Holy Trinity’s relationship with Maria Madre de los Pobres (Mary Mother of the Poor) began over 18 years ago.  Begun in the midst of El Salvador’s civil war, the relationship has been multifaceted including financial and material help from Holy Trinity, common efforts for social justice and dignity, and faith sharing solidarity through visits and friendships developed over the years.

Maria Madre de los Pobres is located in an impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador’s capital city.  Fleeing violence in the countryside as the war intensified during the late 1970’s and 80’s, the original Maria Madre parishioners settled along the railroad tracks in a former garbage dump.  They organized a parish in 1984 and Padre Daniel Sanchez, a missionary from Spain, became their pastor.  The brutal civil war lasted until the signing of a peace accord in 1991 and surviving the violence and the horrific poverty surrounding them was a preoccupation.

The seeds of Holy Trinity’s sister parish relationship with Maria Madre were set in 1986 when Holy Trinity’s pastor Jim Maier spent six weeks in Maria Madre and shared stories of his visit there.  Parishioners interested in making a commitment to a Christian community beyond US borders initiated a process for making Maria Madre our second sister parish after considerable discussion among themselves and with other parishioners.  In 1989 the parish to parish relationship was formalized by a review and approval of the Parish Council, followed by a visit from Padre Daniel and a visit to Maria Madre by six HT parishioners later that summer.  Since that first visit, many Holy Trinity adults and youth have visited Maria Madre, in groups and occasionally as individuals.

Since the beginning of the sister parish relationship, Holy Trinity has contributed funds each year to support CAPI, Maria Madre’s “kinder” program that provides education and day care services for small children in the parish.  Later, Holy Trinity provided funds to establish community “micro” credit organizations that provide loans of $50 to $100 to members for their small business activities.  Other past and current projects carried out by Maria Madre parishioners include health, dental and eyeglass clinics, a sewing cooperative, a bakery and a cooperative farm on the outskirts of the city.

The 16 years of peace have brought new challenges to our sister parish.  Peace has not meant prosperity for many Salvadorans.  Many people at Maria Madre continue to live in makeshift housing.  Violence remains as threat to their safety.  The Parish continues to offer medical, dental and eyeglass services through its clinic projects.  The CAPI kinder program and the community banks continue as does the agricultural cooperative and scholarships for high school and college education..  Newer projects are the foster care program, an elder day-care center, legal assistance and an evangelization effort in the poorest margins of the parish.  (See their Pastoral Plan for 2007 ^PDF.)  These basic services provided by the parish remain the only ones available to most residents.

Padre Daniel remained as the pastor until 2005 and the parish he launched now serves a community of over 36,000.  Having been a missionary priest for 25 years in El Salvador, Padre Daniel retired to Spain and was able to name his successor, Padre Luis Salazar, as the new pastor of Maria Madre.  Within a year, however, Padre Daniel missed El Salvador, and requested to return.  In 2007, he was given a parish about an hour away from Maria Madre.

Earthquakes in El Salvador in 2004 decimated many homes throughout the country and damaged some 40 homes in the parish.  As they had in the past, Maria Madre parishioners organized to collect food and clothing and provide assistance to families in other communities and their own.  For families who live at the margins of poverty, such catastrophes can be particularly devastating.  With the absence of civil war and (fortunately) new earthquakes, El Salvador is less visible in US media.  However, our sister parishioners continue to need Holy Trinity’s support, financial and spiritual.

The El Salvador Parish to Parish Committee serves as the primary liaison group with the parishioners of Maria Madre.  Activities of the committee include the pre-Christmas craft sale that benefits our sister parish.  The Parish has also benefited from HT parishioners’ purchase of alternative Christmas cards which have helped fund numerous special projects such as the construction of a new church building and development of the farm cooperative.  The Parish to Parish Committee also works with HT worship planning groups to remember Maria Madre in HT liturgies on special occasions important to our sister parishioners, such as the celebration of the birthday of Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran Archbishop whose courageous voice for the poor inspired countless thousand in their struggle for human dignity.

Holy Trinity continues to provide funding for CAPI, Maria Madre’s kinder program of education and child care that enables families to pursue work opportunities.  CAPI’s needs are even greater today as costs have increased and the ability of Maria Madre families to pay has decreased.  In 2005, Padre Daniel asked the staff to add a first grade, to educate children in the neighborhood who had been expelled from public school for behavior problems or learning disabilities.  The CAPI teachers have embraced this ministry to rescue these children, but are stretched very thin and would love to have a teacher’s room for lesson planning and meetings.  (See the CAPI Report for 2006 ^PDF).

The HT El Salvador committee has organized visits of Holy Trinity parishioners to Maria Madre and, on two occasions, visits of Maria Madre Parishioners to Holy Trinity.  The Committee is cooperating with Share, an organization that has been actively involved in supporting church based communities and parish to parish relationships in El Salvador for over 18 years.

While HT’s contributions to Maria Madre have been important contributions to the efforts of our sister parishioners, they have in turn brought much to Holy Trinity.  Visits of adults and youth to El Salvador have often been life changing for HT parishioners whose interactions with our sister parishioners has increased their understanding of life in El Salvador and the transformative power of community spiritual life.  Many friendships have grown over time.

The HT El Salvador Parish to Parish Committee invites all HT parishioners to join the committee and its members in their activities throughout the year.  Contact Greg Maggio at 202-333-3144 or Sara Mulrooney at 703-920-3129.