Marisel Rodriguez has been helping with New York-area outreach for Asociación Hogar Nazareth in Comayagua, Honduras, a Catholic safe home serving children and adults with disabilities who have experienced abandonment, neglect, or abuse.
Rodriguez is a bilingual singer-songwriter who often leads praise and worship music at Catholic prayer services, retreats, and other gatherings organized by Young Adult ministries in New York and New Jersey, events usually conducted in English or in Spanish and English. The ministries include the Archdiocese of New York Young Adult Ministry and the Jesus in Zion Ministry based at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx. Hogar Nazareth is run in collaboration with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR).
Singer amplifies a mission of mercy
“Our job is helping raise awareness; this is a beautiful way of giving back, being part of a mission,” Rodriguez told The Good Newsroom in a telephone interview. “People love the friars here in New York. My mission here is to spread the good news about what they’re doing in Honduras, and I also meet with potential donors. I was there in Honduras in April, and it was so beautiful to see these homes; they have four homes: one for special needs children, one for infants, one for women and little kids, and one for adult males … The friars, they’re like spiritual uncles to the children.”
Rodriguez said that on Sept. 12 and 13, she and others associated with Hogar Nazareth will be at Blessed Sacrament Church in New Rochelle engaging in outreach and fundraising. She said she is amazed at “the beautiful work the CFRs are doing alongside Asociación Hogar Nazareth (Nazareth Home),” and how Catholics in the New York area have been helping to support the mission.
In her outreach and fundraising work, Rodriguez has been in contact with Fr. Justin Alarcón, CFR, who had been assigned within the Archdiocese of New York but is now serving as head of Hogar Nazareth in Honduras. Fr. Alarcón will visit the archdiocese soon; he too will be at Blessed Sacrament on Sept. 12 and 13, where he will celebrate Mass on those days; on Sept. 14, he will help lead a young adult praise and worship gathering at the parish. Blessed Sacrament.
In a Facebook video posted by Hogar Nazareth, in Spanish, several children offer brief remarks about the safe home and their faith, including two girls who say, “Somos la Gran Familia Nazarena, unidos por el Amor Infinito de Dios.” (We are the Great Family of Nazareth, united in the Infinite Love of God). And a boy says, “Dios no abandona a nadie. Somos la familia de Hogar Nazareth.” (God doesn’t abandon anyone. We are the Family of Hogar Nazareth).
Priest leads a home for the forgotten
Fr. Alarcón has served in various New York area communities, including Yonkers, Newburgh, and the Bronx, as well as missions in Nicaragua and Honduras. In Comayagua, Honduras, his work has included helping run the safe home and now heading it, running a free medical clinic, and serving as a spiritual director at a major seminary. He traveled extensively as a chaplain and participant on the Seton Route during the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
Hogar Nazareth, established in 1988, has more than 40 staff members often serving more than 130 children and adults. Its stated mission is to “provide a safe, faith-filled and loving home for abandoned, neglected or abused children and adults with disabilities; to provide integral formation and interior healing and prepare the children for young adulthood, or where possible, to reunify them with family.”
For more information or to donate: https://www.hogarnaz.org/our-story; https://www.franciscanfriars.com/