Members of Frassati Missions serve St. Theresa’s Parish in the tiny port town of Annotto Bay, Jamaica. (Photos: Courtesy of Frassati Missions)
MANHATTAN — Although the island of Jamaica’s mission field is vast, one Manhattan-based Catholic group has taken it upon itself to concentrate on a single community — St. Theresa’s Parish in the northeastern coastal town of Annotto Bay.
While 70% of the 2.8 million people in the island nation say they are Christian, only 2% identify as Roman Catholic, according to the U.S. Department of State.
The New Yorkers who have dedicated their time to the tiny port town are from Frassati Missions. They recently returned to Annotto Bay, where they helped renovate the parish’s buildings, taught catechesis, and visited homebound parishioners in the town and deep in the nearby Blue Mountains.
Mariela Gomez, a founding member of Frassati Missions, said the group wants to forge long-lasting relationships with the people they serve, so return visits are important. The Jan. 15-20 trip was the group’s eighth journey to Annotto Bay in the last seven years.
The group, which includes Msgr. Sean Ogle of the Diocese of Brooklyn, strives to reinforce the people’s identities as children of God through spiritual growth and the sacraments.
“It is really beautiful to see the Lord really take root in the community,” Gomez said.
Frassati Missions has also worked at remote missions north of Lima, Peru, and Lodonga in northern Uganda, but backcountry journeys suit these laborers.
Gomez said the recent trip involved traveling on a flatbed truck through the Blue Mountains on unpaved roads. When the roads petered out, they hiked through the jungle to reach homebound parishioners, but the views were worth it, she noted.
“The trees are huge and they’re green, and you see some very beautiful wildflowers native to Jamaica in vibrant reds and oranges,” Gomez said.
Annotto Bay has few jobs, so residents tend to be older people with limited incomes or children whose parents work elsewhere. Consequently, the local parish has a scant tithe base that can’t support a full-time priest, Msgr. Ogle said.
“They have a visiting priest, but he’s not there all the time,” said Msgr. Ogle, the vicar for Clergy and Consecrated life in the Diocese of Brooklyn. “So, lay missionaries come down and do both pastoral work and also to assist with manual work.”
Frassati Missions began as part of the Frassati Fellowship of NYC, which is inspired by the Catholic activist and mountaineer Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) of Turin, Italy.
The fellowship group is for young adults in their 20s and 30s who seek authentic Christian friendships through service, faith formation, and camaraderie. In the spirit of the future saint, who will be canonized later this year, some of the fellowship’s activities involve hiking.
The fellowship’s first mission trip was to Peru in 2015, which was planned by members Ingrid and Martin Gutierrez. As the couple aged out of the fellowship’s demographic, they partnered with Gomez to create a second group — Frassati Missions — to continue the work in 2015.
“We really felt called to continue doing this mission in any season of our lives,” Ingrid said, noting that Frassati Missions isn’t restricted to a “young-adult age demographic.”
“We felt there was a real power and need to be able to mission with the fullness of the Church,” Ingrid said. Therefore, she added, a variety of people comprise Frassati Missions, including single Catholics, young married couples, and couples with kids.
The group regularly partners with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, and Dominican Friars from the Province of St. Joseph.
Ingrid works in Manhattan, but she and her husband live in Stamford, Connecticut, with their 4-year-old daughter Esperanza. The child accompanied her parents on the last trip to Jamaica and even trekked into the Blue Mountains to visit Ephraim Wagner, a homebound member of St. Theresa’s Parish.
Ingrid said that after the visit, Esperanza worried about her friend, “Mr. Wagner.”
“As a family, we pray for him regularly,” she said. “To see that impact on my little one, her carrying that empathy — by God’s grace, she is hopefully starting this journey of missionary discipleship.”
Msgr. Ogle became involved with the Frassati Fellowship of NYC at the invitation of members who needed priests to give the sacraments at their events. He subsequently accompanied Frassati Missions to Peru and Jamaica.
The recent trip to Annotto Bay comprised four married couples, five single adults, three children, two priests, and a religious brother.
However, Msgr. Ogle said a person doesn’t have to leave the country to be a missionary. For example, “Your parish priest is probably looking for laypeople to bring Holy Communion to the homebound right in your own neighborhoods.
“The point is, every parish is missionary,” he added.”You just have to work hard enough.”
TO LEARN MORE
For information about Frassati Missions, visit:
frassatimissions.org
To learn more about Frassati Fellowship of NYC, visit:
frassati.nyc