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, 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, 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 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
Read More PARAGUAY, Lourdes Palacios • The big day is here, the most awaited day, dressed in suit and tie, Fabian and Braian stand out among the participants, they graduate from the program – and they do it together with the celebration of the five years of House Mother of Tuparenda (HMT). — Fabian is the first to arrive accompanied by his unconditional grandmother and little cousin, anxious and smiling, you can see happiness on his face, the days of anguish and uncertainty are behind him, he overcame temptations and weaknesses, keeping
Read More Fr. Pedro Kühlcke, Paraguay • A few days ago I received a letter in Italian, supposedly from some Trappist nuns in the United States, offering me financial help for social projects at the service of the poorest, and wanting to know what we do in this field. — I answered them in English, since I don’t know enough Italian, and told them about our prison ministry “Visitation of Mary”, and our post-prison program “House Mother of Tupãrenda”. I also wrote that we need support specifically to pay for the scholarships
Read More PARAGUAY, Roberto M. González and Maria Fischer • The riot in the Tacumbú prison, the largest in Paraguay, ended with seven deaths from stab wounds, some with their throats slit, only two of them were convicted prisoners. This is not just another piece of news. I am thinking that our boys, those boys I met in the juvenile prison, those boys who offered me the first tereré (local drink) of my life, who told me about their dreams for a family, for a dignified life, when they turn 18 may
Read More PARAGUAY, CMT educators: Lourdes, Victor, Magdalena, Rosi Minerva, Alicia and Ricardo Acosta • The coronavirus pandemic turned the life style of people around the world upside down and the House Mother of Tuparenda (CMT) was no exception, since it also had to stop its activities, with the great challenges that this implied in the process that we had been working with each participant. — The life in confinement of the participants and their families, as for any person, needed a reinvention to face the consequences of the pandemic.
Read More SCHOENSTATT SOCIAL, Maria Fischer • “The visit to the Vatican continues to circulate”, writes Father Pedro Kühlcke. The visit to the Vatican: through Pamela Fabiano from the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Development, Father Pedro Kühlcke was invited to the International Congress of Catholic prison chaplains at the Vatican. During the concluding audience with the Pope he was able to present him with the book “Libertad en la cárcel”, Freedom in Prison, in which he describes his experiences with Father Kentenich’s pedagogy of working in prisons. The texts of
Read More PARAGUAY, Ani Souberlich • Thanks to the “Intelligent Quarantine” decreed by the government of Paraguay, on Monday, May 4th, we re-opened the doors of the CMT (Casa Madre de Tuparenda/House Mother of Tuparenda), “reinventing” ourselves to be able to continue giving the opportunity to our adult participants to rejoin the program and thus, together, to be able to accentuate the production of baked goods in the bakery and of mouth guards (so much in demand at this time of COVID-19) in the area of Industrial Confection. On the other hand,
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