The New Orleans Sisters of the Holy Family: African American Missionaries to the Garifuna of Belize

Appendix C

163 A p p e n d i x C Reflections of Three Lay People Who Were Taught by the Holy Family Sisters in Belize Sylvia Flores In October of last year [2008], the Catholic Church of the United States of America honored and celebrated the significant contribution of religious communities who sent out missionaries to minister to the needs of God’s people around the world. It is a great privilege for me to reflect on the contribution of one such religious community—the Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans, Louisiana. Theirs was a young community, just fifty-seven years since their founding when its very young Superior General, Mother Austin Jones, answered the call of God and the challenge of the then Bishop of Belize, Rev. Salvatore di Pietro, to send a few sisters on a mission to British Honduras (Belize ) to assist in the education of the children of Dangriga. The Bishop was experiencing difficulty in finding and sending teachers in Belize City to teach the Garifuna children of Dangriga because the children did not speak English and spoke only the Garifuna language, a language they did not understand. This was during the colonial period, 164  Appendix C a time when the Garifuna people experienced much discrimination in Belize and so it would not have been surprising that the Bishop found it difficult to find persons who would be willing to teach these­children. Such is the backdrop against which Mother Austin Jones would answer the call to minister to the needs of God’s children. Often as I have reflected on the decision of Mother Austin, I ponder anew what thoughts may have crossed her mind as she tried to discern such a call. How welcoming was her spirit in answering this challenge to come to an unknown land, a land she had probably not heard of before? How would the people receive her and her sisters? And how would her own community feel about her decision to send her sisters to this foreign land? Would they be able to cope with the food, the climate, and in those early days when telephone communication was not available and transportation took an entire week from New Orleans, would they be able to cope with these harsh realities? Was there dissent in the community when Mother Austin finalized her decision about bringing the first missionaries to British Honduras? While Mother Austin and her sisters may have pondered all these, nonetheless her response was a signature “YES”; and while she may have responded not only in view of her own vow of obedience to the will of God, the decision also marked her own profound desire to bring that extra measure of love to the least of God’s children—the same love that had motivated her foundress, Mother Henriette Delille, to minister to the needs of the black children of New Orleans. It would be this same love that would, for more than one hundred years, seal the commitment of the Sisters of the Holy Family to the children and the people of Belize. More than one hundred years of continuous service is no easy feat by any stretch of the imagination. What was it that kept the Sisters of the Holy Family coming for so many years? There is an easy ­answer— LOVE—the greatest lesson ever taught by Christ himself. There is a special love that the people of Belize and particularly of Dangriga have for the Sisters of the Holy Family, evidenced by the many deep relationships that have evolved over time. Those of us who have been privileged to be their students are forever grateful for the quality of education they fostered, but more than this for the love with which Appendix C   165 they nurtured our spirits and instilled in us the pride that we, too, are God’s chosen people. The Sisters of the Holy Family taught me throughout my primary school years, first at Sacred Heart and then for the last two years at Holy Ghost. Since I lived on the south side of Dangriga, I transferred there when the school was first opened. I graduated from there in 1965. Throughout these years, I was taught by only two lay teachers . All my other teachers were sisters. Sister Marie de Montfort [Breaux], who was my teacher at Sacred Heart School for three consecutive years, remains my favorite...