FROM THE DIRECTORDear Fellow Missionaries, I write this from Guadalajara, Mexico, where I am improving my Spanish at a language institute. This will help me to serve our Friars and Sisters more effectively. The Pope's recent visit to Mexico was a huge success, given the difficult times Mexico is experiencing. It was a national fiesta of hope. Hundreds of thousands attended the Masses and millions watched on television. To me the best event was John Paul II's visit to the sick in a big hospital in Mexico City. It was an intimate moment, for a change! As the sick prayed, wept and smiled, the Pope kissed, hugged and blessed them. Meanwhile, a youth choir sang hymns and traditional songs. When the choir sang "Cielito Lindo" "My Little Bit of Heaven" everyone started crying with emotion. In a brief moment we all had a little glimpse of heaven, a place of compassion and understanding. Life in Mexico can be very nice for the rich and powerful! It can be very hard for the Mayan Indian poor! In this newsletter we see the work of our Sisters in Chiapas, creating a "Cielito Lindo." You too help create "Little Bits of Heaven" through your Mission prayers and offerings.
From Guadalajara, with love, Fr. Donald, O.P. |
NEWS UPDATE ON CHIAPAS THE WOMEN'S SHELTERSAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS Our Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary run a very simple and serviceable Women's Shelter in the midst of one of the poorer slums of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, in southernmost Mexico. When open fighting between the Mexican Army (in coordination with the powerful landowners' militia) against the Zapatista Liberation Front erupted over five years ago, many of the Mayan Indian men were murdered in the violence. Those men who were not killed or injured fled from their hillside and canyon farms with their wives and children into San Cristobal de Las Casas, in the hope of ... |
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