Life in our Sister Parish, San Ildefonso

 San Ildefonso is a parish like ours with a central church building, but it serves approximately 90 separate communities dotting the hillsides of the high mountain ranges of central Chiapas. While the parish serves a mestizo community in Tenejapa itself, most of the parishioners are indians, descended from the Mayans. These indigenous people live mostly in the countryside, and largely on subsistence farming. Their homes are strung together along a tenuous network of mostly unpaved roads and footpaths. They speak Tzeltal, one of the five Mayan languages spoken in Chiapas.
   
A single priest is responsible for all of these parishioners. The priest currently assigned is Padre Gabriel Arreguin Villa. (As in our own parish, there can be relatively rapid turnover in pastors.) He ministers to them with the help of a brother and several religious women of the same order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and Virgin Guadalupe, and local deacons and youth ministers.He spends most of his time outside the city of Tenejapa, travelling through the parish worshiping and celebrating with parishioners in their community churches, which are called "hermitas."
   

Not all of the people within the parish and who call themselves catholic practice the faith in the same way we do. However, most of the people who gather in the hermitas and who consider themselves our sister parishioners worship in ways we would find familiar. They call themselves people of "La Parabla de Dios" - the Word of God. In fact, whether at church or at work, they proudly identify themselves as people of "La Parabla de Dios." The Word of God has tangible meaning for them, as our SSPP parishioners have witnessed during our visits there.
   
They pool their meager resources to build the hermitas. Their Masses are colorful, lively and joyous. They collectively plan their liturgies, often drawing the inspiration from the congregation just as it gathers. Part of the Mass is spent in discussion groups, talking over the meaning of the day's Gospel and reporting to the congregation at large. The leaders of the community consider it an honor to be trained as deacons. The meetings they hold at work are punctuated with prayer, and they seek the blessings of the church on their work. They feel honored that our parish keeps them in our prayers.