PARAGUAY, HOUSE MOTHER OF TUPARENDA, Ani Souberlich • This Holy Week, as a team of House Mother of Tupãrenda, we made a visit to the Educational Center of Itauguá to invite the teenagers deprived of their freedom to participate in the program once they are released. — In this visit we told them everything they can learn in our house, to later have a job and thus achieve a better quality of life for them and their families. As always, they received us with joy and above all with a
Read More PARAGUAY, Ani Souberlich • Does anyone have information about Casa Madre de Tupãrenda? How is Casa Madre de Tupãrenda doing? How are the staff and the youth? Nothing has appeared on schoenstatt.org this year. The institutional website has not been updated for years, what is going on? Such questions and concerns were expressed again and again. The honest answer: we closed the year 2022 with great difficulties. — “We reorganized ourselves even before Father Pedro left, and we continue to work despite all the difficulties, even though the state withdrew
Read More PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke • Pepito was preparing in prison to make his First Communion. A few days before he was to receive it, he told me that he had a hearing at the court. He left full of hope of getting out and going home, but unfortunately he was told that he was not going to be released…. — ─ First I was sad, pa’i! But right away I realized that I was not ready to leave, because I needed Jesus in my heart before going back to my
Read More PARAGUAY, Ricardo Acosta • The month of May has given us the first gifts of the year 2022. Last Friday the 13th, three new graduates joined the more than 50 graduates of FUNDAPROVA’s House Mother of Tupãrenda program. The event took place in the occasion of the awarding of the certificates of the program and of the Horticulture and Bakery courses of Sinafocal, in the presence of the authorities of both institutions. — This emotional act was accompanied by family, friends and loved ones of the new graduates. The audacity
Read More PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke • Everyone has suffered in the more than two years since the beginning of the pandemic, but especially the most disadvantaged throughout the world, including Paraguay. The “Casa Madre de Tupãrenda” (CMT) program could only be carried out digitally – by telephone and WhatsApp – and with the boys’ food, the house itself had to be closed. Visits to the youth prison, no way. But the time of Easter will come… — In the meantime, here in Paraguay the pandemic has happily subsided, so we can
Read More PARAGUAY, Roberto M. González • Our story of the visit to Casa Madre de Tupãrenda (CMT), by the president Dr. César Diesel and the second vice-president, Prof. Dr. Luis María Benítez Riera (period 2021-2022), of the Supreme Court of Justice, had its central point on February 15, 2022. — At the end of the visit, a commitment was made to sign an agreement between CMT and the Supreme Court of Justice. After preliminary exchanges on the points of the agreement to be signed, a final draft was ready. A few
Read More PARAGUAY, Roberto González • After the Christmas and New Year visits to the Educational Center of Itauguá, some interesting conversations with Father Pedro about the children and about the House Mother of Tupãrenda came up. — Normally January in Paraguay is vacation season and the Judicial break in the Judiciary, but in the second half of January the minister of the Supreme Court of Justice, Prof. Dr. Luis María Benítez Riera, second vice president of the Supreme Court of Justice and president of the Criminal Chamber (both for the period
Read More Matias, one of the young people from Casa Madre de Tupãrenda (CMT), Paraguay • Hello, how are you? I am Matías, I am 19 years old and today I want to tell you about my experience. — When I was 12 years old, I became addicted to drugs. A buddy, a friend from the street, took me to La Chacarita to save, as we call it (it means steal). We went to La Chacarita – which is the poorest and most criminal neighborhood of Asunción – and after that I
Read More PARAGUAY, Fr. Pedro Kühlcke • Christmas is a difficult time for the young people deprived of their freedom in the juvenile prison near Tupãrenda, burdened with guilt, loneliness and longing… As every year, with the prison ministry “Visitation of Mary” we are preparing to offer them a good Christmas dinner, with gifts, songs and prayers: baby Jesus wants to be born in their hearts too! — Yesterday at the Sunday Mass in Tupãrenda I asked for help to finance this dinner and the gifts. I was very excited when after
Read More PARAGUAY, Alexandra Garcete de Sánchez • The First Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean was held from November 21 to 28, 2021 in Mexico City, at the feet of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Latin America. It is a meeting that brings together the entire Latin American continent. On the 4th day, November 25, 2021, Alexandra Garcete, from the Family Federation of Paraguay, spoke about the Prison Ministry and the Mother of Tupãrenda House Program explaining the commitment with the most needy and marginalized. The readers of
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