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86 Church Hill Road
Crescent, NY 12188
Parish Office
518) 371-9632 (phone)
(518) 371-7235 (fax)
email stmarys@nycap.rr.com
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Bishop Julio Cabrera, El Quiché
Diocese, Guatemala |
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| Our sister parish is in San Pedro Jocopilas, located in the El Quiché region of Guatemala. The Building Bridges Committee coordinates our work with this parish. To contact the Committee, call the Parish Office at (518) 371-9632 or e-mail St Mary's Parish |
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A History of Our Efforts |
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Fr. Juan and Fr. Tom |
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The Building
Bridges Committee works to strengthen the
relationship between St. Mary's Crescent, and
our Sister Parish of San Pedro Jocopilas,
Quiche, Guatemala. The committee began
in 1994 through the efforts of a few
parishioners who wanted to take a suburban
parish on a mission to a broader cultural
experience of church. The committee
established the sister parish relationship as
a practical way of walking in solidarity with a
parish faith community of a third world
country. San Pedro Jocopilas consists of
a main parish church with 22 out stations.
Most of the people of the area are indigenous
Mayan Indians. Their native language,
Quiche, is one of 19 native Mayan
dialects in Guatemala. most of the
people of the area do not use Spanish.
Despite the language barriers however, the
relationship between St. Mary's and San Pedro
has taken root and begun to blossom.
The Department of Quiche has been one of
the regions of Guatemala that has
suffered greatly from the violence in the
country. In 1954, when the progressive,
democratically elected government began
instituting land reform, a coup was
orchestrated with the help of high officials
in the government of the United States in
order to protect the vested interests of
multinational corporations.
Unfortunately, this led to a series of
dictatorships which in turn led to many years
of internal unrest and civil war. In the
1980s, a "scorched earth" policy was
set in motion by the government in Guatemala
City against much of the native Mayan
population who were seen as being sympathetic
to those in rebellion against the government.
Whole villages were the victims of genocide
and the parish church at San Pedro itself was
taken over by the military and used as a
interrogation center where over 28 people were
killed.
With the signing of the Peace Accords in
December of 1996, the situation began to
improve for the people of San Pedro.
However, it is still a very poor town.
In the early years of the relationship between
St. Mary's and San Pedro, the Building
Bridges committee was able to raise the funds
to install a telephone- only the second in
town- helped finance a literacy program
for children, and bought new tires for the
Pastor's jeep. This jeep is important
because the pastor, Father Juan, is
responsible not only for the 23 communities of
San Pedro, but also for an additional 15
communities which make up the neighboring
parish of San Bartolome where Father Juan also
serves as pastor. The parish of San
Bartolome has a Sister Parish relationship
with a local parish on the outskirts of Milan,
Italy.
When the relationship began between St. Mary's
and San Pedro, Father Clemente was pastor
there. He and the former pastor of St.
Mary's, Father Rich Broderick, developed a
wonderful relationship marked by visits to
each others parishes. What Rich
remembers most about that community is its
richness of faith and the profound sense of community
that they share despite their poverty.
Father Rich from the onset saw the sister
parish program "not so much a (do for) as
it is a (learn from ) and (accompany
with)". This understanding of the
relationship[ continues to this day. The
current pastor of St. Mary's, Father Tom
Hayes has visited San Pedro twice over the
past few years and has also welcomed the current
pastor of San Pedro, Father Juan Vasquez, to
St Mary's. Father Juan's first visit
coincided with the terrible events of
September 11, 2001. At that time, the
people of St. Mary's gained much from his
insights on finding God in the face of tragedy
and destruction, in much the same way
that the people of San Pedro have done so in
the face of the destruction of their
communities during the violence of the
1980's. Father Juan had a unscheduled
visit to St. Mary's in July when he was
participating in a cross-cultural program at
Maryknoll Seminary n Ossining, N.Y.
We are now planning for his next visit to St.
Mary's in December.
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Church before renovation |
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Church During Renovation |
Over the past few years, the financial support from St. Mary's has been given to the parish of San Pedro with the understanding that the people themselves should determine where to use the funds for their community. One of their priorities is the restoration and rededication of their main church. This will include a proper burial ceremony for those who were executed in the building during the war years. Currently, the funds are being used for three main priorities: catechesis, health care, and training in agriculture. Most recently, the people have set up five clinics to help the people of the parish be exposed to improved methods for health care. They have also used the funds for the training of catechists. They are currently working on a project to employ an agricultural worker to assist the people develop better skills in farming. |
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San Pedro clinic |
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St. Mary's Catholic Church of Crescent at
St Mary's Parish.
This page
was last updated on
08/21/08
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