Meet the priests we support
Father José Refugio is pastor of the parish of the Immaculate Conception, located in the Prelature (mission diocese) of Nayar in the state of Durango in northern Mexico. His parish is huge: several hundred square miles. His parishioners are almost all Tepehuana Indians. Father José Refugio is a humble and hard-working priest, very conscientious about his mission. He almost never leaves his parish area. He regularly visits the different villages of his parish, sometimes on foot and sometimes on horseback. Most of the paths are inaccessible to cars. He battles with incipient diabetes because of poor nutrition. His sole source of income is the collection at Mass, which never adds up to more than $50 a month.
CANELA supplements Father José Refugio's income with a $250 grant every month.
Father Misael is the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in the diocese of Zacatecoluca in the Central American country of El Salvador. His parish was founded 11 years ago and still lacks many essentials. For example, there is no real church building or rectory. Father Misael lives in a small room with a makeshift wall separating it from a larger room, currently being used for celebrating mass. The parish community is still small and cannot cover Father Misael's modest living costs. Most of the parishioners are poor farmers.
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CANELA supplements Father Misael's income with a monthly grant of $200.
Father Edward was ordained in 2018 for the diocese of Karonga in the north of the small, densely-populated country of Malawi in southeastern Africa. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, where an average person earns less than a dollar a day and average life expectancy is 64 years of age.
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Father Edward's bishop has put him in charge of the catechetical training of lay people in the diocese. This is a formidable task, since many villages are difficult to get to. The people, who are mostly farmers and fishermen, have very little free time and in many cases very limited formal education. Father Edward also has his own parish to take care of.
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In most countries in the world, the parishes are able to cover the living costs of their priests. But this is not possible in many of Malawi's parishes. CANELA supports Father Edward with a monthly grant of $200.