Claretian Missionaries USA-Canada Province

Radio Ministry
RADIO CLARET AMERICA

One of our newest ministries is Radio Claret America. Our team developed this new Spanish-language media outreach throughout 2014; the station went live with the start of 2015.

Radio Claret America seeks to spread the gospel through meaningful and ecumenical programs that fit well with your daily life. Our mission in this ministry is:

to inform but not to impose on faith-based topics,
to be the voice of the voiceless,
to build community through prayer and fraternal communication,
to be a source of information regarding daily events for our local and international community of listeners, and
to be a bridge for all Claretian communities worldwide.
Radio Claret America is focused primarily on the emerging U.S. Latino communities. We want to be a conduit for the hope and dreams, the concerns and challenges facing Latinos today. Our original programming includes topics covering religions, politics, music, cultures, and news. Through radio and other social media we want to be the voice of a people!

Learn more about Radio Claret at www.radioclaretamerica.com.

Claretians have worked with immigrants since coming to the U.S. in 1902. Through good times and bad, our missionaries have helped people adjust and adapt to the American way of life. In fact, we have always encouraged Latinos to make a valuable contribution to American culture. As new immigrants come to America, Claretians want to work with our government to rewrite current immigration law toward a comprehensive immigration reform.

Healthcare is a fundamental component of improving life for any of us. The Claretians’ commitment to healthcare is not as a provider or a hospital, but as resources to inform and guide people in our parishes to better healthcare for themselves and their families. Although in the cause of their ministry Claretians routinely visit the sick, some Claretians have specifically chosen the important service of hospital chaplaincy as their primary ministry, while other Claretians have devoted themselves to caring for our senior members.

Claret Center for Spiritual and Psychological Counseling

The Claretians have built an outreach into healthcare that provides wellness services, focusing primarily on spiritual direction, psychotherapy, workshops, and retreats. This is the Claret Center, located in Chicago. The center was founded in 1979 to address the needs of religious formation communities—as well as the short supply of spiritual directors trained in sound psychological principles and of professional psychotherapists. The center focuses on healing and healthy practices to enrich life for those who are struggling, and now serves adults and children needing counseling. The center also provides group supervision in spiritual direction for formation and vocation ministry personnel across a variety of religious communities.

Affordable Housing

Villa Guadalupe is a senior services housing development of the Claretians located on the south side of Chicago in a high-poverty community. This neighborhood is also one of the Claretians’ parishes. The mission here is to enhance the quality of life of the local seniors by providing affordable housing and support services within a secure environment. The staff provides a path of access for the seniors to healthcare referrals, case management advisors, access to treatment, and follow-up on health regimens. The Villa has been in operation for a little over 20 years, and has had the added benefit of stabilizing part of the community.

Hospital Chaplaincy

Our hospital chaplains are present with patients and sensitive to the needs of doctors, nurses, and extended medical staff while also offering religious services and sacraments to those in need. Claretian chaplains comfort families in their time of greatest need and see that no one dies alone without spiritual support and compassion. They also share in the joys of recovery and healing. Some Claretians serve in military medical centers where they face unique ministry challenges in helping service members and their families cope with injury and loss.

Caring for Senior Claretians

Claretians who care for our senior members take on a variety of responsibilities. They plan outings to add special interest and activity to each week, and they plan in-house programs, including exercise, concerts, social functions, and informative visits from doctors.

Claretian parishes are responsible for four thriving parochial schools, three at the elementary level and one at the high-school level. These schools promote high academic and behavioral standards, stressing the importance of faith development and outreach to the community. In addition, Claretians have been at the forefront in establishing alternative, or second-chance, high schools for youth who have dropped out.

Many children from low-income families benefit from scholarship programs offered in Claretian-sponsored ministries. One parish offers a preschool program with special attention paid to children of immigrants and refugees.

Claretians serve on the seminary faculties at Oblate College in San Antonio and at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, IL. Claretians also serve as campus chaplains at Missouri State University—providing enrichment opportunities for students particularly in social service and volunteer programs.

At San Gabriel Mission, one of the original Spanish missions in California, a well-trained staff, under the direction of the San Jose Dominican Sisters, provides both an excellent elementary school program and an outstanding all-girls high school. Graduates go on to success in college and in a wide variety of careers.

