Miami, June 4, 2008
Feast of St. Boniface, Patron Saint of Germany

Siostry Salwatricze Musial
Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy
Ul. Siostry Faustyny 3
30-420 Krakow, Poland                    

Dear Siostry Salwatricze and all the Sisters of the Congregation:

May God’s mercy be with you all!  It is with a great sense of joy that we write to you to share the news that my wife Olga María and I, together with Marzo and Iliana Artime, have founded a new missionary society to promote and foster John Paul II’s New Evangelization.  The Missionary Society John Paul II will do its missionary work primarily in Cuba, which as you know has been a long-held dream of our family, especially after the Holy Father’s visit to Cuba in January of 1998.

Our trip to Poland in the summer of 2005 represented a decisive moment in our journey of faith.  On that occasion we clearly understood the significance of the Divine Mercy and we learned from you the great value of the message that our Lord Jesus Christ delivered to Saint Faustina.  Since then our devotion to the Divine Mercy has played a central role in both our relationship with God and in our pastoral work.  Our encounter with you also served to intensify our desire to share with the Cuban people John Paul II’s message of love and hope.  Hence, we helped found this missionary society with the intent to work for the Kingdom of God primarily with the Cuban bishops and the Church in Cuba. 

You may recall from our conversations during the week that Irma and David García, Cecilia García and Manolo Pérez, and my wife and I spent with you, that we have more than thirty years of experience doing pastoral work in Latin America.  In fact, most of the members of the new missionary society have done missionary work in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, El Salvador, Peru, and Mexico.  Some of them have also been actively involved for many years with Hispanic Ministry throughout the United States.  Now, as the time gets nearer for us to begin our apostolic work, we are in dire need of prayer and spiritual support.  It is our hope that we can persuade you to include the Missionary Society John Paul II and all the families involved in your personal and community prayers, that we may be open to God’s will and that we may find the energy, resources, and means to carryout His mission for the good of the Kingdom.

Since its inception the missionary society has desired to be consecrated to the Divine Mercy and to St. Mary, the holy mother of our redeemer, through the Virgin of Charity, Cuba’s patron saint. We would like to request your guidance regarding everything that has to do with our devotion to the Divine Mercy. We feel spiritually connected to you; therefore, your blessing and guidance are of immense value to us. Specifically we would like your advice as to the procedure that we should follow to officially consecrate the missionary society to the Divine Mercy.  Monsignor Felipe de Jesús Estévez, our auxiliary bishop, has a great devotion for the Divine Mercy and he also oversees the relationship with the church in Cuba for the Archdioceses of Miami.  Most likely, he will be very willing to help us.

We would also like to take this opportunity to ask for your help regarding the Advisory Board for the missionary society.  The Advisory Board is a group of men and women who understand the mission of the Church and the purpose of the organization.  They meet once or twice a year to evaluate the work that we have accomplished and set future goals and direction for the organization.  Given our spiritual connection with you and the missionary society’s devotion to the Divine Mercy, we would like to invite you, or one of the sisters from your community at your discretion, to be part of our Advisory Board.  We would also like to ask you if you think that there may be any possibility that Monsignor Dzwiez could serve on the Advisory Board and what would be the best way to ask him.

It gives us great joy to write to you because it brings us many good memories.  We always keep all of you in our prayers and we often think about you and the time with spent with you.  We await your answer in the hope it will be of great benefit for the people in Cuba, and we thank you for your support and encouragement. We remain united in prayer and love for everyone in Poland, the United States, Cuba, and the whole world, fully trusting that in Jesus we can build a better world “with everyone and for the common good.”

We love you in Christ Jesus,

Adriano García, Jr. and Olga María Mayoral-García
Marzo and Iliana Artime
Founders
Missionary Society John Paul II