‘Missionaries at home’ were the driving force behind the creation of a new Columban parish in Lima.
By Frs. John Hegerty & Ed O’ Connell

Children participate in a program at the new Peruvian parish of Nuestra Señora de las Misiones.

Forty new housing associations built homes to form a suburb that adjoined two Columban parishes, El Pacifico and Huandoy. We Columbans pitched in to set up the Nuestra Señora de las Misiones parish, but it’s the lay people who are now responsible for its organization and administration. Rather than create one huge centralized parish, neighborhood centers were established.

Before the Nuestra Señora de las Misiones parish was established, the residents in the area came to our two parishes asking for services. When we were unable to meet their needs, we asked the local bishop to provide services for them. But no priests or Sisters were available, and the pressure on our parishes grew.

A Fresh Approach
When Columbans gathered to discuss this predicament, we eventually decided on a new approach in which the principal assets in building a parish were the enthusiasm and goodwill of people already active in Christian communities. We invited lay people from our parishes to meet with us, and more than 40 volunteers turned up.

We challenged them to be “missionaries at home” to this new area. Our aim was to organize a Christian community in each civic area of this new suburb, and the volunteers willingly offered much of their free time to help. Over the next few Sundays, they went door-knocking, asking people in this new area their opinions about a new parish.

After we discussed what the volunteer missionaries had learned, the next step was to train them in building parish communities and to assign them to different areas of the suburb. The volunteers began visiting local people each week and gradually organized small groups to serve the area’s religious needs.

Religious communities gradually started to emerge: Parents prepared their children for baptism; others prepared for first Communion; youth groups were formed; and other groups dedicated themselves to working with people in need.

The individuals all started to see themselves as part of the larger community. Some of the original religious communities either didn’t survive or merged. But today, 12 viable communities, which can be described as “mini-parishes,” remain.

The Strength Of Women
Looking back, we realized that the religious communities succeeded when the volunteer missionaries knew how to listen. When they came to the project with a fixed agenda, failure was common.

The poor women volunteers amazed us with their great enthusiasm and faith in forming these communities. They could not articulate themselves well, yet they often had the most success in building communities. Their achievements stemmed from the confidence their “strength in weakness” gave to the people around them.

The parishioners’ confidence grew from having a prominent say in how their community is run. They realize it is “our community” and that it will die if they don’t become involved. They learned to be assertive in taking responsibility for their parish.

This was demonstrated one Sunday when a priest was delayed on his way to Mass and had no way of contacting the church. After a reasonable wait, the community leaders gathered to organize their own liturgy with readings, prayers and Communion service. This came naturally to them, because there is typically one Sunday Mass each month in which they organize their own liturgies.

In a typical Catholic Church in Peru, there are about 60 active community members. But in the 12 communities served by the church of Nuestra Señora de las Misiones, more than 700 parishioners are involved.

Now that the parish centers are established, there is an impressive variety of activities. There are groups that prepare liturgies and sacraments, while others address youth, poverty and social issues. There are also contributions from lay missionaries and Sisters in helping women cope with difficulties in their own lives.

By coming together, lay people have created a parish that serves themselves and their neighbors as they work together to reach God’s kingdom.

Fr. John Hegerty, the vice director of the Peru region for the Columbans, was ordained in 1971 and has spent his mission life working in Peru and his native Australia.

Fr. Ed O’Connell of England is the director of the Peru region. He was ordained in 1973.