Corpus Christi: Little Ones Preschool
Stone Mountain, GA
http://www.littleonesatcc.com/

Our licensed and accredited preschool has been serving the Corpus Christi parish community since 1978. We offer a variety of preschool programs for children 18 months to 5 years. Our students, some of whom are refugees, come from as many as 12 countries. We use a center-based format focused on different curricula, such as music, computers, art, science, dramatic plays, and reading to enrich, engage, and educate our youngest community members.

Our Lady of Guadalupe School
Chicago, IL
http://www.olgschicago.org/

Attached to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and the National Shrine of St. Jude, this school serves approximately 200 students—97% of whom receive free or reduced lunches—in grades K through 8. We use scholarships, a low student-to-teacher ratio, dedicated and committed teachers, and annual standards testing to create a second value- and faith-based family for the next generation of community leaders.

San Gabriel Mission High School
San Gabriel, CA
http://www.sgmhs.org/

This all-girls high school has served young women from diverse ethnic backgrounds for more than 60 years. It is located on the historical grounds of the fourth Mission of California and offers each student the opportunity to grow and mature through Christian formation, to pursue academic excellence, to cultivate respect toward self and others, and to participate in Christian service.

San Gabriel Mission Elementary School
San Gabriel, CA
http://sgmission.org/

This school, which is adjacent to the historical San Gabriel Mission, is one of California’s longest operating K–8 parish schools. The Claretians made plans to open a school to serve Spanish and Mexican families when they began ministering to the parish in 1908. Ever since then, San Gabriel Elementary has been committed to academic excellence through a standards-based curriculum enriched by the Dominican and Claretian charisms of sharing the Word and Truth of Jesus Christ.

Sacred Heart Catholic School
Prescott, AZ
http://www.sacredhearteducation.com/

Our Sacred Heart Catholic School offers a spiritually and academically rigorous education for preschool through 8th grade. We offer significant tuition assistance so all students can take part in our well-rounded curriculum that includes technology, art, Spanish, and music—with religious education and guidance integrated throughout.

“The formation and development of youth and young adults is a priority for us. A holistic youth development means providing for and accompanying the youth to support their dignity and integrity…”
— from our 2011 USA Provincial Chapter

From the west coast to the east coast, in seven states and in Canada, the Claretians are engaged in a creative prophetic response to serving the needs of young people. Recently, the Province set up a Youth Task Force to help in the formation of young people, especially youth leaders committed to making the neighborhood a better place to live.

The creative responses that come from connecting and sharing ideas with one another are astounding. The Boy Scouts of San Gabriel Mission in California are taking a group of Chicago inner-city youth camping through the Rocky Mountains as a summer event. Another summer program features an exchange of college students between parishes, giving back to the community through a variety of service projects.

The purpose of all this is to help young people encounter Christ through a positive experience of service in the church, and to develop their capacity to be leaders in the community.

For information about Camp Claret, a summer camp in Québec for youth 7–16 years old, please visit their website.

I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart,
who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.

—Jeremiah 3:15

In the 2011 Chapter, the USA-Canada Province of the Claretian Missionaries wrote as a general objective: “Faithful to our charism, as servants of the Word, we aim to increase our ministerial presence and pastoral activities in the future.” This objective recognizes the heartfelt desire of the Claretians to respond to the urgent needs of God’s people in the Church today. This includes reaching out to the poor, to those marginalized in the Church today, and to those communities where pastoral leadership is needed.

As way to foster a continually deepening pastoral response to God’s people, the Claretians have embarked on a journey to develop models for fostering leadership in their apostolic sites. These range from parishes . . . to campus ministry . . . to community programs in teaching and service to the poor, the at-risk youth, and the homeless.

As “Servants of the Word,” God’s Word is central to our spirituality and ministry. The Claretians of the United States and Canada are committed to:

Quality preaching in all our ministries.
The Biblical Pastoral Initiative, a biblical formation program that engages community leaders in10-week study modules in order to facilitate Bible study in small faith communities.
An emphasis on Bible study in the parish setting.
A monthly Scripture column in U.S. Catholic.
Culturally-sensitive exegesis of, and reflection on, the Sunday readings in Nuestra Parroquia, a bilingual parish resource.
A radio program that emphasizes the Word of God today.
A commitment to exploring the use of other forms of media—including social media—for evangelization.