Pastoral Centre for Argentine Parish
Father Thomawsz is the parish priest of Christ the King parish in Patagonia. ACN is planning to help his parish build a new pastoral centre to help with outreach to the community.
By ACN Staff
Father Tomasz Grzyb with parishioners. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
The parish of Christ the King, Corcovado in the Argentine region of Patagonia, is still relatively new, having only been established in May 2021. Before the parish was established, the area belonged to a larger parish, the centre of which was nearly 50 miles (75 km) away – too far away to provide adequate ministry to the faithful.
The new parish has some 4,500 souls. Their parish priest is Father Tomasz Grzyb, originally from Poland and was previously a missionary in Bolivia. He is particularly struck by the fact that only a few people engage with or have links with the Church. Many sects are spreading throughout this vast and sparsely populated region, but even among those who belong to the Catholic Church, only a very small few regularly attend Holy Mass.
The local population is a colourful mixture of different peoples. Many belong to the indigenous Mapuche people, while others are the descendants of Spanish settlers and others have migrated here from other regions in Argentina for various reasons. It is proving difficult to establish a real community here, Father Thomasz is finding. The pastoral outreach is still only in its early stages and needs to be properly organised.
However, this priest is not easily discouraged and is rolling up his sleeves to get to work. The most important thing is proper instruction in the Faith and intensive preparation for the reception of the sacraments. And so, Father Thomawsz is organising catechetical classes for children, young people, and adults. However, at present there is no suitable place to hold the classes, so everything has to be done on a makeshift basis – often even in the private home of the catechist. And there is nowhere for the parish office either.
Therefore, it has been decided that the parish needs to build a small pastoral centre which will also have space for catechesis and for a parish office. We are proposing to support this project with a contribution of €7,000. Can you help us?