This past October, the celebrations of the 40th Anniversary of “La Sagrada Familia” parish in Sabana Yegua (Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic) concluded. As the readers of this Blog already know, “La Sagrada Familia” (founded in 1981) is the sister parish of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Since 2003 (that is, practically half of the history of the parish) “La Sagrada Familia” has been taken care by members (priests and laity) of the Community of Saint Paul.
To culminate the 40th Anniversary celebrations, on October 16, a Mass was celebrated in Sabana Yegua with the presence of Msgr. Jerome Listecki, Archbishop of Milwaukee, Msgr. Tomás Alejo, current Bishop of San Juan de la Maguana, Msgr. José Grullón, retired bishop of San Juan, several priests and many people who came from all the rural communities surrounding Sabana Yegua, who are part of the parish. A group of 20 pilgrims from Milwaukee were also in attendance, led by Antoinette Mensah, director of the World Mission Office in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. It was a great feast: after the Eucharist there were dances, traditional music, and a meal for more than 600 people.
It was, in short, a beautiful occasion to celebrate four decades of solidarity between two sister churches. In the Community of Saint Paul we are happy and grateful for having been part of this history for almost twenty years now, and we look forward to the future of “La Sagrada Familia”, which has done so much good (and wants to continue doing so!) in this area of the southwest of the Dominican Republic.
