A priest from Peru finds help in Stoneham
Published on June 27th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - For the past two weeks, St. Patrick Parish hosted Fr. Luis Cappelleti, a Roman Catholic priest from Peru.
Fr. Cappelleti arrived at the church on June 9 to begin a task that would very much affect the entire community of San Bartolo, a town 30 miles south of the Peruvian capital of Lima. Fr. Cappelleti represents an organization in Peru called the Christian Life Movement which is undertaking the building of a pastoral and training center in the poor village of San Bartolo. The purpose of the priest's visit was to gain some much-needed support for this worthy cause.
The Christian Life Movement that sponsors this program is in turn sponsored by a Peruvian-born sodality. Fr. Cappelleti is a member of this organization of priests called the Sodality of Christian Life, which has been officially recognized by the Pope.
The complex being built, which will be called the St. Peter Apostle Pastoral Center, will serve many functions. Primarily, the center will be used for both pastoral and training purposes. It will serve as a tool to strengthen the poverty-stricken families both religiously and financially. When finished, the center will include a chapel, classrooms, an amphitheater, a cafeteria, meeting rooms, a recreation area, and shops for labor training.
The concentration on labor training will seek to solve what Fr. Cappelleti views as his community's most crippling problem.
"These people really want to work, but nobody taught them, or they don't have the tools," Cappelleti says about the dismal state of labor in San Bartolo.
The people of this poor fishing village find themselves stung by poverty because they simply have no means of obtaining financial resources. When addressing this problem, Fr. Cappelleti's motto is the adage: “It is good to give a fish to a hungry person, but it is better to teach him how to fish." Therefore, the Saint Peter Apostle Pastoral Center will primarily provide a place where community members can receive training in a variety of trades. In time, the center will host classes in carpentry, fishing, sewing and other crafts.
Meanwhile, the center will also be providing other services to help in resuscitating the economy of San Bartolo. Already, the center offers day-care for single mothers (an immense problem even in this Peruvian village). It provides teenagers with a haven from the streets and nutrition classes to keep them healthy. Fr. Cappelleti also hopes to take the community into the 21st century by offering computer classes once the center obtains computers.
Despite all that the center already has to offer, the project is only about a third completed, and Cappelleti's Christian Life Movement still needs much support. He found some of that support in Stoneham. According to Cappelleti, four people, including a young married couple, have already committed to traveling to San Bartolo within the next six months to help with the project. Cappelleti has also had parishioners from St. Patrick Church who are nurses, schoolteachers, and electricians offer to donate their services to the erection of the center. Parishioners have also donated a great deal of financial resources to the project. Cappelleti also hopes that an ongoing mission project between St. Patrick Parish and his own parish in Peru will develop from his visit. This could include correspondence, visits from members of both parishes and prayer.
Overall, Fr. Cappelleti has been both enthusiastic and very pleased with the generosity of the parish.
However, Cappelleti did not seem too surprised by the overflowing support. He alluded to the Archdiocese of Boston's tradition of supporting missions and the strong sentiments of unity that permeate the Catholic Church.
"What's important is that we all belong to the Church of Christ," Cappelleti says, commenting on the universal bond of the Church that often fosters such generosity.
Although invited by Cardinal Law to Boston, Fr. Cappelleti stayed at Saint Patrick's since he is a personal friend of its pastor, Fr. William Schmidt. The two met in Germany in 1992 and Fr. Schmidt welcomed the opportunity for his parish to help Fr. Cappelleti and his church in Peru.
"This project is a dream that is becoming real," Cappelleti says, and the parishioners of St. Patrick Church have certainly helped to make it so.
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