History of the Catholic Church in Belize
A century later separate incursions into the central, southern, and northern parts of the territory led to the first permanent residency of the Jesuits in Belize, in 1851.
1524 to 1707 - Friars accompanied the earliest Spanish expeditions into Central America, in accordance with the Patronato system and its intermingling of politics and religion.
[6] The South witnessed the only recorded martyrdom of missionaries in Belize: in 1684 at Paliac (Rio Grande, Toledo) three Franciscans and some Spaniards were martyred, presumably a sacrificial offering following the Maya method of ripping out the heart.
The town was served by Anglican, Baptist, and Methodist ministers but Spanish merchants from Yucatan, along with mestizos and Garifuna from the South, would enlarge the Catholic community in the mid-19th century.
[11] The third and largest migration to Belize followed the Caste War of Yucatan when Santa Cruz Maya drove out mestizos from the coast.
[1]: 18 These mestizos also settled alongside the Icaiche Maya in the northern forests, with gradual movement down the western high ground, above the coastal swamps.
Missionary contacts with the Santa Cruz, Icaiche, and mestizos are mentioned in several of the "Letters and Notices" of the English Province of Jesuits who would arrive in 1851.
Du Peyron would oversee the building of the first Catholic church in Belize Town for what is today Holy Redeemer parish.
Between 1852 and 1893, 58 Jesuits from 10 countries came to establish these churches: from Italy (18), England (14), Spain (11), Belgian (5), France (3), Ireland (3), Germany (1), Greece (1), Guatemala (1), Columbia (1).
His tenure was marked by a rebuilding effort following the hurricane of 1931, that destroyed St. John's College at Loyola Park and took an estimated 2500 lives including eleven Jesuits.
He also built Holy Redeemer Hall which became the premier indoor facility for large events in Belize, until the construction of Bliss Institute in 1954.
It moved to a spacious Loyola Park campus south of town in 1917 where it served as a boarding school for many who would become leaders in Belize and throughout Central America.
The influence of Jesuit education on Belizean politics is covered under "Apostolic works" below, along with their part in initiating credit unions and cooperatives in Belize.
Bishops di Pietro and Hopkins did much to secure their services and then to arrange for their separate foundation in Belize, independent of the motherhouse in New Orleans.
[27] On coming to Belize, the sisters assumed the task of running Holy Redeemer Primary School that by the early 1900s enrolled nearly 400 students.
were called to assist at Sacred Heart Parish in Dangriga and then to foster lay ministry in the spirit of renewal in the Catholic church.
The Guadalupana sisters from Mérida, Yucatan, worked in lay ministry at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Corozal during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Carmel High School in Benque, staffed largely by foreign volunteers, and also opened Divine Mercy Church in Belize City.
They assumed responsibility for and expanded the high school in Chunox, Corozal District, enlarging its departments in agriculture, science, computers, and home economics.
Christopher Glancy, C.S.V., who had guided Xavier parish in Corozal through much of its renewal, was called to the episcopacy to assist Bishop Dorick M. Wright whose eyesight was failing.
Edward J. O’Donnell, S.J., before becoming president of Marquette University, led discussion classes at St. John's College night school from 1945 to 1948,[36] based on Pope Pius XI’s social encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931).
[37] Class members included future political and People's United Party leaders George Cadle Price, Philip Goldson, Herman Jex, John Albert Smith, Leigh Richardson, and Nick Pollard Sr. Price, popularly known as the "Father of the Nation," led Belize through its independence movement, holding the top office in the country for a cumulative 27 years.
[37] The editor of Amandala newspaper, Evan X Hyde, stated that “the Catholic Church in British Honduras … achieved political power when George Price became PUP leader.”[37] He is pictured here with Peace Corps volunteers.
William Ulrich gave the Maya of San Antonio village a scale for weighing their hogs, protecting them from sharkers who grossly underestimated the weight.
[41] From the 1850s laws were enacted in British Honduras so that by the end of the century the church-state system of education was well established, with payment by results, for the benefit of every denomination of Christians.
John Stochl introduced a high school equivalency program for adults in the downtown Extension Division of SJC.
[44] Sir Alan Burns, Governor of British Honduras (1934-1939), used Benque Viejo as an example of one challenge that teaching in Belizean schools presents: “I have heard German nuns trying to teach Maya children out of an English textbook which they had to explain in Spanish.”[47] The solution, in higher education at least, has been to require English in the classroom.
Over 25 years the transition to lay leadership was effected, while efforts were made to assure the continuing presence of the Jesuit charism in the college.
Those attending some division of St. John's College and prominent in government service include Emil Arguelles, Johnny Briceño, Jorge Espat, Manuel Esquivel, Francis Fonseca, Ralph Fonseca, Caritas Lawrence, Zenaida Moya, Said Musa, George Cadle Price.
Prominent graduates of other Catholic schools include Dolores Balderamos-García, Antonio Soberanis Gómez, Gaspar Vega.
