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Our Mission
The Pilgrim Center of Hope is to guide individuals, families and neighborhoods toward finding a deeper relationship with Christ through evangelization (living and sharing the faith).
The Directors
In September 1986, Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox left their respective careers in hotel management and the travel industry to work full-time for St. Matthew Catholic Church. For the first seven years, their main ministry was door-to-door home visitation; in the first two years, they visited over 10,000 families. They also helped establish other outreach ministries at St. Matthew Parish. In 1993, they founded Pilgrim Center of Hope as a response to John Paul II’s call for a “new evangelization” to encourage Catholics to live and share their faith. The ministry has received the blessing of Archbishop Emeritus Patrick Flores and Archbishop Jose Gomez.
Tom was ordained to the permanent Diaconate in August 1988. Mary Jane is a member of the ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) Advisory Board and the National Council of Catholic Women. They became Oblates of the Congregation of St. John in 1991.
Tom and Mary Jane’s mission has included travel to parishes in California, Kansas, Louisiana, Mexico, and within Texas to give presentations on their ministry experiences, Parish Missions and on Door-to-Door Home Visitation Outreach. In June 1989 and June 1990, they assisted the pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Belize City, Belize, in a parish-wide evangelization effort. Their Ministry of Pilgrimages has led them to Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Eygpt, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Their speciality is the Holy Land, having traveled there close to 40 times since 1986. Tom and Mary Jane have received their Holy Land Guide Cards from the Commission of Christian Pilgrimages in the Pontifical Institute of the Notre Dame of Jerusalem.
Their ministry work has been featured in five nation-wide Catholic periodicals and on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) show, Living His Life Abundantly in 1995 on the video I Am the Bread of Life, produced by Stepstone Productions, Inc. In February 2008, they received of the Catholic Television of San Antonio (CTSA) Leadership Award.
“The call we received from the Lord to serve in the field of Catholic Evangelization has been a most enlightening, inspirational and challenging vocation! Living and working at the Pilgrim Center of Hope is a unique setting. We have discovered this mission to be a very important part of our lives!” Deacon Tom and Mary Jane Fox.
Witness of Life
To be a “light in the world” that brings hope. (Reference Matthew 5:13-16)
• The Pilgrim Center of Hope seeks to awaken Catholics to the treasure of our sacred inheritance so that we can share this gift and inspire Catholics to discover the richness of our faith and the fullness of the Truth by moving the faith from the head to the heart The Pilgrim Center of Hope is a light to the world though conferences, pilgrimages, printed and electronic media, and personal outreach
• To be devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “On the morning of Pentecost, she watched over with her prayer the beginning of Evangelization prompted by the Holy Spirit; may she be the Star of Evangelization ever renewed which the Church, docile to her Lord’s command, must promote and accomplish, especially in these times which are difficult but full of hope!”
Pope Paul VI (Evangelization in the Modern World)
Placement within the Archdiocese
The Pilgrim Center of Hope is in complete and total unity with the Pope, the Magisterium and Bishops. Archbishop Jose Gomez, and earlier Archbishop Emeritus Patrick Flores, bless and encourage this apostolate. The Pilgrim Center of Hope is a non-profit organization sustained only by donations. The Center functions as a ministry and resource sustained only through its own fundraising efforts. The Pilgrim Center of Hope collaborates with Archdiocesan Offices & Ministries.
