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Up The Street Gondolas

History

In 1991 three young women reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary at St. Thomas More Church in Englewood Colorado and at the nearby Cabrini Shrine in the foothills of the Rockies. Mary came to them as Our Holy Mother of Virtues. Mary stressed the importance of living a virtuous life and of consecrating oneself to Her Immaculate Heart. She spoke of her role as Co-Redeemer of the human race. She also called upon her children in the West to run to Her children in the East who "long to hear your hearts." Many parishioners took pilgrimages to Russia and Ukraine in the early years. Many discerned that the Virgin Mary was calling upon them to take her Immaculate Heart to the East where our brothers and sisters suffered greatly while the Communists persecuted Christians for the better part of a century.

In 1992 the pastor Fr. Michael Walsh and a group of devout parishioners formed a non-profit corporation with plans to help rebuild the Catholic Church in formerly Communistic countries. The Corporation's name was Catholic Evangelization Mission for the Conversion of Russia (or CEM/COR). In 1995 we changed our name to Queen of the Apostles Mission Association (QAMA). In 1995 we hosted an international conference in Colorado Springs. Coming from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were many bishops and priests who pleaded with us to help them rebuild their churches following the collapse of Communism in 1991. In 1997 we hosted a second conference.

QAMA membership soon expanded far beyond the scope of the parish when thousands of pilgrims to the apparition site asked that we add them to our mailing list. By 1997 we had more than five thousand people from forty- eight states receiving our quarterly newsletter. Some of these people have been sending us generous donations to help the priests and religious we have met in the East. Others say their rosaries faithfully, as Mary requested at Fatima Portugal in 1917, when she first prophesied the eventual conversion of Russia.

The QAMA president and some volunteers have been traveling to Ukraine and Russia twice annually since 1996, and visiting the priests and religious who are working at the many remote mission outposts. We share their stories and their photos in our very colorful, joyful and Marian quarterly newsletter-The Breaking Dawn.

Since 1994 we have collected and delivered more than $1.6 Million in aid to the church in the East. We focus on the remote outposts where the missions are the poorest. In one place we built them a church for as little as $10,000. Another one cost $27,000. Ukraine and Russia are very poor, and the American dollar goes a very long way. The priests and sisters that we help are very humble and grateful, and they always pray for their American benefactors.

Very early on we visited a boarding school orphanage in Ukraine and fell in love with the children. Since then we have been conducting missions at the orphanage. They give us a room where we sleep at night. We pray with the children and introduce them to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We have expanded our outreach to several other orphanages. Most supporters of this mission hold our dear pure hearted orphans very closely to their hearts. Some of our current activities include:

  • Actively praying, distributing religious and humanitarian goods, hosting conferences, organizing pilgrimages, providing orphan relief, and funding the construction and repair of churches and monasteries in formerly Communistic countries
  • Over 5000 Catholic lay and religious members throughout the U.S. and Canada
  • Supporting 40 missionary outposts in Russia, Ukraine, Tatarstan and Uzbekistan
  • Over $1,600,000 dispersed in grants since 1995
  • QAMA members receive 4 quarterly newsletters each year
  • Funded completion of many new churches, including ones in: Vinogradov - Kiev - and Krivij Rig, Ukraine.
  • Renovated 6 reclaimed churches in Russia and Ukraine - Kontcovo - Kyiv - St. Petersburg - Kazan - Smila - Samarkand - funding repairs of others
  • Purchased Byzantine monastery for missionary sisters from Argentina
  • Helped purchase second Byzantine monastery for the same sisters
  • Building a Greek Catholic monastery in Lutsk, Ukraine
  • Constructing a new Byzantine novitiate in Halychyna, Ukraine
  • Renovated a house in Uman, making it into a monastery for Divine Redeemer Sisters
  • Building Assumption of the Virgin Mary church in Kyiv
  • Providing ongoing support to seminarians, priests, Religious, and orphanages in Russia and Ukraine