Sacred Heart Church, Dangriga

Sacred Heart Church, in Dangriga, Belize, is a Roman Catholic parish.

The Garifuna migrated to the southern shore of Belize in the late 18th century. Their womenfolk cultivated the rich alluvial river banks while the men were fishermen. Preceding them to Stann Creek town (later Dangriga) were some Black Creoles and a few whites who were served by Anglican and Methodist missionaries. In 1834 these missionaries built a chapel for the Garifuna in Stann Creek. There was then a cumulative population of about 500 in Stann Creek and the closely associated town of Mullins River ten miles to the north that had already become a focus of Catholic missionary activity.

The first evidence that a Catholic priest had been in Stann Creek comes from 1830. Thomas Jeffries, a Methodist minister, said that the Garifuna wore “makeshift beads and crosses to ward off evil and danger, a practice they explained as an inheritance from earlier instruction by Spanish priests.” Mullins River with its colony of immigrant mestizos from Honduras remained the more important Catholic mission until 1867.

In 1862 Jesuit Fr. Genon was covering Stann Creek from Punta Gorda. Then in 1867 Jesuit Fr. Brindisi built the first Catholic rectory and church in Stann Creek. In 1871 he built a better church “with pillars and naves and a goodly size”, and had the assistance of a diocesan missionary priest Leon Maclluchet from 1874 to 1879. In 1877 Fr. Alfonso Parisi replaced Fr. Brindisi. He built a school in Stann Creek and a new chapel at Mullins River.

Writing in 1874, Jesuit Fr. Pittar described the Garifuna congregation as “remarkably gentle and docile in their conduct … and not a little superstitious.” One superstition he referred to was the belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living, the dugu ceremony or “spiritualism.” For decades into the 20th century the church and government tried to stamp out this custom. But it has endured with mutual influence: the cross and statues of the Virgin Mary might be placed on the altar in the Dubuyaba, and the Buyei encourage attendance at Christian church services, especially for thanksgiving. Garifuna priests now regard this cultural tradition favorably. The Catholic Mass has been translated into Garifuna and has been enculturated, as displayed at the annual celebration of Garifuna Settlement Day each November 19.

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Wikipedia