Mission Chapel takes shape at last

“What goes outwards always comes back inwards”  - Venzuelan Proverb

Chapel Foundations

In the early sixties the Marist Fathers took over three country parishes in Valencia, Venezuela. Gradually, due to a population explosion in all of Venezuela,  the three parishes grew by the thousands and the Marists remained with what was the little town of Flor Amarilla where they are until this day.

In the seventies, there was a movement to set up a chapel of worship in the parish,  begun in the small marginal community of Bucaral, where the recently completed  Juan Claudio Colin College is situated. This movement was then taken up by all the other sectors of the parish .
The first chapel to be built was that of the community of St Peter Chanel in Paso Real in the late seventies. It has been a chapel of many blessings and wonderful community projects throughout the years, being in a way responsible for  a living faith in what is a very violent and depressed neighbourhood.

It was here where New Zealander, Fr Patrick Brophy,  with the enthusiasm of the local community, established the Juan Claudio Colin College some twenty years ago.
The other sectors gradually managed to erect their chapel/ centres but poor old Bucaral , the community of San Andres, has tripped and fallen so many times during the last  thirty years and up until now  boasts only  of a  lean-to chapel centre which  the local people show a certain reluctance to participate in.

But “hope springs eternal” and with the Juan Claudio Colin College next door, which so needs a centre for prayer, worship and Catholic witness, and at the same time  all sectors of the parish focusing now on the community of  St Andrew’s Bucaral, the little community  that thirty years ago presented a dream, led the way, and then failed year after year  until now, finally by the end of this year 2012 will have its chapel /centre. “What goes outwards always comes back inwards.”

More so when ‘People Power’, as in the Community of San Pedro Chanel, Paso Real and the  greater Juan Claudio Colin College community, makes a dream come true. Finances are well under way but  some outside help is required
Anyone wishing to help finish this Chapel can send donations to Marist Mission Liaison 88 Hobson St, Wgtn 6011