Chapelle, Rummel students stoke their mission zeal

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald


For six days in early June, 14 students from Archbishop Chapelle and Rummel high schools became first-time missionaries to school children in Punta Gorda, Belize.


The students were accompanied by Chapelle’s campus minister Emily Lannan; Father Andrew Rudmann, Chapelle’s chaplain and parochial vicar at St. Clement of Rome, and Father Andrew Gutierrez, chaplain at Rummel and parochial vicar at St. Catherine of Siena. The Metairie contingent was welcomed warmly by the Pallotine Sisters residing at Nazareth House in Punta Gorda.

The high school students led a retreat for 170 children that included the first school Mass in the past two years.

Fathers Gutierrez and Rudmann celebrated Sunday Mass with the San Marcos village and administered first Communion to seven children.

Along with proclaiming the Gospel, the teenage missionaries began construction of a roof for the San Marcos School kitchen and painted the school buildings.

“If I had to choose one word to describe our mission trip to Belize, it would be ‘life-changing,’” said Tiana Parks, a rising Chapelle senior. “The experiences we had were unforgettable and highly impactful on my faith.

“In one of the villages, we visited a house to see how they lived. I learned it would take only four hours over two days for community men to build a roof with banana leaves.”

What Parks and rising Rummel senior Noah Flynn enjoyed the most was forming relationships with San Marcos village children. There was a NOLA vs. San Marcos soccer game that New Orleans won with a little bit of help from the people of San Marcos.


“The way they live is so beautiful and admirable,” Parks said. “They have great hearts and are so full of genuine joy. Seeing their lives of simplicity encourages me to strive to take on a life like that.”

What most impacted Flynn was the hospitality of the people in Belize and the pure joy of each person.

“Something as simple as singing songs with the children or the kids watching us missionaries drink straight out of a coconut for the first time created an environment of pure bliss that I don’t think I have ever truly experienced before,” Flynn said.


“Through giving to others, my eyes were opened to how easy it is to see the Lord’s works in every aspect of life, in every child’s laughter, in every adoration, every story told, and I saw goodness in the hearts of people around me,” he added. “I believe  the true gift of the mission wasn’t what I was able to give them but what we were able to give each other.  By spending time with such devout and caring people, it allowed me to see that poverty in possessions does not mean poverty in faith.”


Raised funds for trip
Student missionaries contributed $1,300 for their trip, with some of the money earned from fundraisers.  Both schools held a Lenten Mission Campaign which raised over $5,000. Individual benefactors donated an additional $6,000 for the mission. The missionaries contributed $3,900 to build a roof on the school kitchen that will provide one daily meal to 200 children. They contributed another  $900 and helped paint the San Marcos school.


Father Gutierrez said he watched students develop a “deep understanding of mission and virtue.”

Often times with experiences like mission trips, participants can leave thinking about “all the things they need to be grateful for,” he said. “Growth in gratitude is essential for the walk of holiness, but if that is the only fruit borne from mission, we may have remained focused on our own experiences throughout the mission. These students understood the truth. They understood their need for detachment from their vices and worldly comforts in order to live a life of freedom for the Gospel with true peace. They recognized the need to proclaim the Gospel to others as missionaries – whether foreign or at home. ... The students took that mission to heart and had a desire to continuing living as missionary disciples of Jesus who grow in holiness and evangelize their world.”


On a side excursion, the missionaries witnessed the beauty of the country.

“We saw so much more of the beauty of Belize and its people,” Parks said. “I saw God more clearly in people and in creation itself,” Parks said.

With only two priests available for over 35 village churches, the region that the parish serves is in dire need of priests to celebrate the sacraments and provide evangelization. The hope is that Archbishop Rummel and Archbishop Chapelle continue the yearly trek to St. Peter Claver Parish and specifically the San Marcos Village, forming a deeper relationship with the people and helping to foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life in San Marcos village.

“My relationship with God grew substantially, and I became more appreciative of everything I have,” Parks said.

“We used the time meeting and forming relationships with the people of San Marcos through conversations, through games, through laughter and, most importantly, through prayer,” Flynn said. “In all of this, we learned about each other’s lives and faith.”

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