100 years of service with the Pallottine Sisters

The Pallottine sisters are celebrating one hundred years of service in Belize. In Thursday’s newscast we showed you the re-enactment of their arrival in Benque Viejo Del Carmen. There have been one hundred and two Pallottine sisters in the one hundred years since the first four came to Belize on a mission. Today there are twenty one, divided between the communities of Punta Gorda, Belize City, Corozal and Orange Walk. And with the passage of time which has brought many changes within the order, there are also new challenges and new realities which they must face every day. In part two of our report, Freelance reporter Mike Rudon learned that while these nuns are cognizant of the hurdles in their path, they live with hope, and in faith. Here’s that story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

Sister Josefina Alamilla will soon celebrate her fiftieth year in the Pallottine Order, while Sister Elsa Oliva completed sixty years of service in 2012. Both have faced many challenges and changes, and acknowledge that the road ahead is a difficult one.

Josefina Alamilla

Sister Josefina Alamilla

“It is a challenge for u, but when you are convinced of the values that you have and the values that you want to display to your students and other people, many times you are snubbed or laughed at, but we hold to our values. And this is something that I think as you say the Pallottines are noted for because we cannot change things that are deeply a part of our Christian values. Regardless if you are the only one standing up for that value, you have to do that because you are convinced. And I think this is the problems in many schools; that something because when you teach, you have to be credible to your students. And you can’t teach something which you are not doing.”

Elsa Oliva

Sister Elsa Oliva

“Things have changed a lot because everybody is too free and children are growing up without supervision. They get no correction from home and the teachers cannot correct them at school. So they get absolutely no guidance and they are growing up on their own. And they are being educated and guided by their peers who are just as bad as they are. They don’t believe in God; they don’t think there is a god for some reason or the other. They have not accepted the fact that there is a creator or someone that manages this world better that they know. And therefore they have no respect for themselves, no respect for human kind and no respect for God.”

And then, there is the question of vocation, as the order needs new blood to stay strong in service. Already they have closed their doors in Benque and in Cayo because there are only twenty-one sisters in their fold, not enough to serve in every community in the district. But these sisters remain hopeful and optimistic, believing in the will and power of God.

Sister Josefina Alamilla

“What we need is more vocations to have more young women want to be sisters in order to pass these values on. I think that is something that we have to work on; maybe it will not be in the form that we are living today. But people who are convinced of what they believe because that conviction is very necessary for the life today because the lifestyle has gone almost berserk.”

Sister Elsa Oliva

“It has really given me a lot of hope and I am praying that a few of them challenge the call and accept that god wants them to help in the religions life or the priesthood.”

Stephen Franco

Sister Stephen Franco

“What God has planted never dies; it will always give fruit. I look at yesterday; I was very floored by the whole thing. Four simple ladies planting a seed; unbelievable what has taken place. There has been a hundred and two Belizean women who have been pallottines in a hundred years. Some have died and gone to their reward and they didn’t all come by fifties or sixties, but we have always had a trickle for the hundred years. So that there is concern, yes there is concern; we would like to have more. There is no doubt about that because the more we have, the more we can share.”

Sister Josefina Alamilla

“Even though the society is what it is today, I must say that when the sisters, from my own experience, if I come into a place and the people are speaking things that are not really [becoming], excuse me sister. You know, so a presence, even you presence makes a difference where you are.”

Sister Stephen Franco

“Something that really touched me was when they kept saying you came and became a part of our lives…that is so important. We must not forget to be a part of the lives of the people with whom we live.”

And from the reception given to the Pallottine sisters by the communities in which they have served, it is clear to see that they have succeeded in touching the hearts and lives of those they meet. Mike Rudon for News Five.

The Pallottine Missionary sisters minister in three states in the US and in seventeen countries across the world.