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Augustinians Assume a High School The Augustinians of the Vicariate of St. John of
Sahagun of Chulucanas, started this week (March 9, 2008) with a new venture.
For many years in the old port city of Pacasmayo there was a small primary
and secondary school staffed by the Augustinians from the Peruvian province.
Founded in 1960 the
Finally the Augustinians of the Peruvian
province decided that they could not continue there, and offered the school
to the Vicariate of Chulucanas. Over the course of the next two years the
school will pass from the Peruvian province to the Vicariate of Chulucanas.
During the first year,
The school is relatively small with slightly over 200 students in primary and 90 students in secondary classes. Reflecting the generally poor environment, the school is simple and attempts to offer a quality education to an area that is passed over by other educational communities since the smaller population (Pacasmayo has 30,000 inhabitants) and the poorer economic situation makes it difficult to run a school that needs tuition funds to exist.
During a mass in the Sanctuary on March 9th, Fr. John Lydon, the Vicar for the Augustinians in Chulucanas, blessed the new community and installed the new prior in the name of the provincial of the Peruvian province. The new prior and the school's present director is Fr. Luis Silvano, a native of the jungle region of the country (Iquitos). He will be aided in the school by two other friars of the Vicariate of Chulucanas, Eleodoro Villanueva and Ramiro Castillo. Taking over the pastoral care of the sanctuary is Fr. Jack Dowling one of the longest serving members of the vicariate with over 30 years in Peru. The people of Pacasmayo are thrilled to have a new and strengthened Augustinian presence in the town, dedicated to making the school a quality place of education and transmission of Catholic-Augustinian values. |
school, named after Peru's most popular religious
devotion, Señor de los Milagros (The Lord of Miracles), served the modest
town for many years until in the 1990s the lack of vocations meant that the
Augustinian presence became precarious. For five years the school was
handed over to the Augustinians sisters from Lima to administer, but they
likewise had to leave. For the last 6 years one Augustinian has been in
Pacasmayo attending to the school and the sanctuary dedicated likewise
dedicated to El Señor de los Milagros.
the prior and director of the school will be the
friar who has attended to the school for the last 3 years. Then in the
second year a member of the vicariate will be named director and the
community will pass to the vicariate.
However, the Augustinians of the Vicariate of
Chulucanas saw this as an opportunity to expand into a apostolic field that
they previously had not entered (education) and at the same time continue
its fundamental mission to be at the side of the poor.