By Paula Day

Three parishes in the archdiocese have close ties with sister or covenant parishes in the Caribbean and South America.

Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Decatur enjoys a covenant relationship with St. Pius X parish in Olympic Gardens, Kensington, Jamaica. Lithonia parish, Christ Our Hope's sister parish, Croix Des Bouquet Notre Dame Du Rosaire, is in Haiti. Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, in Colombia, South America, is sister parish to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Carrollton.

While each of the American parishes offers monetary assistance to the Third World parishes, the emphasis is on a reciprocal and spiritual relationship.

"It's a covenant relationship between two peers," Father Richard Wise, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul said. "It isn't set up to provide help to the Third World. If we are trying to become saviors of the Third World, we've barked up the wrong tree."

Father Wise observed that it is a humbling experience for American Catholics to recognize their own spiritual needs and to receive spiritual support from those who are less powerful. On a visit to Jamaica he came across an adolescent sleeping at the church.

"How can you sleep outside without a home?" the priest asked the youth.

Pointing to the church, the boy answered, "I have a home. This is my palace."

"That was a great witness to me," Father Wise concluded. "That gives it a perspective of Church we don't have. For people who have nothing, Church is the center of their existence."

The idea to seek out a parish for mutual support began in 1983, according to Father Ray Horan, who was pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul at the time. The parish Peace and Justice Committee wanted an authentic experience of the universal Catholic Church. Since the greatest proportion of Catholics live in Third World countries, the committee focused its search there.

It became apparent that Central or South America would be more feasible areas on which to concentrate because of their proximity. Another obstacle the committee considered was language. Jamaicans are an English-speaking people and so the committee selected that Caribbean country.

Through help from Atlantans who had visited the economically deprived section of Kingston, the parish planners made contact with Sister Grace Yap, OSF, co-administrator in 1985 of St. Pius X parish in Olympic Gardens. She visited Sts. Peter and Paul in June 1986, giving the American parish a first-hand account of St. Pius X. In January of the following year, "as wise men searching for the Christ Child," according to Father Horan, he and Father Al Jowdy visited St. Pius X, laying the foundation for a future written covenant of mutual support between the two parishes.

The Olympic Gardens area of Kingston is one of the poorest in the city. Approximately 400 of its residents were killed in the early 1970s during a period of intense political strife. The area was destroyed except for the church. The government constructed temporary housing that remains 15 years later, according to Father Wise. Its resident priest had to move because a death warrant had been issued for him. He had begun a project that provided toilets and showers -- decent public facilities -- and the people no longer had to dig latrines.

Deacon Burchell McPherson has been parish administrator, but since he plans to complete his seminary studies, the parish is without clergy leadership at the present time.

Sts. Peter and Paul's Jamaican parishioners give the parish a touchstone with the Caribbean congregation. Mrs. Barbara Lee Hing, a native Jamaican who has been in this country eight years, is a member of the Peace and Justice Committee. She was one of a group of 10 who visited St. Pius X in October, 1987, shortly after the mutual covenant was signed. Father Wise, Sister Marita Regina O'Connor, IHM, then principal of Sts. Peter and Paul elementary school, and the eight parishioners spent four days in the parish.

The feedback from the group was enthusiastic, according to Mrs. Lee Hing.

"We'd never had such an experience. The people are so warm. They were so glad to have us. The little children may have no shoes, but they have no sad faces either. Each of us who went down there received much."

The parishes exchanged banners and Sister Marita gave Deacon McPherson a T-shirt from the Decatur school with the names of the faculty and students on the back. Each visitor was introduced at the Sunday Mass which lasted two-and-a-half hours, according to Mrs. Lee Hing.

"It's a social gathering. They look forward to coming out to church on Sunday. It's the focal point of their day."

The Sts. Peter and Paul delegation visited several St. Pius X projects which included a vegetable garden, a soup kitchen which serves hot meals to the elderly, a nursery and a clinic. "We saw many elderly who needed assistance," Mrs. Lee Hing said.

Another parish project is the making of concrete blocks to be used in the construction of buildings. The American parish's youth group hopes some of its members may go to the Jamaican parish, learn the brick-building process, and help with the project, Father Wise said.

A lasting relationship is developing from last October's visit, Mrs. Lee Hing believes. A pre-teen grandson of a Jamaican host family recently spent four to six weeks with a Sts. Peter and Paul family. After Hurricane Gilbert's destruction, a young woman connected with the parish visited St. Pius X to help as she was needed. Sts. Peter and Paul gathered food and financial support for the devastated island. They are sorting donated clothing to send to the parish eventually. This Christmas, instead of sending new toys for the children of St. Pius X, students at Sts. Peter and Paul school will write greetings on cards they make, include a self-portrait and send a small monetary gift to the children of the Jamaican parish. "Hopefully a sharing relationship can develop from this if the children of St. Pius respond," Mrs. Lee Hing said.

There are plans to exchange choirs, in which case the American parish hopes to learn the music of the Caribbean Mass. During a three-week visit in August, Deacon McPherson spoke about his ministry in St. Pius X and visited parishioners.

The two parishes began their second year of reciprocal support at the end of September. "It's a relationship which we hope to continue to nurture so we can support one another as friends and as fellow Catholics," Mrs. Lee Hing said. "Members of the parish look forward with excitement to returning to Jamaica for the ordination of Deacon Burchell McPherson as priest."

(Next Week: Sister Parishes in Haiti and Columbia.)