Joyfully celebrating anniversary

	Bishop Robert J. Banks

The first week of my "retirement" was spent at our mission parish in the Dominican Republic. As you know from other Compass reports, the occasion was the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of our diocesan collaboration with the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, principally at Elías Piña.

I am sure that Mark Mogilka, our diocesan director of Pastoral Services, who was also there for the occasion, will fill you in on the important details of the celebration in his own report. Or, at least, that was the assignment given him by all of us who were present there. I shall just add a few personal observations, like "How come I got the basement room in the hotel that first night in Santo Domingo?"

Fr. Michael Seis, better known as Padre Miguel, our pastor at the Parish of Santa Teresa in Elías Piña, received me with even more than his usual generous hospitality. Aware that I would undoubtedly once again forget to take the prescribed anti-malarial medicine before my visit, he had an even larger fan ready to keep off any mosquitoes that might invade my bedroom. And it was not his fault that the electric company shut off the electricity to run the fan for a couple of nights.

Morning wake-up

And this year I had the "bathroom" all to myself, minus the water every once in a while. Padre Miguel is still working on the electric showerhead to heat the water when it comes, but it simply resists a solution despite the four years of intense effort. So he once again warned me not to touch any of the live wires while I showered. The combination of cold water plus the possibility of electrocution served as a real wake-up each morning.

Padre Miguel also honored me by inviting me to give the homily at the Anniversary Mass, even though the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Broglio, and the wonderful local bishop, Bp. Jose Grillon, would also be principal celebrants. I wisely asked our Fr. Bill Hoffman, former pastor at Elías Piña for many years and now pastor of St. Therese in Appleton, to prepare the homily. It was a masterpiece, and despite my inventive Spanish pronunciation, the congregation seemed to appreciate it.

Before the Mass, there was a more or less informal procession with a statue of the parish patroness, St. Teresa of Avila, through the streets around the church. Padre Miguel invited me to lead the procession with him and even encouraged one of the women who was holding an umbrella over his head as protection from the heat of the sun to take care of me instead. So for the first time in a church procession I walked along holding hands with a kindly woman as she warded off the sun with her umbrella.

Something to be proud of

But that is enough about Padre Miguel's hospitality. This anniversary was a special occasion and it celebrated something that in the Diocese of Green Bay we can be proud of. For 40 years our priests, supported generously by our people, have provided exceptional pastoral care to the people of Elías Piña, many of whom live in the poorest conditions found in this hemisphere.

There has been some obvious economic improvement in the central area of the parish, though it still is a poor third world town, but I was reminded by a trip up one of the local mountains of the grinding poverty suffered by the many who live in the countryside.

Hard road to climb

In the parish Toyota, we ground our way up the mountain at a pace of about one half mile an hour on a road worse than what you have seen on any SUV commercial. We were going to visit a clinic - that is Spanish for a cement house with nothing in it but a couple of cots for the patients who will be seen by a nurse once a month, if then. We also visited a new school built near the top of the mountain with funds from the Holy See. It consisted of two empty classrooms with an adjoining tiny suite for the teacher who would have to stay there during the week. They are still looking for the teacher.

The people whose children will go to that school live in what can only be described as shacks, located alongside the almost vertical road at intervals of about a thousand yards. The fathers of the children probably work in the privately-owned avocado farm of about 50,000 acres perched on the side of the mountain. They earn, when they work, about a dollar a day. Some of the avocados, I understand, are sold in stores here in Green Bay for much more than a dollar.

Providing pastoral care

Despite the economic conditions of the Elías Piña area, our priests offer the best kind of pastoral care to old and young. I was particularly impressed that some 50 or 60 young boys are servers, and five are scheduled every day for daily Mass. Maybe that is why the parish has a half dozen young men in the seminary. And among others who were servers over the years are a doctor, some engineers, teachers and others who have gone on to further education. That is true also of a good number of the young women in the parish.

If all goes well, a vocational college, presently under construction by the government at the behest of the parish, will be completed and then run by the parish. That will be a wonderful boost for the whole area, if it happens.

Priests are well-received

An indication of the quality of the priests and the pastoral care they give is the fact that for several years the top two positions in the diocese, next to the bishop, were held by our priests. Fr. Seis was and continues to be the Vicar General of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, and Fr. Bill Hoffman was the Pastoral Vicar of the whole diocese.

Perhaps a better indication was the reception that the people, young and old, men and women, gave to the Green Bay priests who returned to Elías Piña for the celebration. Some parishioners walked in from the countryside for four and five hours to embrace and say "Thanks" to the priests who had served them.

The only sad note is that so many of our own people here in Green Bay do not know about our missionary parish in the Dominican Republic. They do not know of the great work our priests do, and they do not know of all the good that our financial generosity has made and continues to make possible in one of the poorest areas of this hemisphere.