Page 1 | May 2003 | Vol 30  No 5 | Index | Page 2

Welcome to Fr. Martin de Porres Walsh, O.P., our new director of the Dominican Mission Foundation!

Dear Fellow Missionaries,

Fr. Martin has come full circle, when he said yes to becoming the Director of the Mission Foundation. Forty years ago this year, he said yes to God’s call to enter the Dominican Order, shortly after attending the departure ceremony for Fr. Joseph Asturias, Fr. Vincent Foerstler, and Br. Raymond Bertheaux, as they left to establish the Dominican Mission in Ocosingo, Chiapas. He is thrilled and humbled to be invited to follow in the footsteps of Fr. Joseph Asturias, who worked so tirelessly and joyfully for the Missions throughout his ministry.

Even before entering the Order, Fr. Martin was involved in social work in the Third World, as one of the founders of Amigos Anonymous. Since ordination in 1969, he has been assigned to St. Dominic Priory in San Francisco, serving as parochial vicar and later, eight years as pastor during the time of the church restoration project. He enjoyed eight years at the Dominican Mission in Mexicali and served as Novice Master for the Western Province for six years. Coincidental with his ministries, he has worked at Westside Mental Health Center at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, served on the Boards of Directors of the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society and the Dominican Biblical School of Jerusalem (Ecole Biblique), and consulted for the Mexican government on the restoration of the Dominican Missions of Baja California and is a contributing editor of the African American Heritage Bible. For the past eight years, he served as Vocation Director for the Western Dominican Province.

 Fr. Martin is energetic, enthusiastic, and eager to follow up on the work of his very able and affable predecessors, Fr. Martin Diaz and Fr. Don Bramble. He looks forward to meeting with all of you, whose partnership with the Foundation is vital to the work of the Missions. Mostly, he is excited to continue the work of Fr. Joseph Asturias into the 21^st century.

Meeting the Children of Tres Cruces

By Br. Dominic DeMaio, O.P. (in collaboration with Fr. Miguel de Las Casas Rolland, O.P.)

We entered the church after dark. With its concrete floor and wooden bench pews it appeared empty. Then the children emerged and greeted Fr. Roberto Alvarez Padilla, O.P. (of the Province of St. James, Mexico), obviously excited to see him.

This is the little indigenous church of San Juan Diego in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Adults and children have taken refuge here from violence in their home community, the Chamula village hamlet of Tres Cruces. Fr. Martin Walsh and I were visiting San Cristóbal as part of our visit to the Dominican Missions in Chiapas. Some of the ten children who remained of the original 30 had been separated from their parents for eight days. There were infants with the five women present and children ranging from two to ten years old running about.

Just outside the sanctuary is an adjoining shack with dirt floor and smoldering fire in the center. Here were gathered five or so men and some of the women. The men spoke with gratitude for our visit. Our host, Fr. Roberto, chased and twirled in the air some of the children who erupted in laughter. A baby cried and coughed as his mother tried to nurse him.

Sitting with the men and women in the shack was Sr. Lupita, one of the three Diocesan Missionary Sisters who accompanied us. Sr. Lupita spoke to the group in Tzotzil or Bat’zi K’op (original or true word) the native language of the Tzotzil ethnic group. She and Sr. Josefa, another missionary sister, spoke fluently with the group. They spoke of the water that had been taken to members of the community in Tres Cruces who have been without water for nearly two weeks due to persecution. Fr. Roberto isn’t sure how they are managing....