CM Bolivian Mission Focuses on Rural Poor

During the past year, the Vincentian Mission in the Diocese of El Alto, Bolivia, has re-focused its energies on a rural sector of the Bolvian Altiplano. Withdrawing from commitments in the city of El Alto itself, the Vincentian Mission is now centered in two sprawling parishes in the Camacho province at the northern end of the Cordillera Real. San Miguel de Italaque and San Pedro de Mocomoco encompass a broad area of inter-andean valleys and high arid plains. Their 86 communities of mostly Aymaran-speaking peoples are, for the most part, farmers and herders. The two parishes have a similar thrust: to maintain and to grow the faith-life of the communities through sacramental celebration, catchesis, and formation of local lay leaders. Additionally, both parishes provide an array of human and community development services.

Vincentian Fathers Cyrille de la Barre de Nantueil (France), Diego Plá Aranda (Spain) and Aidan R. Rooney (USA, along with their respective lay teams, travel far and wide, by auto and by foot, to serve the people. Cyrille serves alone at this time in Italaque (33 communities) as he awaits the replacement of Peruvian Vincentian Father Aníbal Vera Guerrero, who reurns to his native Peru this month. Diego and Aidan serve the 53 communities of Mocomoco.

Both parishes have regular newsletters — Cyrille writes in French in downloadable PDF format on the French Famvin site, and Aidan maintains a blog with postings in Englsih and sometimes in English and Spanish called Voces Vicentinas.