Corpus Christi, Anapra, is a Catholic community on the outskirts of the Juarez, located on the Mexican side of the US/Mexico border. This community has had to endure one of the roughest periods of violence Mexico has seen. Hundreds of young men and women have been recruited by criminal groups for the distribution of illegal drugs. However, difficult times always help us discover and appreciate more the active presence of God in God’s people.
The Missionary Society of St Columban engages in a variety of projects of evangelisation in a number of countries around the world. We focus on fostering community life, the role of lay men and women and proclaiming the truth revealed to us in and through God’s Word. We cannot do all this alone. This requires extensive team work along with donations from our benefactors.
We can see some of the results of the donations received in Corpus Christi Parish, Anapra. We have been able to build two multi-purpose meeting rooms and a small sports complex, which have provided us with the opportunity to meet and work with youth and adults. Our new facilities offer us greater opportunity to help families and a variety of age groups to work out a way forward in hope and friendship.
In a sense, we use the meeting rooms and sports complex to offer our people a temporary haven from a hostile and violent society. Time in the haven allows our people to make friends and find support to face life in the rough and tumble of this violent society. We help create a space without drugs, alcohol and guns. We help many, especially the youth, realise they can shape their lives in more caring and creative ways.
The youth group with members aged between 15 and 24 years has grown quite quickly from a dozen or so to about 100 members. They run fund raising and social activities, help with the catechesis of younger children, and readily welcome new members to the group. There is a second group of children aged from eight to 14 years, which also numbers around 100. Parents of these children, both men and women, also participate actively in the life of the parish community.
We are most grateful to our benefactors for their support in helping us offer an alternative approach to life to many young men and women who otherwise might have been recruited into gangs, violence and the drug trade, quite possibly leading to an early death.
This is a mission worked out in partnership between God, missionary priests, lay women and men and benefactors – all members of the Church. Such partnership is the only way we can see a way forward that prioritises life – the life in abundance that Jesus promises us if we live as his disciples.
This partnership gives us a realistic chance of facing up to the problems in our society in a creative and so hopeful way. We feel that we are on the way because there is now less violence than previously but there is still much to be done.
Miguel Angel Tejada Olague is the Corpus Christi Parish photographer.
LISTEN TO: A temporary haven from violence
(Duration: 3:50mins, MP3: 1.75MB)
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- Read more from The Far East - June 2017
