Immaculate Conception’s pastor and parishioners have had more than their fair share of bad luck. Immaculate Conception Church in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, collapsed from the earthquakes that devastated Puerto Rico in January 2020. They didn’t have time to even take down the Christmas decorations. The church walls collapsed on part of the parish school.
See the destruction below:
Then in 2022 Hurricane Fiona roared in, took what remained of the church roof and deposited it next to a white tent used for the Eucharist and a temporary school lunch room. As St. Teresa of Avila quipped, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it is no wonder you have so few.”
But really, bad luck has nothing to do with this. This “bad luck” is a staging area for a new rising. The paschal mystery is afoot. That’s our Catholic way of saying that when there is suffering and death, there is God’s promise of a resurrection and new life.
Father Melvin Diaz, pastor of Immaculate Conception, and Ms. Carmen Alicia Rodríguez Echevarría, parish school principal, have certainly carried a heavy cross, but they have refused to give up or give into the temptation of despair.
Even though their church is totally destroyed, and their school is half destroyed almost six years after the disaster, they have recognized that there is a lot in their power to help their community move forward. Together they decided that this church would take on a new mission and new purpose in their devastated community, and it would begin with reviving their school.
Father Melvin Diaz and Carmen Alicia Rodríguez Echevarría are finalists for our Lumen Christi Award, our highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Click here to read the stories of our eight finalists this year.
Purpose-driven
Immaculate Conception School’s enrollment had dwindled to only 90 students. Many local people had left the area after the earthquakes. That is when Father Diaz reached out to one of the school’s alums to help him revive a school and a parish community that on the surface looked all but defunct.
Rodríguez is homegrown, and so the challenges of her community, her parish and childhood school were no surprise to her. She believes in this place with all her heart. She sees the paschal mystery unfolding.
Thanks to her and Father Diaz’s relentless efforts, enrollment is now at 229. Since they grew the enrollment so quickly, with only half the space available prior to the earthquake, they needed to be creative.
Old Storage units became classrooms, the teachers’ lounge shrunk, and with the help of Catholic Extension Society’s supporters, new air conditioning units were installed in the formerly unused upper floors, so that children would have a place to learn free from the scorching heat and suffocating humidity that is common in this Caribbean costal town.
Rodríguez has a Ph.D. education, but knack for adaptation, creativity and never losing heart. When her pastor asked her to help rebuild the school and parish following the 2020 earthquakes, she emphatically said yes and has never looked back.
Rebuilding the Church
Meanwhile the shell of the historic church is also awaiting its moment to rise.
Nothing stands in the wrecked remains of the church. Foliage grows between the cracks in the tilting church dome. Engineers worry that there may be significant damage to the church’s foundation—often the worst damage is unseen.
Immaculate Conception Church was built in 1841. It is a historical site, and the road to rebuilding the church and school is painfully long.
But the truth is that even though the church building is wrecked, what is rising now needs no brick or mortar. Immaculate Conception’s foundation is rock solid. Stronger than ever.
Father Diaz, Rodríguez and the parishioners and students at Immaculate Conception have withstood the twin calamities of hurricanes and earthquakes. But as a community, they are infinitely more powerful. The paschal mystery is afoot.
Click here to read the stories behind all eight of our Lumen Christi Award finalists.
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