St. Alphonsus Parishioners Live Their Faith by Committing to Building New Church in Guatemala

At the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's web site there's a graphic link to the Living Our Faith evangelization initiative, and its home page links include examples of how living our faith means to teach, inspire, and serve. This was the first example of service, from November 29, 2007.

What began 12 years ago as a youth ministry project at St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale, has now grown to a parish-wide initiative to build a new church for residents of Xecoil, Guatemala.

Just in case you were ever told that mission is not about building churches. Here's an earlier post from the visit to Xecoil, and an earlier post about the fund drive.

Formal approval was given at a November parish council meeting at which the Xecoil project was discussed, along with the archdiocesan Living Our Faith initiative.

Of the three current Archdiocesan initiatives, Faith In Our Future was fundraising. Now the evangalization initiative, Living Our Faith, turns into fundraising. Next, I suppose, the Vision: 21st Century Planning initiative will turn into fundraising.

There has been an abundance of ideas to generate financial support for the Xecoil project.

Including, in Youth Ministry, substituting it for the usual project, financing two new homes for people in Central America or the Caribbean through Food for the Poor. I'm skeptical that there's an evangelization, or community-building, benefit from yet another fund drive at our parish that outweighs making these "Third World" people wait for their church and their houses.