Woodlands parishioners dedicate Honduras mission chapel
February 14, 2017
The chapel is seen where members of mission group at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church attended a dedication ceremony for the chapel. Photo courtesy of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.
THE WOODLANDS — Members of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church’s Honduras Mission attended the dedication ceremony of a newly built chapel in the mountain village of La Esperancita, Honduras.
The chapel was built by the villagers with a fund for the building materials provided for by the parishioners of St. Anthony. On hand to celebrate the chapel’s Dedication Mass were mission team members Dr. Teresa Romero, Joe Romero, Kate Mims and Hector Vallejo along with St Anthony’s Pastor Father Tom Rafferty and Mission Director Deacon Mike Mort.
The Dedication Mass took place on Sunday, Jan. 22, and was celebrated by Bishop Luis Sole, Father Gildo Ramirez (Pastor), Father Rafferty and Deacon Mort. Twenty-one men and women from the three communities the mission supports received the Sacrament of Confirmation. The entire village was on hand to join in a feast following the Mass.
St. Anthony of Padua’s Honduran Mission began in 2014 providing medical and dental services, catechetical teaching and Sacramental instruction in the mountain communities of La Colonia and El Mirador. Over the past three years, the mission had added the villages of Las Brisas and La Esperancita.
What started primarily as a medical mission to bring medical and dental services to the mountain communities, the mission team has since built two chapels and expanded or renovated two additional chapels, provided clean water filters, facilitated in supplying electricity to one village, assisted in starting a secondary education program, provided for a local catechist, and supported the local priests and nuns.
This past September, 70 missionaries comprised of medical, dental, catechetical, Sacramental and logistic teams went to Honduras and the doctors and dentist were able to see and treat more than 1,100 villagers in the four communities over the four days spent in the mountains. The mission priests and deacons administered Baptisms, First Communions, Anointing of the Sick, Reconciliation and witnessed marriages in the villages.
For additional information on St. Anthony of Padua’s 2017 Honduran Mission (Sept. 23 to 30) contact Deacon Mike Mort mmort@staoptw.org, Franklin Marsan marsanfranklin@yahoo.com or Michelle Rieger e.michelle.rieger@gmail.com or visit www.globalrm.net.