Extension magazine - Spring 2024

40 IGNITE
Parish Partnerships
Extension | Spring 2024 41
One plus one equals
two. This obvious
equation is known
by everyone.
But are there
examples where the
sum is greater than the addition
of its component parts? In other
words, where does one plus one
equal something greater?
Take St. Mark the Evangelist
Catholic Church in Oro Valley, Arizona,
and St. Anthony Mission
and School in Zuni, New Mexico.
They are 277 miles apart, almost a
five-hour drive. But, connected by
Catholic Extension Society’s Parish
Partnership program, they add
up to something extraordinary.
St. Anthony Mission and
School serves the Zuni Pueblo in
New Mexico. Founded in 1920,
St. Anthony’s school currently
serves 120 students, kindergarten
through eighth grade. The school
is totally dependent on outside
resources to operate.
Father Patrick McGuire is pastor
of St. Anthony. He is a missionary
priest from Scotland and has
an accent as thick as a tartan kilt,
but his heart is entirely with the
Zuni people. He deeply admires
their strength in family, their
sense of extended family and
their awareness of the divine.
The Zuni people have many
struggles. Thirty percent lack
access to potable water. (Father
McGuire always keeps the par-
Children in the Zuni Pueblo
are supported by St. Mark the
Evangelist in Oro Valley, Arizona,
through a partnership with
Catholic Extension Society.
Moving from
transactions
to transformations
Tucson church demonstrates the “multiplying
effect” of our Parish Partnership program
The Blessed Virgin Mary wearing
a traditional blanket at St. Anthony
Mission and School.
ish facilities open so his people
can fill up their containers with
life-giving water.) Many families
live in homes without electricity
or the internet. The cycle of
poverty and unemployment has
afflicted generations.
Father McGuire and his staff
believe that the Catholic faith
and education is the key for these
Native American youth to break
that cycle. Since 1971, Catholic
Extension Society has supported
this incredible church and school.
The modest request
In April 2022, Father John
Arnold, pastor of St. Mark the
Evangelist, visited St. Anthony
Mission and School as part of
Catholic Extension Society’s Pastor
Immersion Program. The program
is based on the insight that
to find Jesus in our world today,
we must go to the peripheries.
And as Pope Francis believes,
spending time with the poor revitalizes
our church.
Father Arnold was deeply
touched by his experience in
April 2022. He suggested that St.
Mark should partner with Catholic
Extension Society to help St.
Anthony Mission and School. In
other words, he believed that one
plus one should equal something
greater.
Father Arnold directed St.
Mark’s 2023 Advent Appeal to
help St. Anthony Mission and
School. He asked that young people
from St. Mark’s Life Teen program
speak at all the Masses on
the first Sunday of Advent to ask
the parish for their financial help.
St. Anthony’s wish list was
amazingly humble.
From the simple: $35 for spiral
notebooks, $15 for internet
bill, $30 for crayons and coloring
books—to the sublime: $600
for vestments and linens for Mass,
$200 for catechism materials, $20
for devotional kits for families.
More than an occasion for just
a financial transaction, the Parish
Partnership program moved
everyone involved toward a true
transformation.
St. Mark’s teens learned about
never taking for granted the abundance
with which they were
blessed.
They learned about the Shalako,
a ceremony of thanksgiving
and requests for blessings.
They also learned how the school
teaches its students Zuni beliefs
on respect and harmony with the
world—teachings that, if taken
by all, would change their high
schools and just might change our
fractured world. St. Mark’s congregation
learned how beautifully
Zuni culture was woven into
Catholicism: the Blessed Virgin
Mary who is covered by a traditional
blanket, a painting of the
Last Supper attended by Native
American people, and the sacredness
of the Zuni mountain.
And, most importantly, the
teens encountered Christ. As one
said, “Loving like Jesus did takes
immense strength and courage. But
the rewards are awesome because
serving others means we are serving
Christ, and in the process deepening
our relationship with Him.”
Abundance everywhere
The abundance of St. Mark mingled
with the abundance of St.
Anthony Mission and School. This
parish partnership is a powerful
example of the evergreen vitality
of the Catholic faith and Catholic
education at its best.
For there is a space after a sum’s
component parts, and there is a
variable component where the
Holy Spirit can move, leading us on
new paths to abundance.
The parish partnership of St.
Mark and St. Anthony enlarges our
sense of what is possible. Their
young people help us see that the
cycle of poverty can be broken,
that high school corridors can be
places of care and support, and
that all of us, from Oro Valley to
Zuni Pueblo and points beyond, are
part of the same tribe, not so different
as we think and more alike
than we imagine.
God magnifies and multiplies
our efforts in ways that defy our
finite understanding of the world.
God moves our minds, which gravitate
toward simple transactions,
and moves them toward genuine
transformations.
In God’s divine wisdom, one
plus one can add up to something
extraordinary.