Following Dick Houk’s funeral mass at St. Athanasius in
February, Nancy Rospenda, Joan and I were talking with Mary Lietz, Gerry’s
widow. Mary, who serves as assistant
principal of the parish school, and Nancy were sharing stories about their
children who roomed together at DePaul. I
mentioned that I saw in the parish bulletin that the Lenten collection for
April 1 would support the missionary work of Kristin Lietz in Mexico. Mary then shared with us the moving story of
Kristin’s continuing commitment to doing the work of Vincent de Paul.
Kristin graduated from DePaul with a degree in psychology in
1989. While at DePaul she took courses
in Spanish and spent a quarter-term in the DePaul program in Merida,
Mexico. Following her graduation from
DePaul, she received a master’s degree in counseling and guidance from Loyola
University. Combining her commitment to
assist others and her love of Spanish, she worked for a few years with Hispanic
women in Cicero. Desiring to do more,
Kristin then made a commitment in 2000 to spend a year working in an orphanage
in Mexico. This led to a five-year
commitment.
While working at the orphanage with young girls, she
realized that little was being done to prepare them for life beyond menial
labor and early marriage. As a result,
she took up the challenge of Vincent, to do more. With little in terms of financial support,
she founded a program to assist young women who desire to continue their
education. The project is called Centro
De Compartimiento. It is designed to
assist young women from rural areas of southern Mexico to become leaders in
their communities.
The program provides
access to education, personal and spiritual development courses within the program,
and service to the community. The
program’s intent is to prepare Servant Leaders.
Room and board is provided for young women between the ages of 12 to 23
who have to leave their rural homes if they wish to pursue their educational
goals. Besides providing access to
education, the program “hopes to give the students access to personal insight
to be able to find their purpose in life and have a mission and vision for the
future.”
Presently, the program supports two houses, each with seven
young women. Kristin is in charge of one
of the homes, Casa Isabel. The program
is funded by private foundations and individual donors, mainly from the U.S. Casa
Isabel is located in Espinal, an urban area of 100,000, in the midst of the
largely rural state of Oaxaca, located on the southern coast of Mexico. For more information please visit the program’s
two websites: in Spanish, www.centrodecompartimiento.org
and in English, www.casaisabel.org.
Over the past five years Kristin has struggled not only to
continue but also to expand her work, to walk in the footsteps of Vincent de
Paul. In addition, she has two adopted daughters,
4 and 12. Gerry and Mary are very proud
of Kristin, as are we.
Dick Meister
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