OFFICIAL NAME
Escuela de la Cruz
ALSO KNOWN AS
School of the Cross
ESTABLISHED
1965
HISTORY
School of the Cross was founded in the rural parish of St Isidro Labrador, in the diocese of Villarhermosa, Mexico, by Fr Francisco Javier Asencio Dávalos, a professed brother of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. After spreading to about a thousand parishes and virtually all the dioceses of Mexico, in 1987 it was established by Church authorities as a national association of the faithful. Within a few years it reached the United States of America and then El Salvador and Nicaragua.
On 22 May 1994 the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed Escuela de la Cruz to be an international association of the faithful.
IDENTITY
School of the Cross participates in the Church’s mission by creating communities of apostles to bear witness to the spirituality of the Cross in the spiritual order and the temporal order. The members of the association (called cruzados) undertake to live in intimate union with the crucified heart of Jesus Christ, Priest-Victim-Altar, to "be priests with their priest", and in particular to support their own parish priest in the performance of his ministry. They are united by the realisation that they are sons of God, chosen by Jesus to take part in his mission by helping one another to live the Gospel and the spirituality of the Cross, to the heroism of love.
ORGANISATION
Both laymen (often indigenous, small farmers and workers) and priests responsible for the pastoral care of a parish may join School of the Cross. The structure of the association is broken up into a general team, diocesan teams and parochial teams, under which are small groups of 5-9 people.
WORKS
The cruzados are involved in various parish pastoral activities where they carry out, among other things, catechetical activities, adoration of the Eucharist, health-ministry activities, and where they engage as extraordinary ministers of communion.
WEBSITE
HEADQUARTERS
Boulevard Central No. 80
18 De Marzo, C.P. 81066
Guasave, Sinaloa
México
E-mail: secretaria@escueladelacruz.org
