History of the St. Mark Mission

Patzún, Guatemala isn’t in any of the tour guides, and even though it’s located near the Pan American Highway, most of us have probably never heard of it.  So how did a group of intrepid St. Mark parishioners begin to travel there to share their faith and fellowship and assist the work of the Carmelite nuns at the Prophet Elias Convent?

Fr. Tim Thompson began working with Madre Anna Maria Chavajay in 2003 when he became pastor at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Ft. Worth.  That parish had an existing mission to Patzún, and when Fr. Tim became pastor at St. Mark in 2007 it was natural to continue the work with St. Mark parishioners.  Since then the two parishes have teamed up on a number of medical and educational mission trips to Guatemala.

Patzún is a town of about 18,000 in the Chimaltenango department (like a U. S. State) located in the western highlands of Guatemala, near Lake Atitlan. The region is home to many Maya ruins and is considered a cradle of the Maya civilization. The majority of the people in the region are Cakchiquel Maya or Ladinos (mixed European and Cakchiquel). The area was colonized by the Spanish in the 16th Century, but has remained largely rural. Spanish is the official language of the country, but the locals speak one or more of the 21 surviving indigenous languages.

Approximately 57% of Guatemalans live in poverty and 20% live in extreme poverty. After decades of civil war, Guatemala is struggling. The life expectancy, infant mortality (39/1,000 live births), maternal mortality (153/100,000) and chronic malnutrition among children (49%) are among the worst in Latin America. Guatemala also has the third highest illiteracy rate in the hemisphere.

Patzún has no major industry other than agriculture, although the area is known for its textiles and ceramics. In the last 40 years Patzún has been devastated by two historical events—a major earthquake in 1976 which destroyed much of the infrastructure and killed thousands of people throughout Guatemala, and the political violence of the lengthy civil war which peaked in the early 1980s. Indigenous people were targeted during the civil war, which left physical, psychosocial and economic affects on the rural residents that continue to this day.

In the nearby town of El Sitio, the Escuela de la Nuestra Señora del Carmen, run by the Carmelite nuns, provides a Catholic education for approximately 250 children in grades 1-9.

St. Mark parishioners have provided scholarship funds for 61 children to receive an education in 2010.  Like most everything else in the area, the school needs all the help it can get.   Missionaries from Denton have provided school supplies and moral support to the school for the past three years.

A highlight of every trip is reconciliation and Mass.  Most of the villages don't have a priest, so they must depend on visiting priests like Fr. Tim to celebrate Mass, and it truly is a celebration.

In addition to helping the school, St. Mark’s has participated in primary medical missions and provided other forms of assistance to the Carmelite Sisters and the villagers.  Sometimes the missionaries just spend time visiting with the people. Most have never been out of the community, and they want to get to know their new friends from Texas.

The principal focus of St. Mark's Guatemala mission is to share our common Catholic faith with the people of Guatemala.