Our mission is located in the diocese of Texcoco, near Mexico City. The diocese, created in 1960, has a population of one and a half million people and 120 priests
The mission is located in the Diocese of Texcoco, near Mexico City. The diocese, established in 1960, has a population of one and a half million people and 120 priests. The parish of Cristo Rey, which our community is responsible for, was founded in 1996, one year before our arrival in Mexico. It has approximately 35,000 inhabitants and is divided into five zones, each with a chapel that serves as a meeting place and a location for celebrations. Our parishioners, like all Mexicans, are joyful and always ready to celebrate. They are supportive, generous, even with few resources; a resilient people full of hope in the face of difficulties.
The reality in which we find ourselves is that of an urban periphery, where very different situations, cultures, and traditions coexist. Most people, over 60%, have informal jobs and earn very little each day. This causes many strong social problems that disturb the lives of many families in our mission.
“In this time of crisis, everything has become more difficult: my husband lost his job; with the small business in front of my house, there is not enough to eat every day. We have four children, and my husband’s parents also live with us,” said Juana.
Our arrival in Texcoco coincided with the appointment of Bishop Carlos Aguilar Retes as the bishop of the diocese. He launched a pastoral project of evangelization and renewal that turned the church of Texcoco into a “home and school of communion.” This process continues to this day, with a growing focus on the most disadvantaged and poorest people.
The challenges of the mission
Father Marco Pizzato, after many years of service in Texcoco, is well aware of the daily challenges of evangelization in the mission of Cristo Rey:
“We work hard on the formation of laypeople, so that they can be ‘missionary disciples’, ensuring the creation of pastoral and participatory structures, promoting a constant missionary spirit. It is not about transmitting ideas, but about making people fall in love with God and, therefore, available to give themselves in the mission that He entrusts to each one: to go out of oneself to meet the needs of others, to build the Kingdom of God, to love one another as brothers and to serve the poor.”
The Chapels
- Cristo Rey (El Tejocote)
- Santa Maria Magdalena (Montecillos)
- Santa Maria de Guadalupe (Lazzaro Cardenas)
- San Juan Pablo II (Victor Puebla)
- San Lorenzo (Wencheslao – Elsa cordoba)
The celebrations
The Mexican people are the people of celebrations! There is no moment in life that is not celebrated, and there is a strong desire for each celebration to begin with the celebration of the Eucharist. Birthdays, especially those of three-year-old children, the quinceañera of teenage girls, the eighteenth birthday of young adults, the beginning and end of each school cycle, anniversaries, illness, death… It is celebrated everywhere: not only in the church, but also in homes, streets, factories, and workplaces.
Every moment should remind people of this “primero Dios” (God first), an expression constantly on the lips of the people.
The relationship with God helps many people have the strength to move forward, to fight, to have faith in a positive future:
“Father, yesterday I went to Cristo Rey church; it has been a long time since I went there. In the meantime, many difficult and painful things have happened to me: I have drifted far from God; how much I missed Him!
I was there, in front of the tabernacle: I felt peace, how consoling! Time flew by and I went home with new strength. Now I am here because I would like to confess and receive communion.” Carmen
A parish, four characteristics
It’s not easy to summarize in a few lines such a rich experience as accompanying a Christian community. However, some adjectives express better than others important characteristics of the Cristo Rey parish. A Christian community:
– Of disciples, who place at the heart of their lives the listening to their Master through the creation of small basic communities, where Christians meet and walk in faith. In these places, the dynamic of “see, judge, and act” is better combined, a dynamic that has led the Mexican Church, in various situations, to bear witness to its fidelity to the Gospel through martyrdom.
– Missionary, which cannot remain enclosed in its enclosure or in sacramentality, ever-present temptations, which must go out, which feels the urgency to share the gift of faith it has received.
– School of communion, where one learns! On the sometimes difficult path of overcoming the challenges of diversity, the spirit of the bell tower, feeling less or inadequate and always wanting to be at the center of attention. What a grace to discover that every pastoral commitment, every activity, every missionary outing has served to make us a little more brothers.
– House of communion, ministerial church where, through the services entrusted to each one, one lives as sons and not as servants, and as brothers who love each other. A place where unity, love is the most important thing. Everyone’s home, where holiness is seen in daily life in action, as in the case of Bertha. She is our “street nurse,” a member of the social ministry, who listens daily to those who, due to their poverty, do not have the opportunity to buy medicines, take their blood pressure, or receive an injection:
“When I arrived in Texcoco, I had nothing, only a small pension, the fruit of many years of service as a nurse in the hospital. My husband had left me with our three children, and with the little I had, I was able to file the papers for the land that housed my brick room with a tin roof. There was no drinking water, no electricity, no sewer in the neighborhood. The listening and welcoming of the first missionaries helped me to get out of my despair; in them, I found a new family and regained my identity as a daughter of God. This gave me the strength to set aside my problems and to put my gifts and sensitivity to the service of others who suffer.” Bertha
