Fr Apolinar, diocesan priest of the Congo, Africa with the triptych of the Pilgrim Queen of the Family.

The Congo, Africa, July 4, 2008. The triptych of the Pilgrim Queen of the Family recently arrived to the Congo, Africa, thanks to Mrs. Belén Martín, a Regnum Christi member and local director of CK Net (K4J) in Madrid, Spain.

The connection was made when Mrs. Belén got to know an African diocesan priest named Fr Apolinar, who was in Spain seeking economic help to build a new parish. In the following e-mail message, Mrs Martín tells Spain’s national director of Pilgrim Queen of the Family, Amada Blanco, how it happened:

“I will tell you how Pilgrim Queen of the Family got to the Congo. We know Fr Apolinar because in the summers he travels from the Congo to help the pastor of Oliva, which is where we go on summer vacation. He is a powerful preacher and celebrates Mass with a lot of reverence. He is a man of prayer and great faith. He has come to our house several times, and we appreciate him very much.

“He came to Madrid because we offered him some help in his fundraising efforts to build a church in his town. Unfortunately, the Spanish civil institutions help him only for social work; as soon as he brought up the question of building a church, all of the doors were closed to him.

“So, one night we invited him to dinner and it happened to coincide with one of the days when we had the Pilgrim Queen of the Family triptych at our house. We were hosting the image because one of my daughters’ classes was hosting it, family by family. We invited him to stay and pray with us.

“After lighting a candle before the image, we prayed the mystery of the rosary,

	Location of the Republic of the Congo in the African continent.

giving thanks to God because the priest was with us and asking the Blessed Virgin to help us raise the money for the church of St Josephine Bakhita (that will be the name of the new church) in the Congo.

“Fr Apolinar was very impressed to see such little girls praying around the image of the Blessed Virgin, and my husband praying with us and my daughter (the one who brought the triptych home) leading the rosary. He asked us what the Pilgrim Queen of the Family was all about, and we explained the apostolate to him. He got very enthused about it and said, ‘I would love to bring the Pilgrim Queen there… I would bring her to my sister’s house first…’ The next day, we got a triptych for him. We were so excited to give it to him and to know that the Blessed Virgin would be traveling to the Congo!  I loved to see how Father embraced the image.

“A few weeks later, he sent us these pictures and other pictures of the church’s first stones. Impressive. It seems that the Blessed Virgin has taken care of opening all of the doors he needs for his project: the university, Caritas, the school, the ECYD boys, the Regnum Christi young men… Everyone has contributed and the parish of St Josephina Bakhita is now much more than a hope in the heart of this good priest. I am praying to Mary (just today we began to host another triptych) to bless this priest and help him to persevere in his vocation.

“A big hug… thanks for everything,
Belén Martín