St. Agnes Mission Circle

Reverend Father Peter Paase, MSP, Kakata, Liberia

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We are glad to add Father Paase's mission church in Liberia to our supported missionaries. Our member, Mary Ellen Seaver, served as director of the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute while serving as a Peace Corps Response. Mary Ellen attended St. Christophers and was a lector. Below is the artile Mary ellen Seaver wrote for our Spring 2010 Mission Circle Advocate.

"Welcome to Reverend Father Peter Paase, MSP, who most recently joins the group of Catholic missionaries supported by the St. Agnes Mission Circle. Father Peter is the spiritual leader of St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Kakata, Liberia. On Sunday mornings, he rushes back to Kakata, a medium-sized town, north of the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia. He drives two hours round trip into the forest to celebrate Mass for two small parishes before attending to the needs of 500 Kakata parishioners. Less than 1% of the parishioners have running water or electricity. Neighborhood wells provide buckets of water for cooking and bathing and candles and flashlights provide light in the evenings.

St. Christopher’s Parish features an enthusiastic choir whose members chant to the rhythm of West African drums. There is no dearth of generous spirit emanating from St. Christopher’s parish members even though the church building is lacking in doors and windows. Occasionally, a goat, or, two, wander onto the altar.

During Holy Week, all three Catholic communities gather together in Kakata to participate in services. A large flat-bed truck is rented to transport parishioners from the forest. The visitors cook, eat, sleep and pray together on the grounds inside the mission compound. Despite soaring West African temperatures and 95% tropical humidity, at high noon on Good Friday, Catholics walk the stations of the cross through the neighborhoods of Kakata.

After fourteen years of civil war, the Catholic communities of Liberia are in dire need of prayers and financial support to rebuild and refurbish churches. Both public and private (church) schools are reopening with volunteer teachers, no resources—no books, no paper, no chalk. Students hungry for education and spiritual solace attend a Catholic school attached to St. Christopher’s Parish. Fr. Peter spends enormous time, energy and creativity in attempting to keep Liberian children active in their faith.

During the 2009-10 academic year, St. Agnes Parishioner and Mission Circle Member, Mary Ellen Seaver, mentored the director of the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute while serving as a Peace Corps Response volunteer. For eight months she was a Lector at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church.

The members of St. Agnes Mission Circle welcome you to join them monthly for a delicious continental breakfast and for discussion on how St. Agnes parishioners can further reach out to and support, spiritually and financially, the global Catholic Community, including St. Christopher’s Parish in Liberia, West Africa.