The Province of Paraguay

By Father John Murray |

Father Vicente Soria Fleitas, the Provincial of the new Province of Paraguay, was recently in Brooklyn for a visit. Redemptorists from the Baltimore Province sent missionaries to Paraguay from the 1930s.

On August 1, 2010, the Vice-Provinces of Asunción and Pilar were combined to form the new Province of Paraguay. The Province has 11 communities and 27 missionary parishes, characterized by our Redemptorist mission spirituality. The new Province also has two houses of formation and a new retreat house.

Now the Province of Paraguay is flourishing, with 67 priests, brothers, and professed seminarians. No North Americans remain in Paraguay, but five Italians from the Province of Rome are there.

The Province of Paraguay has just finished building a new retreat house, Marianella, in the town of Atyra, about 50 miles east of Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. The director of Marianella Retreat House is Father Attilio Cordioli, a priest from the old Vice-Province of Pilar. He is the Redemptorist who championed the new retreat house, with rooms for 98 retreatants on 54 acres of beautiful property.

Paraguay is just a little bit smaller than the state of California, with a population of 6,783,272. Ninety-four percent of the people are Catholic, making Paraguay the most Catholic country in Latin America.

Paraguay achieved its independence from Spain in 1811. In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70)—between Paraguay and a united Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay—Paraguay lost two-thirds of its adult males and much of its territory. The country stagnated economically for the next half century.

Following the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932-35), Paraguay gained a large part of the Chaco lowland region. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner ended in 1989, and despite a marked increase in political infighting in recent years, Paraguay has held relatively free and regular presidential elections since the country’s return to democracy.

For many years the leader of the Catholic Church in Paraguay was our own Archbishop Pastor Cuquejo, ordained in Esopus in 1964 and a classmate of Archbishop Ed Gilbert, C.Ss.R., retired archbishop of Trinidad and Tobago.

Pastor, who suffers from debilitating neuropathy, retired in 2014 and is now living in the old archdiocesan seminary. He does short daily reflections on the day’s Gospel on television. He also celebrates Sunday Mass on television every Sunday.

Others who studied with us in Esopus are still active. Humberto Villalba, ordained in 1961, is still active at Perpetuo Soccorro in Asunción. Perpetuo Soccorro is our first church in Asunción and the national sanctuary of Perpetual Help. The parish has 1,300 children in elementary school and 460 in high school, located at San Clemente Church, a chapel of Perpetuo Soccorro.

Pedro Gennaro, ordained in 1971, is also stationed at Perpetuo Soccorro and is very active throughout Latin America for Engaged Encounter and Retrouvaille.

Ronnie Veron, ordained in 1973, suffered a major stroke in 2011 and is now stationed in Pilar. Two Redemptorists who were ordained in 1972 left the ministry: Ramon Toledo, who died recently, and Victor Fleitas, who works for a pharmaceutical chain in Asunción.

Ray Candia of the class of ’75 is pastor of the chapel of the Holy Spirit in Asunción, while Pedro Sanabria, also ’75, is Superior of Pedro Juan Caballero, and Enrique Lopez, ’75, is Vicar General of the Congregation in Rome.

Francisco Cano is also in Rome as Vice-Secretary of the Congregation, and Nelson Acosta is studying canon law in Rome. Another Paraguayan, Ercilio Duarte, is also stationed in Italy.

Blas Caceres, now of the Baltimore Province, is stationed in Philadelphia and Miguel (Mike) Martínez is stationed in Annapolis.

Another Paraguayan Redemptorist is part of an interprovincial team forming a new mission in Uruguay, made up of four Redemptorists from four different Provinces in southern South America.

The Province of Paraguay hosts an annual congress of altar servers from all their parishes. This year more than 500 altar servers attended.

Vocation promotion and Redemptorist youth ministry remain important priorities of the Province.

One third of the Redemptorists in the Province come from Pedro Juan Caballero, and Bella Vista, our first foundation in Paraguay, also has a significant number of Redemptorists.

Bella Vista was started when Father Edward Reinagel and Father George Wichland, both stationed in Bella Vista, across the small Apa River in Brazil, saw the need for a church there and began their ministry on their own.

Until the arrival of the Redemptorists the town was cared for by the Salesians in Concepción, 150 kilometers distant. The Salesians were able to visit Bella Vista only once or twice a year. Thus Fathers Reinagel and Wichland began what became the thriving Province of Paraguay. Today Bella Vista has about 20 chapels out of Bella Vista. It is and had been the novitiate for many years.

Large cougars still roam the forests outside of Bella Vista, a very rural area of Paraguay.

Years ago, when Father Andy Carr and Francisco Balbuena were stationed together in Bella Vista, Andy received the news that Balbuena would be the next bishop of the military ordinariate. Andy rushed out to give the news to Balbuena, and they crashed their cars. When Andy called Jim Lacey to say that he had an accident in the car, Jim asked, “How can this be? There are only two cars in Bella Vista, both owned by the Redemptorists.”

Father Vicente is thankful: “The new Province is very grateful to the Baltimore Province for so much. What the Redemptorists in Paraguay are today is the result of years of work from both the Baltimore Province and the Roman Province.”

Fathers Edward Reinagel and George Wichland had no idea what would be wrought from their crossing in Apa River in Bella Vista those many years ago.