in honor of the parish’s 150th anniversary. Of this amount, $10,000 was earmarked for building a chapel in the town of Ganadero and $5,000 went toward construction of the nutrition center.
Sister parish project in
Pleasant Prairie
Another mother-daughter pair, Sandy and Tina Rende of St. Anne Parish in Pleasant Prairie, participated in the Dominican Republic pilgrimage. This was Sandy’s second trip to La Sagrada Familia in the last two years. In March 2005, she and fellow parishioners Mike and Pat Stanczak traveled to the Dominican Republic to help establish a sister parish relationship with four of the 28 villages that comprise La Sagrada Familia.
Like St. Catherine, St. Anne Parish contributed $5,000 for construction of the new chapel in Ganadero. During the October visit, the Rendes participated in a Mass celebrated in the new chapel. They brought with them numerous articles donated by their parish — such as candles and candle holders, and a censor and incense — as gifts for the new chapel. Previous gifts have included a processional crucifix, monstrance and other sacred symbols.
According to Rende, another St. Anne parishioner, optometrist Pete Emer and his wife Kim, traveled to Sabana Yegua last year to provide eye care for parishioners. The sister-parish relationship continues to grow in Pleasant Prairie, where a designated area in the church offers displays of photos and written updates about La Sagrada Familia. The parish is also exploring a fair trade coffee project to help support the Dominican economy.
“A sister relationship is a friendship that moves at a snail’s pace,” said Rende. “You may think that we have been in this relationship for almost two years and have not accomplished much in that time, but our first objective was to get to know each other, mainly through letter writing and visits. It’s important to walk together as friends, before we work together as partners.”
Vincentians help
While parish involvement at La Sagrada Familia grows, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Milwaukee Archdiocesan Council, is working with Fr. Oriol Regales, associate pastor of La Sagrada Familia Parish, to help establish SVDP conferences within his parish.
During the October pilgrimage to the Dominican Republic, Gerald Felsecker, executive secretary of the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Council, and his wife Julita, met with Fr. Regales and parish representatives to discuss forming SVDP conferences. The society’s structure begins on the parish level, and these groups are called conferences.
Since La Sagrada Familia is such a large parish, with 28 villages spread over a wide geographic area, more than one conference is needed to serve the people. On Oct. 28, the Felseckers met with about 10 parish representatives and Fr. Regales under a shade tree next to the chapel in Sabana Yegua. They spoke about the society’s mission, how conferences are structured in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, and how society members reach out to the poor.
Several archdiocesan conferences have already established ties with existing SVDP conferences within La Sagrada Familia. Others are looking to twin with the new conferences, offering financial assistance. Felsecker encourages other Vincentians interested in forming ties with conferences in the Dominican Repub-
lic to contact him by e-mail,
<gfelsecker@svdpmilw.org>.
Mission office’s role
The World Mission Ministries Office, which oversees the financial support of La Sagrada Familia Parish, is pleased with the response parishes in the archdiocese have given to the Dominican people. Continued support is needed, however, to cover the parish’s operating expenses.
When the Milwaukee Archdiocese established ties with La Sagrada Familia Parish 25 years ago, providing priests to serve the parish, it also assumed most operating expenses for the parish, including 75 percent of the priests’ salaries and all of their benefits. The Milwaukee Archdiocese pays the remaining 25 percent of priests’ salaries.
According to Sr. Frances, director of the World Mission Ministries Office, the parish’s annual budget is close to $200,000. The parish contributes a minimal amount to the budget through Sunday Mass collections.
Because people in the pews are more inclined to donate to projects, such as a new chapel or school supplies for children, rather than salaries for the parish staff, the World Mission Ministries Office must assume fund-raising efforts to subsidize the parish budget. Parish mission appeals help meet this goal.
Each year, the mission office coordinates visits by Catholic missionaries in every parish of the archdiocese. Among these mission appeals, between 10 and 12 are designated for support of La Sagrada Familia.
“We usually get someone with Dominican Republic experience to preach at Masses about the DR,” said Sr. Frances. This second-collection effort nets $30,000 to $35,000 annually for La Sagrada Familia Parish.
“This year we began a mailed appeal to donors of the archdiocese,” added Sr. Frances. “Otherwise, we have to depend on individual donors.” Last year was the first year for a mailed appeal and it brought in $35,000. “We have individual donors who contribute funds, but we never make the amount we need.”
Bishop expresses gratitude
Since 1991, Jose Grullon has been bishop of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, and he has witnessed the evolution of La Sagrada Familia Parish into a burgeoning community of faith. He is thankful to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for making this possible.
“The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has made a commitment to have two priests here over the years, and besides the priests there have been other people coming here to visit and that’s been a good energy for this process,” said Bishop Grullon. “We have had very good priests here.”
He is especially pleased with the role Milwaukee archdiocesan priests have played in nurturing local vocations to the priesthood.
“Now we have three priests who were sent as seminarians from this parish by the priests from (Milwaukee), and this is the parish that’s given the most priests” in the diocese, he said.
“I’d like to say that the people have responded to the (Milwaukee) priests,” added Bishop Grullon. “When the people find good examples of priests, with a lot of energy and spirituality, they respond to them.”
For more information about La Sagrada Familia, contact the World Mission Ministries Office at (414) 769-3404, or visit www.archmil.org/sagradafamilia.
View audio slideshows from Dominican Republic at this link. |
