San Juan Diego Mission Grows With Community
By Sara Ines Calderon, The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Feb. 14–Ten years ago, this congregation met here to pray outdoors. Today, the San Juan Diego Mission Church is a solid structure that’s growing with its community. The mission on Sunday held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new multi-purpose building that is tentatively called the Family Life Center. The building will be used for catechism classes, health programming, food distribution, celebration and as a community center, said Father Bert Diaz of Christ the King Church. Diaz also serves as pastor for the Mission Church. “The community center is something that’s been needed for a while,” Diaz said. “It’s going to be a good thing for people.” Community members raised $30,000 for the building. Two grants, one from the Kennedy Foundation for $30,000 and one from the Catholic Church Extension Society for $60,000, helped make ends meet. The total cost is $130,000, and community members are working to raise the remaining $10,000, Diaz said.
The church serves the Valle Hermoso and Valle Escondido communities, which are growing very quickly, Diaz said. Residents continue to deal with a lack of sewer lines; most have septic tanks. No clinical services are nearby, and one of the original plans for the center was to offer clinical services to bridge the gap. “I think it’s something that’s going to be very worthwhile for people,” Diaz said. Two hundred people attended Sunday’s Mass, in which Diaz thanked the two organizations that donated money for the building. But, he continued, a building is just a building unless people make it into something more. “The building doesn’t mean anything unless we really start working to meet the needs of the poor, and reaching out to the com-munity.”
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