The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-01-07
HEROIC WORK AMONG MEXICAN
TRIsESMEN WHO HAD FIRST
MISSION IN SEVENTEENTH
= CENTURY,.

e. 7 ..-
Wagant claims are often made
F" Sso-called Protestant mission
Mexico of the wonderful work
,elytizing they are doing. Their
are usually glitterng with
lities. 1t is interesting by con-
c Ito know something concerning
i mission to the outlying tribes
SXico who still speak their own
olgues and have not learned to
speak the language of the Spanish
conqueror even after the lapse of so
many years,
The Rev. Camille Crivelli, S. j., the
Jesuit provincial for the Province of
Mexico which includes Central Amer
lea and some parts of the United
States. recently finished his annual
visit to the famous mission to the
Tarahumara Indians, where recently
10000 Indians gathered for the con-
secration of their mission to the Sa.
cred Heart, The original mission to
this tribe was founded in 1888, by
Father Font, q Spanish Jesuit who
was sent fl om the old country for the
purpose. The reports of his trip and
the difficulties to be surmounted make
very interesting reading at this late
date, but there are still difficulties
and handicaps surrounding this mis-
sion that have hardly lessened from
those encountered by the first mis-
sionaries.
Father Crivelli tells with glowing
interest of the trip he was forced to
make, over the mountains between
Chihuahua and Sonora, hundreds of
miles from the railroad, traversing
paths where even the faithful mule
is not available and the ascent must
be made on foot; sleeping on the bare
ground under the trees and carrying
provisions in knapsacks like the pill
grims of old.
Tribe of Thirty Thousand.
The Tarahumara tribe consists, at
present, of about thirty-two thousand
Indians and the headquarters Of the
mission are lat Sisoguichic, which is
reached after long and tedious jour-
ney of several hundred miles after
leaving the train at Minaca and trav-
cling by stage to Pahuirachic and on
through Tomochio.
From it's foundation in 1888 up to
1867, when the Jesuits were expel-
led from Nueva Espana, as Mexico
was then called, by King Carlos III
of Spain, the mission was in charge
of the Jesuits and the records of the
reports of the missionaries during this
time show the great difficulties en-
perienced in gaining the confidence
of this primitive people and the grad
ual work of baptizing and uniting in
matrimony the members Of the tribe
From this time until about the end
of the nineteenth century, the Fran
ciscans continued the work among
this tribe with the same zeal and per
severance among all the attendant
difficulties.
to the Jesuits and since then there
has been made what must be consid
cred remarkable progress when the
extreme difficulties that surround this
work are taken into consideration.
After untiring effort and study
there has been compiled and publish
cd a grammar and dictionary of the
Tarahumara language by the Rev
Jose Ferero, S. j., who has also pre-
pared a catechism. Copies of these
interesting publications have beer
forwarded to the Smithsonian insti
tute at Washington and other insti
tutions interested in pathological re
search, and have been favorably com
mented upon.
Many Converts Each Year.
According to Father Crivelll, TIT
field of the mission today embraces
some forty or more districts in eacl