On Tuesday, June 12, Provincial Father Ray, Vicar Father Ponce, Father Eleazar, Father Steven and Father Jesse met with the Bishop of Ensenada to agree on dates and other details about the new mission.
The bishop told the Oblates that Ensenada has been a very forgotten place in terms of evangelization.
Currently, there are only 40 diocesan priests and 10 religious in a diocese that is very large, with distances of up to nine hours from one end to the other. Many people see Ensenada as a vacation spot, but the reality is very different in the peripheries, outside the center, where there are many migrants who have come from Mexico and have been deported from the United States.
There is a great need for evangelization in these areas. Unfortunately, with only 40 priests, it has been very difficult to bring the needed evangelization to these places. There is only one priest who is dedicated to the homeless living on the streets, many of whom come from the United States and other parts of Latin America.
Poverty is very deep in these areas, and protestant denominations have grown due to the lack of catholic attention, which has made the Ensenada diocese one of the coldest in terms of evangelization. For this reason, the bishop of Ensenada is very happy that the Oblates are opening a mission. From the beginning, he showed great interest because he knows the great need that Ensenada has at this time. The Oblates are also very happy to be able to carry on the work of St. Eugene, going to places where there is much need and where no one else wants to go.
They will work in the Sacred Heart parish, which is 40 minutes from downtown Ensenada, where there had not been a priest before. It is a parish with three chapels and recently the bishop assigned a priest for the first time, which has led to some growth in the community. However, there is still a great need for priests who can motivate, lead and help this low-income community.
In this area there is a population of young people who travel by bus to the University of Ensenada and stay there because there is a bus that goes directly to the university in 40 minutes. For this reason, there is a great field to work with the youth.
July 2nd was a historic day where some details about this mission were decided. On Wednesday, August 7 at six o’clock in the evening, Fathers Eleazar Manuel Lopez and Steven Montes. This is the beginning of one more story of the great missions of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Baja California. May God bless you.
Leave a Reply