Mexicali Church Completed

By Fr Martin de Porres Walsh, OP  Mission Director

Dear Mission Friends:

Recently our Western Dominican Province held a Chapter and made major decisions regarding the future of our Province.  Fr. Emmerich Vogt, O.P., the Director of the St. Jude Shrine, was elected to be our Provincial.  Fr. Emmerich was a longtime friend of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  He is a great advocate of the missionary spirit of our Province.  Mother Teresa often asked him to minister to her Sisters and give retreats around the world in mission territories in Egypt, Lithuania, Poland, Ghana, Madagascar, India, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay.

With Fr. Emmerich’s election as Provincial, I have been assigned another duty along with being Director of the Dominican Mission Foundation. I will also be the Director of the St. Jude Shrine.

The St. Jude Shrine is located within St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco. Pilgrims come from all parts of the western United States to visit the Shrine and invoke the intercession of St. Jude. The purpose of the St. Jude apostolate is to further devotion to St. Jude, “Patron of Difficult Cases” and to foster the education of worthy students for the Dominican priesthood and brotherhood.

With the responsibility of directing both the Dominican Mission Office and the St. Jude Shrine, I have been assigned to live at St. Dominic’s Priory in San Francisco. This means that with great sadness I will be saying goodbye to the people of Mexicali and leaving my home in the new “convento” that was described in last month’s newsletter.

As I am leaving Mexicali, Fr. David Bello has completed, after many years of hard work and dedication, the main church of our Mexicali Mission, the Parish Church of Santa Maria de Guadalupe. In this issue, I would like to share with you pictures of the church. It has finally been completed through the sacrifices of the parishioners and your loving generosity.

In Christ’s Peace,

Fr. Martin de Porres Walsh, O.P.

The patroness of our church in Mexicali is Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Fr. Martin Walsh, O.P. and Fr. David Bello, O.P. the pastor, in front of the completed Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Fr. Martin prepares to leave Mexicali.