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Thursday, April 20, 2000 OH©<S(5S© The Southern Cross, Page 7
Bishop Boland ordains deacons at Saint Vincent’s Seminary
Bishop J. Kevin Boland was the ordaining prelate for a diaconate ordination at Saint Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, Pennsylvania on Monday,
April 10. Left: Bishop Boland is pictured during the Mass of Ordination with Brother Edward Mazich, OSB, of Saint Vincent Archabbey.
Mark Van Alstine of the Diocese of Savannah served as acolyte during the Mass. Right: During his stay on April 10 and 11, Bishop
Boland met with three seminarians from the Savannah Diocese who are studying at Saint Vincent's. Pictured are, from left, Mark Van
Alstine, Anthony Stephens, Bishop Boland and Eric Filmer.
Photos courtesy of Saint Vincent Seminary
Guadalupanas mission to Albany Deanery reaches out to Hispanics
Scenes from the Guadalupan Mission to Georgia: (left) the first Mass at Omega; (right) the first Ash Wednesday celebration in Omega.
Photos courtesy of the Guadalupanas.
S isters Edith, Teresa and Beatriz,
Guadalupan Missionaries of the
Holy Spirit who came to the diocese
last summer, have been working
among Hispanic Catholics in the
Albany Deanery.
This Lent, they presented a mission
for parishioners of Saint Mary
Church, Americus, and the surround
ing areas.
Earlier this year, they undertook a
door-to-door survey in the small com
munity of Omega, about 15 miles
from Tifton, and found over 60
Hispanic families who have settled
there and want to practice the faith—
more families than are found in many
of the small-town missions which
have been organized for many years
in the Savannah Diocese.
A small diner that had closed was
rented and prepared for the first Sun
day Mass just before Lent. More than
50 people gathered and were invited
to sign the Missal to commemorate
this new beginning. The photos above
show Father Juan Lopez, Pastor of
Our Divine Saviour, Tifton, and Javier
Nunez looking on as Sister Edith
assists the people, and Sister Teresa
leading the first Ash Wednesday ser
vice ever held in Omega.
The mission work in Americus cen
tered around home visits, mostly in
the evenings. Sister Beatriz found
many groups of young men working
on the farms, living often 8-10 in one
trailer. Local Protestant churches had
been visiting and providing trans
portation to church, so Sister Beatriz
shares Catholic viewpoints about the
Bible with a group of interested men
at night.
Sometimes a settled family with
their own home invites others to
come join the sisters. Senor Santa
Maria, who supervises workers, gath
ered a group in their home.
Father Michael O’Keeffe, parochial
vicar of Saint Mary’s, introduced the
sisters to a group of people from
Chiapas in the far South of Mexico
who have come to work near Plains.
An old school is the only home avail
able for more than 70 frightened
refugees who fled the suffering and
death of the Chiapas region, which
continues even though it has faded
from the headlines in the United
States. Many of them speak only their
native Indian languages, which fur
ther isolates them.
One happy surprise coming from
the extensive visiting was finding a
group of youthful guitarists and
singers willing to learn to play music
for the weekly Mass in Americus.
Sister Beatriz has been joining them
the past several weekends to help
them feel confident in this important
ministry. This is a gift any rural
parish would treasure. Several of the
guitarists and others joined Father
O’Keeffe for his regular Friday
evening Mass in Plains to bring a lit
tle Easter joy to the people living in
that isolated area.
According to Father Michael H.
Smith, Y.F., diocesan Coordinator of
Hispanic Ministry, the sisters’ success
“dramatizes rather concretely how the
‘hidden’ Hispanic presence can
change the face of the Catholic
Church in rural Georgia.”
Although the sisters’ mission visits
to Americus showed how great the
potential is for outreach to the
Hispanics of south Georgia, Father
Smith adds that it also demonstrated
“the serious need for Catholic pas
toral workers” in the area, where
“Protestants have been very active
and the people, cut off from their cul
tural roots in a strange land, are very
receptive to anyone showing an inter
est” in them.