A Note of Thanks from FSSP Guadalajara

In July of this year, we informed you of the repairs needed at our parish in Guadalajara following serious damage inflicted by some vicious storms. You responded generously, and a note of thanks from pastor Fr. Daniel Heenan arrived recently along with some updates on the project.

Thank you for your support.

On behalf of our entire parish, San Pedro en Cadenas, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, I would like to thank all those who have supported generously our church restoration project. As we explained when we reached out for help, the beautiful church of Our Lady of the Pillar is an historic church in the center of Guadalajara that has many needs. We are privileged to be able to use it, but as any pastor of an old church will tell you, keeping up with the maintenance costs can be quite difficult.

I wanted to write the letter of gratitude and also to give a word of explanation about the slowness of the project. Mexico is notorious for bureaucracy and church repairs are no exception. Beginning under Benito Juárez in the middle of the 19th century and culminating under Plutarco Elias Calles in the 1920s during the Cristero period, the Mexican government confiscated all religious buildings. To this day all churches (except those built after 1992) are technically “National Patrimony.” Unfortunately this does not mean that the government takes care of the churches. It does mean that we have to obtain special permissions before doing any work. We are still in the application for the permissions to begin doing the work. One virtue an American working in Mexico certainly has to learn is patience.

We are working diligently to move this project ahead and we will continue to update you by means of the Missive when the work gets underway.

May God bless you.

Fr. Daniel Heenan, FSSP

And update you we will. Stay tuned here at the Missive for the latest on the restoration project, and again, thank you and may God reward your generosity! +