Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. April 4, 2021, marked for the Claretian Missionaries the definitive handover of the Sacred Hearts Parish in Nuevo Laredo. Bishop Enrique Sánchez Martínez, priests of the diocesan clergy, the Claretian community, and many parishioners participated. A series of five social media broadcasts were organized on the platform of the parish, the bishopric, and the province, reaching good coverage also in the southern part of the United States. A series of five transmissions were organized through the social networks on the platform of the parish, the bishopric, and the Claretian province, reaching a good diffusion also in the south of the United States.
The so-called “Claretian Tuesdays” were fondly remembered; that is, the live transmissions, of one hour’s duration, from different locations of the parish. Videos were shared with photographs of the different parish sectors, the groups and apostolic movements that since 1945 have made history in the processes of evangelization and construction of places of worship, all documented in the chronicles of the Claretian community.
The memories shared by the parishioners were impressive, especially when they relived experiences with the missionaries throughout these seventy-five years of missionary life. The Claretian missionaries Mariano Álvarez, Mario Guevara, Valerio García, Antonio Canudas, Carlos Ripa, Atilano García, Salvador Salinas, Pedro Aldana, Baltazar Vilchis, Juan José Pérez, Adolfo Villaseñor and Manuel Vilchis, who served as parish priests to the community and, with the other missionaries, announced the Gospel, were remembered.
Another fact worthy of mention in this event was that the Religious Daughters of St. Joseph hosted the first Claretians in the Sanatorium Isabel, in July 1945. The chronicler recorded it: “they have been from the first moment our visible Providence […] They have behaved like true mothers, going out of their way to take care of the Claretian Fathers without caring about expenses and inconveniences”.
The Eucharist was in a very heartfelt “thanksgiving”. The bell of the slender parish tower summoned the community as always, with this particularity: the first call was a paused ringing of 25 strokes, the second of another 25 and the last call of 25 strokes; 75 strokes that we wanted to evoke significantly the 75 years of liturgical Eucharistic celebrations in the parish.
