It is the deep sense that faith is a blessing we want to share with others that inspires Columban missionaries to cross borders of country, language and culture. We believe that it is this faith which inspires your steadfast support of Columban mission.

Catechists attending class.

In 2004, you responded generously to our request for financial assistance to build the Combapata Catechetical Center in Combapata, Peru. Thanks to your generous assistance, Columban Fr. Donald Hornsey was able to build the Center which includes two classrooms and a dining room but, at the time it was constructed, there were no funds available to add a chapel. The community remains economically poor, but the people of Combapata generously share their time, talent and faith.

Currently the Center meets three direct needs in the geographic area.  First, the Center provides the meeting space for the lay and youth formation meetings, as well as First Communion and confirmation programs of the parish. Second, due to its central location, the Combapata Center is often used as a retreat center and meeting place for the six parishes in the zone. Third, the Center provides space for the Department of Evangelization and Catechesis of the Prelature of which Fr. Don is the director. The Center is a thriving, busy place!

Lunch time

Recently, Fr. Don contacted me about the desire to add a chapel to the Center. The chapel would be a quiet place for prayer and reflection, both individually and in small groups, and for celebration of the Eucharist. The chapel would help promote devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and be easily accessible to the people who are there on formation.

The chapel Fr. Don and the people are dreaming of would be made of adobe bricks, and the builders would utilize sand and gravel from the river during the building process.  It would have a big window with a view of the hills and would accommodate 60-70 people.  There would be concrete benches around the walls with storage cabinets underneath.

Any offering you can send us, large or small, to help Fr. Don and the community he serves build their chapel will be gratefully received.  In whatever way we are able to help others, we help further the mission of Jesus Christ.

Yours in Christ, Fr. Arturo Aguilar

The children with Pete and Fr. Gerry Despond

The development of peoples depends, above all, on recognition that the human race is a single family working together in true communion, not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side by side.

For 92 years, Columban missionaries have lived and worked side by side with people who have been socially, politically, economically and religiously oppressed for decades, often centuries, through no fault of their own. And, nowhere is Columban commitment to living side by side and working together more evident than in the community chapels in Peru.

Columban Father Ed O’Connell, who currently is living and working in Peru, noted that temporary chapels are often built when an area is first evangelized. These chapels provide a focal point, a beginning for the new Christian community. In areas where so many people are without reliable transportation, a chapel within walking distance is necessary to build faith communities, to serve the people and to encourage more active lay participation.

After a few years, more permanent structures are built for the communities. While most of the funding comes from generous benefactors, the local faith community provides the labor and some of the building materials. Working together, building their places of worship and outreach, strengthens the community’s bonds and their commitments to the Church and one another.

Project Mission

In early 2010, Fr. Ed began a project to build more chapels and expand their existing programs since the parishes are growing and spreading out over wider and outlying areas. With more than 60,000 Catholics in the area, more chapels and more services are needed. The chapels and their halls become meeting places for the community offering youth and healthcare services. The lay leadership teams are growing and taking on more responsibilities in the area of social issues. With such a wide pastoral presence, we are able to invite more people to hear the Good News and live and work together in true communion.

The chapels in Peru are good examples of a faith community living and worshipping together. We are part of the infinite family of God, and it is together that we make a difference.

Funding and Stability

Given the economic poverty of the people we serve in Peru, most of the monetary funding comes from our generous benefactors. Although the community is unable to fund the project, they provide something just as important, the time and the labor to build the chapels. Once the building materials have been purchased, the community does the rest. They ready the building site, clearing away any debris.

Once the site is ready, they start building the chapel – brick by brick, board by board. Anyone who has labored over a project, from a do it yourself home repair to knitting a sweater or scarf to mastering a new recipe in the kitchen knows the immense pleasure and satisfaction that comes from investing personal time and effort into a project. The local community invests in their future through the sweat of their brows and the calluses on their hands.