The first weekend in Peru

In these first few weeks I shall be getting to know the various parishes run by the St James’ Society. Everything works differently here and I’m realising that my pastoral experience from England needs some not so fine retuning in order to operate!



My first parish visit took me to Ate Vitarte a new area of Lima to the east of the City. Barren grey hills and often greyer weather make this an unlikely place for people to choose to live, but so often in the lives of Peruvian people any choice is a rare event. New houses spring up here in great numbers, perched on the arid hillsides with no amenities. Electricity may arrive in time, water and sewerage much later. In the meantime water lorries sell water by the cubic metre. People have flooded towards the Capital now for many years creating a city of some 9 million people - more than a third of the population of Peru. Since 1940 the population has increased 13 fold!

Frs Darren Reid and David Costelloe from St James’ Society are beginning to form the area into a parish, building on pioneering work by groups of religious sisters establishing chapels and places for people to meet. There will be much work to do in the coming years as the need for basic health care and education is great, as well as the need for a central church and priests’ house.



At the weekend I celebrated two of the masses and came away uplifted by these celebrations, the singing and participation was wonderful to experience and there was a great warmth of welcome from people - especially when they heard that this was my first weekend in Peru - something that may have been given away anyway by my still hesitant Spanish!