La Morita Mission, So close. Yet… So Far!

By Patricio Espinoza, OblateMissions.org

Oblate Partners visit La Morita Mission

La Morita is a community south of the California, Mexico border.  Here Oblate Missionaries serve more than 250,000 people.

In 2010 Partners visited La Morita Mission, as part of a  field trip to the site during the Missionary Oblate Partnership Meeting and Retreat in San Diego California.

La Morita is only minutes south of the Tijuana-San Diego border.  Four Oblates and one brother manage Casa San Eugenio, several chapels , a clinic, a community center and more.  The streets are only dirt roads that turn into thick layers of mud during the rainy winter months.

And life? Life is not easy here, most families survive doing odd jobs, many are elderly, and the young are unemployed. Often a family’s weekly income barely covers their basic needs like groceries.

Oblate Missionaries in La Morita bring as much comfort as their resources and donations allow. Their medical center helps children and the elderly, there is also help and education for children with special needs, and on a weekly basis many of the families receive their “despensa”, a groceries bag with basic foods including milk, rice, beans, oil.

A mission serving the materially poor

Mobile Clinic

For I was … ill and you cared for me ….”

The Casa San Eugenio, in the Oblate Mission of La Morita, Tijuana, started as a response to the painful fact of a high rate of infant mortality during the cold winter months.

After years of struggle the building was completed and the clinic opened in 2003.  Additional ¨building¨ continued through the following years: the dental clinic was opened, the eye clinic came into being, the community center was started, and psychological and psychiatric services were added.  Along with all of this the mobile clinic became operational and other programs were added in different parts of the Mission.

Today, the Casa San Eugenio serves a widespread area with a population of an estimated 250,000 inhabitants.

Visiting the dentist is not so bad ....

During 2011, Clínica San Eugenio provided medical services to close to 7,000 persons, of whom almost 1,2oo could not afford to and did not pay for the services.  The Mobile Clinic served more than 1,600 persons by providing, among others, laboratory services to about 400 persons and donated medicines to more than 800 persons.

Close to 1,000 received chiropractic services also thanks to the Mobile Clinic.  More than 1,700 persons visited the Dental Clinic; about 100 had their eyes checked by an ophthalmologist, and almost 500 persons received psychological or psychiatric advice.

Zambian missionaries need special driving skills ….

St. Eugene de Mazenod Church, Lukona

Take the example of the Oblates based in Kalabo that also serve the recently dedicated St. Eugene de Mazenod Church in Lukona.

The trip from Kalabo takes about three hours on a very narrow and twisted track that alternates grass, sand, and mud.  The track borders, barely missing, many small villages crowded with small children, goats, chicken, and some belligerent dogs that make running in front of a passing car the occasion for their daily quota of exercise.  Smiling little faces welcome the distraction and children enthusiastically wave their hands and shout their greetings … but the driver can hardly respond … he has to concentrate on the next twist of the track and on what lies just around the corner.

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New chapel inaugurated in Mongu

On the Oblate Feast Day, February 17th, 2012, members of the Zambia Delegation blessed a new chapel in Mongu, capital of the Western Province.  The celebration was graced by more than 30 religious men and women working in Mongu.

Jack Joyce Chapel - Mongu

The new chapel just completed will also serve as a broadcast center for Oblate Community Radio Liseli broadcasting Masses, other spiritual gatherings and mission related programming to several outstations and other local ministries.

Additionally, the chapel will be used by other members of the faith community for prayer, meditation and Mass.  In summary, it will provide a “home for the people.”

Blessing of the De Mazenod Formation House in Lusaka, Zambia

Marking the end of Zambia Delegation 2011 Assembly, on December 31, Bishop Evans Chinyama Chinyemba, OMI, of the Mongu Diocese and Fr. Bill Antone, OMI, Provincial Superior of the USA Province, jointly blessed the De Mazenod Formation House in Lusaka, Zambia.

Also present at the blessing were Rev. Fr. Lous Studer, OMI, Vicar of the US Province, Fr. Freeborn Kibombwe, OMI, Superior of the Zambia Delegation, and all the Oblates and scholastic of the Zambia Delegation that had taken part of the Delegation assembly.

Makeni inaugurated

Since its founding in 1984, the Zambia Delegation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate has been blessed with many young Zambians who want to become Oblates.

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Beatification of Oblate Spanish Martyrs

Official Portrait used at the Beatification in Madrid, Spain.

The Beatification of twenty-two Oblate Spanish Martyrs, and one layman who were executed during the 1936 Spanish Civil War took place Saturday, December 17th in Madrid, Spain.

On July 20, 1936, churches and convents were again set on fire, especially in Madrid. The militiamen of Pozuelo assaulted a chapel of the Estacionneighborhood, flung images and vestments onto the street and burn them. Then they set the chapel and parish on fire. On July 22, armed militiamen assaulted the monastery and detained 38 religious,putting them under guard.

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The only way to and from, Oblate Mission of Kalabo

Zambian bringing roofing materials

The Zambezi River crosses the Barotse Floodplain, in the Western Province of Zambia and influences every aspect of the life of the Lozi people that inhabit it.

During several months of the year, large extensions of the plain are underwater and the only way to and from the Oblate Mission of Kalabo is by boat, navigating over flooded grasslands.

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The Oblates Gave Me Hope

La Morita, Mexico

About six years ago, Adriana González started attending classes on sewing, popcicles making, manual arts, and textile painting at the San Eugenio Community Center, in La Morita near Tijuana, Mexico.

Since 1996 the Oblates of the San Eugenio de Mazenod Mission have been ministering to thousands of the more than 300,000 men, women and children many who like Adriana live in the Colonia La Morita and surrounding areas, on the outer edge of the city of Tijuana.

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