La Sagrada Familia Parish in the Dominican Republic receives visitors from Milwaukee

This year Catholics in Southeastern Wisconsin commemorate the 35^th anniversary of the twinning relationship between the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and La Sagrada Familia parish in Sabana Yegua, Azua, in the Dominican Republic. During all of these years, priests from Milwaukee have run the parish, sharing their faith and love with the people of Sabana Yegua and its surrounding rural communities. Since 2003, members of the Community of Saint Paul, lay and ordained, have been in charge of the parish on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

In order to commemorate these 35 years of partnership, different activities have been organized, so that people can participate and experience this partnership of faith. In late June and early July we have had two groups of pilgrims from Milwaukee visiting the parish.

The first was a group of 25 young adults, plus 7 seminarians from the archdiocese, who spent a week in the parish and were immersed in different activities with children, youth and the community at large. It was a great experience for the young adults coming from Milwaukee and the youth from the parish who came together to interact and share their talents and faith. The group was a coordinated effort put in place by the World Mission Office of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Catholic Financial Life Insurance company and, also, the archdiocesan office for Young Adult ministries. These three organizations came together and worked hard to make a wonderful pilgrimage of faith for the young adults participating on the trip. The seven seminarians held reflections and activities while sharing with the 25 young adults, who expressed that they were going back home transformed by this pilgrimage.

The second was a group of six men, five of whom are in training to be ordained permanent deacons in the archdiocese of Milwaukee. They visited La Sagrada Familia parish as part of their formation plan. They stayed with families in their Sabana Yegua homes, got to know the different ministries and then in the evenings reflected theologically about what they were seeing. It was a wonderful combination of theological reflection, prayer and sharing faith and love with the local community.
 

After five years of pastoral work on the Southside of Milwaukee, Javier Guativa, a priest of the Community of St. Paul, was appointed by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki as the Parish Administrator of Saint Lucy and Saint Sebastian parishes in Racine and nearby Sturtevant.

The parish of Saint Lucy, located in southeastern Racine, is the largest parish in Racine with 5,550 members and a school of 282 students. It has a variety of ministries for youth and adults as well women’s groups and a men’s Bible group that meets every Saturday to discuss the Sunday readings. Saint Sebastian parish is located to the west of Saint Lucy. It is a rural parish with 1,254 members, many of whom are local farmers.

The two parishes have been operating together as a cluster for the past two years, sharing the priest and the various ministries, which helps make the two communities grow together in faith.

We are pleased that Javier will now work pastorally in Racine, where Ricardo Martín and Antony Thomas, also priests of the CSP, are already pastors, and where our Community has its international headquarters.

On May 19^th, just two days before the priestly ordination of Michael Wolfe—a member of the Community of Saint Paul, whose ordination we celebrated in this blog a few days ago—the “Catholic Herald” published a story on his path to the priesthood.

The “Catholic Herald” is Milwaukee’s weekly archdiocesan newspaper. Here is the link to the article:

http://catholicherald.org/news/local/deacon-wolfes-indirect-path-led-priesthood/