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St. Matthew Catholic Church
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Report to the Parish 2010
At the present time there are no plans for Mission Group members to visit Casa del Niño in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This is due in part to the expense of the trip and also because of the political unrest in Honduras. St. Matthew parishioners have been providing monthly financial support to Casa del Niño for food and medicine for the past ten years. For now, we plan to continue the monthly support to the orphanage in Honduras and we are grateful to the parishioners that continue to faithfully make their monthly donations and have also supported the different fundraisers in the Parish throughout the year.
At the beginning 2009, the Mission Group decided to focus their ministry closer to home and hopefully get more people to participate in our activities. Mission Group members have made several one day visits to Del Rio, Texas and Cuidad Acuña, Mexico across the border. We have been in contact with the priests at two of the parishes in Acuña, Mexico and with the Mexican Sisters of Divine Providence that work in the area. We also met with Fr. Jesus Camacho from St. Joseph Parish in Del Rio, Texas to make him aware of what we are doing across the border in Mexico.
In December 2008 Padre Juan Andres Davila from San Jose Parish in Acuña directed us to a children’s shelter, Casa Esperanza, which is partly supported by the Catholic Church. It provides a home for abused and neglected children and children whose parents are in jail. Casa Esperanza has a capacity for 40 children but presently has only 21 children ages 4 to 14 years old. The Mission Group members have visited Casa Esperanza throughout the year and provided Spanish children’s books, school supplies, puzzles, games, arts and crafts, toys, shoes and clothes for the children.
.On one of our visits, we met Padre Rupertino Acosta from Nstra. Sra. de Guadalupe Church, also in Acuña, and he told us about Casa Emmaus. The home, sponsored by the Catholic Church, is a sanctuary for the undocumented migrants deported by INS and provides the migrants with a place to sleep, clean clothes, and two meals a day free of charge. The migrants are only allowed to stay there for three to five days as they prepare to go back to their home towns further into Mexico and Central America. The Mission Group has delivered personal hygiene items, men’s clothes, new socks, and underwear for the men that parishioners have donated. Since there is a constant turnover of residents at Casa Emmaus, those things are always needed. Father Stephen White MSC delivered some Spanish prayer books and rosaries for the residents on one of the visits. Other religious items and reading material in Spanish would be appreciated.
Since July 2009 the Mexican Congregation of Divine Providence has undertaken the operation of Casa Esperanza children’s shelter. This is a new venture for the nuns since they have mainly been catechists in the parishes. The nuns are providing a noticeable positive influence on the children. The Mission Group also provided Spanish Children’s Bibles, rosaries, school supplies and other items to help the nuns with their religion classes in the local Colonias. The parishes are poor and do not have the same resources as parishes in the United States. Any help is always appreciated by them.
There are people with many needs and limited resources less than 3 hours away from San Antonio in Mexico. The generosity of St. Matthew parishioners has made a difference for some of these people. We ask for your continued support of our ministry and your prayers for our safety across the border. Contact the Mission Group if you can help in any way.
Deacon Roberto and Christine Rios at 210-344-7310 or
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Betty Chandler at 210-408-1240
