Overview of Our Missions and Mission Projects

Guatemala Mission Project

We are looking for funding for a number of projects for our Guatemala Mission which serves the parish ′′ Santiago Apostle ′′ of Huitan and Cabrican, as well as the three parish schools and 31 chapels that are associated with the parish. The villagers are a beautiful, faithful community. With a little assistance we can make their lives more enriched.

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Our current projects include:

1 Tuition Assistance for those students who cannot afford to pay the tuition. The average cost of tuition per month for any of the three schools located in Cabrican and Huitan is approximately $50 or 500 a year. A reoccurring donation of as little as $20 a month could have a huge impact in the life of a student in need.
2 Assistance to supplement the teachers’ salaries. Currently, teachers receive a nominal salary. Recently the Guatemala Government mandated that all schools contribute to a teacher’s Social Security. This was an unseen and unbudgeted item. The total cost to cover all teachers Social Security for the year would be approximately $3,500. Help would allow us time to find ways to address this new expenditure in upcoming years.
3 The Cabrican School has a multipurpose athletic compound which needs to have the foundation secured with new cement and the addition of a metal ceiling to allow the facility to be used in all weather conditions. The estimated cost of the project is $55,000.
4 The Cabrican School is looking to enclose the school with secure walls for the protection of the students and the property. The estimated cost to complete this project is $22,000.
5 School supplemented lunches for the students. Many students come from families that do not have extra money to pay for lunch and opt to send their children to public schools simply for the free lunch.
6 Technology and internet access is limited due to funding. Yearly internet access and upgrading current computer technology is a needed project that would open a new world and experience to our students.

Significant Goals:

To serve the Local Church with our charism of “evangelizing by educating and educating by evangelizing.”
To inculturate the Gospel through our specific way of being Piarists.
To help awaken, welcome, accompany and form Piarist vocations among young people.
To live and serve in a participatory spirit with our Piarist brothers from other demarcations.
To establish the Piarists in Guatemala, which is in need of teaching religious orders.
To provide our young seminarians studying in Mexico with missionary experience during their initial formation process.
Education

*These projects have the support of the Archbishop of Los Altos, Quetzaltenago - Totonicapan Mario Alberto Molina, O.A.R. , Piarist Fathers General Pedro Aguado, Sch.P. and the Piarist Fathers Province of the United States and Puerto Rico Provincial Fernando Negro, Sch.P.

“It is our belief that supporting these projects "will raise the social level of people, create better educational and social conditions, and attract young people and their families, to collaborate in improving their lives." - Fr. Pedro Aguado, Sch.P

Latin Mission Project

Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because
of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

The year was 1971. The Piarist Fathers began their work with the Latin Mission. In the spirit of St. Joseph Calasanz, the Piarist Fathers and a group of lay missionaries set off on horseback into the rural community of Melchor Ocampo. There were no roadways, no running water, and no electricity. Their goals were to construct a medical dispensary and to work on farming plow projects with the people in the village. This was the beginning of a fifty-year undertaking of love, compassion, and sharing in the true spirit of St. Joseph Calasanz. So much has changed since that hot muggy day in June of 1971 in Melchor Ocampo. Much progress has been made. Many beautiful relationships have been formed.

Over the past 50 years, the Piarist Fathers have worked in two parishes, San Isidro in Macuspana and Sagrado Corazon in Buenavista. The mission has worked directly in more than 33 rural communities and with thousands of villagers in these two parishes. More than 400 lay missionaries, men and women, have participated in the mission. More than 32 Piarist priests and seminarians have been involved. It seems both appropriate and noteworthy to mention that Fr. Oscar Alsono, Sch. P. was involved for 31 years and Fr. Mario Vizcaino, Sch. P. has so far been involved for 48 years.

The missionaries have been involved in many different activities. They include the celebration of the Eucharist and sacraments; daily visits to ill people in their homes as well as hundreds of families, daily catechetical instruction according to the parishes’ programs with original and inculturated materials, construction of churches, missionary housing, and latrines; agriculture, first aid, and health programs; the creation of cooperatives of pigs and cows; cultural field trips village housing improvement projects; response to natural disasters, such as the eruption of Chichonal Volcano in 1982 and the flooding of Villahermosa in 2007; and so much more. The Piarist Fathers Latin Mission has been there to help those in the greatest need in those communities.

Facts:

Involved in more than 20 rural, impoverished communities
Helped construct 8 chapels in these communities
The yearly budget is $65,800
Presently working in the Diocese of Tabasco in Mexico
Provide programs in health education and evangelization
Currently constructing a new chapel
Due to limited resources in the Tabasco Diocese, a local priest can visit these remote communities only twice a year

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Puerto Rico Mission Project

The Puerto Rico Mission is an intensive process of evangelization. It lasts one week each year. The location of the mission in Puerto Rico will vary from year to year. The Piarists’ approach in the mission will be simple, clear, and efficient —to embrace families so that children and young people, with their families, can find human and Christian strength, which is necessary to make well-founded vocational options.

We have always utilized a partnership model by ”giving them not the fish, but the fishing rod.” Suddenly, when we least expect, some of these efforts begin to bear fruits. Spiritual relationships and communities are renewed. The projects within the mission give the people a sense of ownership and make them proud and co-responsible for the maintenance of the church and the welfare of their community.

The Piarist runs a mission in Ponce Puerto Rico to share love, teaching, compassion, reconciliation ministry, respectful brotherhood, and financial assistance when appropriate. The project was established in 2018 to help the Piarist raise funds to aid in efforts in this project.

The yearly budget varies between $15,000 and $20,000.