Working Group Forms at Annual De Mazenod Conference
- At May 21, 2018
- By Shari Biediger
- In Meetings & Events
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The Missionary Oblate Partnership held its 7th Annual De Mazenod Conference February 9-11, 2018, at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio.
This year’s conference brought the Partnership together with the U.S. Province’s administrative team to reflect and comment on three major areas of concern for the Province as it moves forward – sustainability, ministry and vocations.
At the conference, several keynote speakers presented prior to the discussion, including Brad Myers, former senior program officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, now a private consultant in the field of philanthropy, and Fr. Louis Studer, OMI, the U.S. Oblate Provincial.
There were also presentations on specific conference topics delivered by Province Treasurer Fr. James Chambers, OMI, (who spoke about sustainability), Vicar-Provincial/Office of Mission & Ministry Fr. James Brobst, OMI (ministry) and Vocations Director Fr. Richard Hall, OMI (vocations).
After two days of presentations and group discussions, partners and administrators formed a working group that will narrow the themes and specific suggestions from the meeting, then match each with the Oblates, their resources, and convictions.
Oblate Partnership members named to this group include Sermet Agolli, Bob Klosterman, Frank Gittinger, Shari Biediger, Artie Pingolt, Ed Murray, HOMI, Fr. Studer, OMI, Fr. Chambers, OMI, and Fr. Brobst, OMI.
Pingolt reflected on the history of the Partnership and noted that it began as a group of well-meaning and well-to-do individuals who appreciated the Oblates and wanted to support them.
“I think we’re a much more diverse group than that now,” he said. “Nevertheless, we’ll be continuing to deploy our resources in ways that advances the Province and the charism.
“For example, this year we’ve launched the Partnership Mission Fund that responds to requests from foreign Oblates. In this first year, that new fund has made grants to Oblate ministries in Chad, Tijuana, India, Paraguay, Peru, Haiti, and here in the U.S.”
Pingolt added that the Partnership will likely continue as the “go-to” resource when needed. “When the Province wanted to build the School of Theology in Zambia, the Partnership funded nearly three-quarters of it. The Partnership also provided nearly 60 percent of the funds for the new residences at the Oblate Scholasticate in San Antonio.”
Attending the conference were Jasmine Azima, Shari and Charlie Biediger, Mary and Greg Blasko, Dianne and Ed Murray, Muriel and Bob Klosterman, Theresa Sandok, OSM, Vivian Vance, Paul Vance, Gee Gee and John Whitehurst, Bonnie and Frank Gittinger, Bill Morell, OMI, Frank Santucci, OMI, Seamus Finn, OMI, Lou Studer, OMI, Jim Brobst, OMI, Jim Chambers, OMI, Art Flores, OMI, Janet Payne, Joanna Perkins, Leo Perez, OMI, David Kalert, OMI, Michael Whitehurst, Mike Koroscik, Lauretta and Sermet Agolli, and Artie Pingolt.
Jesse Esqueda, OMI: A Talent and Passion for Service
PARTNER PROFILE
In the largest and most poverty-stricken diocese in Tijuana, Mexico, just south of the border from California, Jesse Esqueda, OMI, went to work two years ago at his first mission as an Oblate priest.
This year, with the San Eugenio Parish mission right-sized and turned over to the Archdiocese, Fr. Esqueda and the mission will move to where the need is even greater – the poorest and least developed part of the parish to the east.
Born in Mexico, and raised in Southern California, Fr. Esqueda grew up “a curious child,” he said, raised in a home filled with music and faith.
“My father was a very talented violinist and worked full time as a musician,” he said. “From my father, I learned the value of hard work, honesty and commitment.”
Fr. Jesse Esqueda, OMI
From his mother, Fr. Esqueda learned faith, generosity and service. “She was always around guiding our spiritual life,” he said. “We grew up praying the rosary together every evening and attending mass every Sunday. My mother was a very strong and generous woman. She was a catechist, parish leader and missionary.”
His father passed away in 1993 and his mother lost a battle with cancer last September.
As an outgoing child, Fr. Esqueda had been so involved in his parish growing up that when he graduated from high school, he joined a SEARCH retreat ministry in Los Angeles.
“It was during this time that I discovered my talents and passion for service,” he said. So he followed a call to become a long-term missionary experience in Honduras, Central America.
There, he worked in the Diocese of San Pedro Sula as a youth advisor and elementary school teacher, also volunteering in an orphanage of children living with HIV/AIDS while pursuing a theology degree from the Catholic University in Honduras.
“The experience of sharing my life with the poor, the sick and the suffering changed my life forever,” he said. After two years, Fr. Esqueda returned to California to work as a youth minister in the Oblate parish of Santa Rosa Church. “The Oblate spirit, compassion, and zeal for the mission encouraged me to continue with my discernment process.”
He entered the pre-novitiate program in Buffalo, NY, in 2007, then continued his formation at the Oblate Novitiate In Godfrey, Illinois, before professing fist vows as an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. In 2014, Fr. Esqueda earned a master’s degree in divinity from the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio and was ordained a priest. He set out for his first mission in Tijuana.
“There are about 200,000 people living within our parish boundaries,” he said of San Eugenio, which was established in 1996. “We have 14 mission churches in 14 different communities. Each mission church functions as a small parish. Each mission church has many ministries including a religious education program and a youth group.”
Three priests and one Oblate brother currently work at the mission. They will soon be moving the mission closer to Union Antorchista and Fuentes, where new migrants tend to build along railroad tracks, squatting on federal land, in neighborhoods lacking basic infrastructure such as paved roads, potable water, sanitation and electricity.
Learn more about the mission and the people of San Eugenio here.
“We seek out and immerse ourselves in the lives of the most abandoned in their many faces and voices, and struggle with those most affected by conflicts.” – OMI Vision Statement
Fr. Esqueda with the youth ministry program. There are over 300 active youth from Tijuana in the program.