La Salette in Argentina

Editor: We hereby republish sections of the Centennial Booklet, “La Salette—1846-1946: Ten Decades with Our Lady,” edited by Fr. Emile Ladouceur, M.S., describing the first hundred years of making Mary’s message known. This is the eleventh of twelve articles.

"La tierra de la promesa, la tierra del futuro"— thus do the Argentine people love to speak of their country: “the Land of Promise, the Land of the Future.”

Argentina is a rich country and for the most part its people are the descendants of Spanish and Italian immigrants. It is a Catholic country and it has harbored many a Polish refugee. The lack of clergy has prevented the development of the Church among the scattered population of the hinterland. Hence a great field of apostolate lies open in Argentina.

The Origin of our Mission in Argentina

The origin of the La Salette presence in Argentina is linked to the International Eucharistic Congress held in Buenos Aires in 1934. The Papal Delegate for the Congress was Cardinal Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pachelli who later became Pope Pius XII. A delegation from Poland, headed by the country’s Cardinal Primate, participated in the Congress. The Argentine bishops were aware of a wave of Polish immigrants and, eager to care for their pastoral needs, put out call for Polish Missionaries.

In May 1936, Fr. Michael Kolbuch (1889-1957), M.S., Provincial of Poland, was urged by Cardinal August Hlond (1881-1948, named “Venerable” by Pope Francis), at the invitation of the Polish Government, to undertake a survey of the Polish Catholic immigrants in Argentina. The outcome of his visit was the establishment of several La Salette mission centers in four of the Provinces of Argentina: La Plata, Cordoba, Santa Fe and Rosario.

La Salette responded with a visit in 1937 by the Polish Provincial, Fr. Kolbuch and Fr. Edward Sudyka (1907-1977). The decision was made and Fr. Sudyka was named to the Parish of San José in the Archdiocese of La Plata, Buenos Aires. Nearby the city of Doc Sud, in the area of greater Buenos Aires, offered the first contacts with Polish immigrants.

From the beginning the Missionaries of La Salette attended to the needs of the immigrants and of the local people as well. The eventual arrival of Frs. Luis I. Zawisa (1909-1991), Casimir Kornafel (1907-1990), Józef Paprocki (1911-1975), Ladislau Pykoz as well as Bros. Jan Maszczak (1904-1969) and Adalberto Cieślak (1901-1978) fortified the new mission.

Polish La Salette Fathers in Ware, Massachusetts in 1931: (L to R) Frs. Slusarz, Michael Herbut (1894-1953), Michael Kolbuch (1989-1957) and Piotr Jaworski (1912-1954)After a time given the commitment by other congregations in the area to the Polish immigrants it was decided to leave Doc Sud and take on missions in the eastern province of Santa Fe as well as Córdoba. Eventually two parishes of Our Lady of La Salette, one in Barrio Candiotti, Santa Fe and the other in Yofre Norte, Córdoba were established and continue to receive the ministry of La Salette Missionaries.

The Invasion of Poland in 1939

The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 made it impossible to send more missionaries and having serious consequences for community life and the economic support from Poland. The small missionary band found itself fighting for survival. A magazine was begun, El Mensajero de Nuestra Senora de La Salette (The Message of Our Lady of La Salette), through which for many years La Salette was made known.

With a great desire for a permanent La Salette presence in Argentina, the first apostolic school was opened in Barrio Patricios, a neighborhood in Córdoba, attracting mostly poor children of Polish immigrants living in the north eastern Province of Chaco. Not long after, preoccupied for the quality of education, a proposal to assume the administration of a boarding school in rural Santa Rosa de Rio Primero in Córdoba was accepted.

During World War II the religious congregation administering the school had been called back to France to complete their obligatory military service. For the next seven or eight years the Missionaries, with the help of Fr. François Dantin (1924-1992) who had returned to France from Madagascar, administered the school and maintained their own formation program for the candidates. Fr. Dantin of the French Province died and was buried in Santa Rosa de Rio Primero.

A Local Scholasticate in Argentina

Present-day Church in La Banda, Argentina: façade
(left) and La Salette Shrine in their Church sanctuary (right)The desire to improve even more the quality of the formation led to a decision to buy, with the financial assistance of the Polish American La Salette Fathers and Brothers in Olivet, Illinois, a fifteen-acre piece of property in Pilar some sixty kilometers (nine miles) North of Buenos Aires.

The proximity of various seminary faculties in the area promised a better quality formation. Fr. Casimir Kornafel, who for some nine years was pastor in the most southern part of Buenos Aires province, accepted to prepare the property and with the help of the seminarians put it into shape constructing two small buildings with chapel, dormitories and class rooms in addition to the small chalet already on the property.

La Salettes in Argentina reach out to all Mary’s People

A stylized La Salette Cross by Fr. Alfredo D. Velarde, M.S., from our Parish in Las Termas, ArgentinaThe work of the Fathers in Argentina, be it said in passing, is not limited to Polish immigrants only. Moreover, these are quite scattered throughout that vast country. The Missionaries labor to spread the Gospel and Mary's message to many needy souls in a broad and strangely mixed territory.

The Fathers in Argentina launched a periodical dedicated to the interests of the Apparition of La Salette and their missionary work. The review is in Spanish and bears the title: El Mensajero de Nuestra Senora de La Salette. It seeks to make known the apostolate of Our Weeping Mother of the Alps throughout the fourteen provinces of the Argentine Republic. It also brings to ten the number of religious magazines throughout the world devoted to the cause of La Salette.

From the religious point of view, our ministry in Argentina still leaves a great deal to be accomplished. The working class especially is sadly lacking in religious care and instruction. It is safe to say that in the Catholic land of Argentina a very small percentage of the people are faithful to the constant practice of our Holy Religion — we may say three percent of the men and twelve percent of the women.

It is precisely to conditions such as these that caused Our Blessed Mother to shed bitter tears in her Holy Apparition at La Salette. May she, whose salutary teachings are now being preached in Argentina, bless the Church of that country and revive the service of Christ among its dear people.
Top row: Alfredo Vellarde, M.S.; La Salette Parish in Las Termas, Argentina; Fernando Altamiranda, M.S.
Middle row: Joseph Peethuruthel, M.S.; La Salette Parish in La Banda, Argentina; Jose Centeno, M.S.
Bottom row: A group of happy Argentinian children; La Salette Statue at our Parish in Las Termas; Fr. Jim Henault, M.S., with three young well-wishers at a Welcome Party