Augustinian Vicariate of Chulucanas in Peru Inaugurates Philanthropic Office of Development

On March 7, 2024, Prior Provincial Fr. Anthony B. Pizzo, O.S.A., and Fr. Richie Mercado, O.S.A., attended the inauguration of the new John McKniff Philanthropic Office of Development at the Augustinian Vicariate of Chulucanas in Peru.

This inauguration marks a significant milestone in the history of the Vicariate, and for the Midwest Province, and will enable the Vicariate to advance into the future.

The creation of this Philanthropic Office of Development was a joint project between the Vicariate, the Midwest Augustinian Province, and the international development group Spring Rain Global, Inc. The new Office will support the Vicariate’s growing advancement efforts as it becomes financially self-sustaining, an effort that has been underway since the Augustinians first engagement in Peru, in 1963.

Peru, a country with a developing economy, has suffered natural disasters, political instability, and economic uncertainty. Despite these macro-scale challenges, the Augustinians have been successful in evangelizing the local Church in Peru, as well as providing sacraments to the many thousands who the Vicariate serve.

The Midwest Augustinians have supported mission work in Northern Peru since 1963, when the first North American Augustinians arrived.

Fr. John McKniff, O.S.A., the namesake of the new Philanthropic Office of Development, was actively involved in missionary work in Peru for over two decades, from 1972 to 1993. (Fr. John is an Augustinian “Servant of God” – with an active petition to be beatified.) During that time, he helped implement a Pastoral Plan for the Chulucanas Diocese, called New Image of Parish, that was intended to help engage laity in the evangelization work of the mission, to increase the amount of physical space the limited number of priests were able to support.

Each parish was broken up into zones with a local team of lay people that were trained to educate the rest of their zone about the Holy Sacraments:  their history, what they mean, and how to prepare for them.  Groups of Augustinians would then visit the dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of zones throughout their parish territory, administering the Holy Sacraments to all those in distant areas.

Some zones can take up to one week to travel to; each zone is visited at least once per year.

In 1986, as these efforts to evangelize bore fruit, the Vicariate of San Juan de Sahagun de Chulucanas was canonically established with communities in the Diocese of Chulucanas, the Archdiocese of Trujillo, and the Archdiocese of Lima.

Since then, with the growth of the Latin American Church, the Midwest Augustinians have transitioned more responsibility into the hands of the local clergy. In 2010, Fr. Fidel Alvarado, O.S.A. became the first native Peruvian to serve as the Regional Vicar. Presently, the vast majority of Augustinians in solemn vows in northern Peru are native Peruvians.

In 2013, the Vicariate opened Colegio San Agustin (St. Augustine School) in Trujillo, Peru, serving grade-school-aged students and educating them in the Augustinian tradition and with our core values of Truth, Unity, and Love. The construction of the new school building (which is also the current location of the Development Office) was completed in 2020, and the first students attended in March 2020.

Further expanding the educational footprint in the region, the Augustinians administer Colegio Señor de los Milagros in Pacasmayo and Colegio Santísima Cruz (School of the Holy Cross), a school originally administered by a group of Franciscan Sisters from Iowa. Santísima Crus was reconstructed in February 2023.

During the 60-plus years of mission work in the region, the Midwest Province has been working to support the self-sustaining efforts of the Vicariate. In 2022, Fr. Richie Mercado, O.S.A., was commissioned by the Province to assist in evaluating ways to address the economic difficulty of maintaining social and apostolate works across the communities of the Vicariate into the future.

The Province identified the international development firm, Spring Rain Global, to support the establishment of a philanthropy office, to support the financial needs of the Vicariate. As a social enterprise, Spring Rain Global provides financial planning and philanthropy office support to nonprofits around the world.

The Development Office is currently undergoing capacitation training with Spring Rain, a six-pillar process that includes emphasis on leadership and governance, program development and management, philanthropy development, financial planning, database management, and ecosystem building.  

The current priorities of the Office include funding scholarships for students, human development capital for teachers and staff in Augustinian schools, infrastructure projects (school chapel, classrooms, etc.), formation and vocation, and social justice projects (e.g. food pantries in Trujillo and Chulucanas). In the long term, the goal for this Office is to ensure the financial sustainability and viability of the Vicariate as a self-supporting organization.

For more information or to support the efforts of the Peruvian Vicariate of San Juan de Sahagun de Chulucanas, please contact the Advancement Office of the Midwest Augustinians.