Last message to the friends of Hogar de Cristo

         Letter dated August 14, 1952, dictated by Father Hurtado from his hospital bed in the Catholic University Clinic four days before his death.

On the eve of the canonization, this letter was made public during a Vigil service, held at the Saint Ignatius Church in Rome and was presided over by Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, of Santiago de Chile, and Father General. The provincial of Chile accompanied by a number of Jesuits, some of them students and spiritual directees of Father Hurtado, were also present.

 

On my last Christmas greeting I would like to thank all the friends, those whose names are known as well as the anonymous ones, who sometimes from very far away have helped this simple work of charity of the Gospel that is the Hogar de Cristo.

As I depart, returning to my Father the Lord, I take the liberty of entrusting one last yearning to you:  to strive to create a true atmosphere of love and respect for the poor, because the poor are Christ. “I assure that as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me” (Mt 25:40, The New American Bible).

Hogar de Cristo, loyal to its ideal of seeking the poorest and abandoned to fill them with fraternal love, has continued with its shelters for men and women, so that those who have nowhere to go may find a friendly hand to welcome them.  

The boys on the street, gathered one by one during the cold winter nights, have filled Hogar de Cristo to capacity.  Five thousand of them roam throughout the city of Santiago. If only we could gather them all... and give them an education! To such a purpose, a new section of the Hogar is under construction, with a capacity for 150 boys, designed to offer them the necessary comforts to allow serious educational work. The carpentry, plumbing, and sheet metal workshops teach these sons of Hogar de Cristo a trade.  New mechanic, printing and book binding workshops, God willing, will house the work of the current workshops.

The girls on the street, non-existent in the past, are now a sad reality. Four hundred of them have been registered by the police. How many others are out there, surrounded by misery and pain, gradually decline physically and morally!  A shelter will soon open for them.

The Center for Family Education of the Hogar de Cristo, which is already finished, will prepare these girls for their duties as mothers and wives, offering them courses in cooking, laundering, sewing, child education, etc.  This House will also provide services to the whole neighborhood.

The elderly will also have their shelter, in other words, the affection and love that a home for the aged cannot offer them.  We would like the twilight of their lives to be less harsh and sad. Won’t there be any generous hearts to help us carry out this yearning? 

As the needs and sorrows of the poor arise, may the Hogar de Cristo, the anonymous group of kind-hearted Chileans, seek ways to help them as one would help the Master.   

Upon wishing all and every one of you a merry Christmas, in the name of God I entrust you with all of these little ones. 

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