Hoping Americans Heard the Pope's Call for Compassion

Sister Phyllis Tierney, in a guest essay in Sunday's Democrat and Chronicle, writes of compassion for immigrants. In December, she worked at a shelter on the Mexican border between El Paso and Juarez, the same location where the pope said Mass Wednesday (February 17). Click the link below to see Sister's essay.


http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/guest-column/2016/02/20/pope-mexico/80661678/#

Images of the Migrant/Refugee and the Border

At a conference on Saturday sponsored by the Hope Border Institute, one of the points made is that the people crossing into the United States are no longer simply migrants.  They are refugees fleeing violence, rape and persecution in their home countries.  Yet, as was also pointed out, we cannot think of them simply as poor victims of unjust systems who need our used clothing and unwanted jobs.  They are our brothers and sisters.  They are our future.  They are strong people who have faced incredible barriers and have overcome them with their faith and perseverance.

Another question raised at this conference was about where the voice of the Church can be found.  As this area prepares for Pope Francis’ visit,  today’s paper tells of the struggle of the Diocese of El Paso to get permission to have people gather in an area reserved on the levee road which would be the closest point people on this side of the border could be to get to see Pope Francis.

This article quoted Elizabeth O’Hara, spokeswoman for the Diocese, saying “That gathering of people is going to be the very people that Pope Francis is celebrating his Mass for.  These are going to be immigrants, refugees, the victims of violence that live in our community.  We are referring to this group as Francis VIPs because this is a group of people that typically is not considered VIP in any other aspect of their life, but Pope Francis certainly considers them that.”

The article also quoted Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso speaking of Pope Francis:  “We’ve heard from the first days of his papacy that we need to take seriously the model that Jesus has given us.  That as Christians, we have a special love and desire to serve those who are most in need…He will be about 65 feet from those gathered on the levee, so you can imagine.  For those gathered, it will be something they will never forget.  What a great opportunity to show our love for the poor.”

In Saturday’s conference it was stated that the border, one of the most militarized areas in the world with the fence, helicopters, and troops to prove it, has become the epicenter of pain and also of organization and resistance.  In a letter to the editor today from the Interfaith Alliance, Rev. Deborah Clugy Soto wrote the following:  “We unite our voices with Pope Francis in defending the dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and the migrant.  With Pope Francis, we affirm the gifts and contributions migrants make to our communities and to our nation.  We can no longer remain indifferent to the refugee fleeing torture, violence, hunger and poverty.  We pray that Pope Francis’ visit will show the world the peaceful co-existence of the border’s peoples, cultures, and faith communities.  We hope that the pope’s historic pilgrimage to our borderlands will encourage and confirm us in our work to build a border that is a place of encounter for greater peace, tolerance and understanding.” 

May we all work to promote an open “culture of encounter” with our refugee brothers and sisters rather than a walled in fortress to exclude God’s VIPs.   

 

                     Sisters Bea, Rose Ange and Rita at Casa Vides, part of Annunciation House

Pope Francis Coming to Juárez

All of this area is preparing for a visit from Pope Francis to Juarez, Mexico on February 17.  Training is happening for becoming part of the contingent of 80,000 people who will form a 25-mile-long chain to help protect the Pope during his visit.   Plans are being made for school, business and road closings.  The front page of the paper has had articles every day about the preparations.

It is predicted that the Pope will include in his visit a symbolic gesture such as a visit to the border fence that separates the United States and Mexico.  I wrote about this fence in the last blog.  In a Commentary in the El Paso Times today, Ouisa D. Davis, an attorney at law in El Paso, speaks of the implications of this visit for this area and the entire country:

“It is right that he should come to Juárez, the Ellis Island of the southern U.S. border.  It is through our region that families are reunited despite our broken immigration system.  It is through the desert Southwest that thousands of men, women and children have sacrificed their lives along the journey.

It is right that he comes at this moment, when U.S. political and social discourse is filled with hate and disrespect for immigrants and refugees to remind us that humanity is one, united by our common God, no matter our form of worship.”

As this entire region prepares for this visit and its significance, we at Loretto/Nazareth are experiencing changes in the flow of immigrants.  Yesterday we welcomed only four new people.  The day before there were 10.  The second shelter that was opened at St. Ignatius when we had 80 – 100 people coming every day has been closed for a few weeks. Each day we wait to see how many refugees will cross our threshold and from what countries they will come.  In addition to El Salvador, Guatemala and Brazil, we have had people from Nigeria, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Some of them have been Muslims and we have had to prepare different food to meet their dietary needs. 

No one is clear about why the ebb and flow of immigrants varies so much.  Is it the changes that are happening in U.S. policy?  Is it the weather?  Is it what the smugglers are saying to them about the right time to travel?  All we can do is stand ready to provide them with the warmth and welcome, safety and security, food and beverage which they have not always experienced in the detention centers where they were held before they come to us. 

Thank goodness for the generosity of the people of this region who are so faithful in bringing food and clothing as well as offering their time to volunteer in any way they can.  Thank goodness for your generosity in supporting this effort.  May the Pope’s visit remind us, in the words of Ouisa D. Davis, that we cannot be a nation that “suffers from a culture of indifference which allows us to look the other way and live in bubbles of ignorance as we encourage the culture of death to invade our land and social structure.”   Rather, we are a region, and I might say a nation, “desperately in need of reminders of how to live lives of mercy and compassion.” May the Pope’s visit be a blessing to this region and its people as well as to our whole country. 

    

Pope Francis coming to Juárez, Mexico

Sister Elaine and our Pope Francis!

The whole community with Pope Francis!

“Grand View” in El Paso

One of the joys of being here in El Paso has been the variety of people with whom I have been working and living.  Let me give you a brief picture of those who have been staying at Grand View – the convent of the Concordia CSJ’s which has been offering wonderful hospitality to all of us.

The backbone of the house are Sisters Mary Ljungdahl (Missy) and Donna Otter from Concordia.  Missy was born in Kansas but spent her youth in New Mexico.  She teaches fourth grade at St. Pius X School.  Donna is from Kansas and spent 38 years in Brazil.  She knows some of our Sisters there.  She keeps the house going along with Missy and volunteers in a variety of ministries in the area.

In addition to these two Sisters there are three other Sisters who live here long term.  Rita Nealon is a Sister of the Holy Spirit from San Antonio who came from Ireland in 1950 to work in this part of the country.  She goes back and forth to Mexico, where she worked for 20 years, helping with a women’s cooperative to sell their products and also visits at the Opportunity Center along with Donna.  This organization works with the homeless and runs various centers meeting particular needs including those of women with mental illness and the elderly.  Terri Rodela, a Dubuque Franciscan, is a native of El Paso who worked with immigrants in Mississippi before returning to this area to be closer to her mother and relatives.  She usually covers the late shift at Nazareth/Loretto, the shelter where we are working, helping with whatever is needed since she is fluent in Spanish.  Jackie Goodin is a Cleveland CSJ of the new Congregation of St. Joseph who works at Annunciation House which shelters migrants who may need to be in the area for a longer period of time.  She spent five years working in Africa.

The other people with whom I’ve crossed paths at the house are as follows:

·         Doreen Glynn – a CSJ from the Albany Province who worked in the Rochester Diocese for a number of years and now works in Social Justice for her Province.

·         Rose Ange Leddy and Kate O’Brien – both are IHM’s from Monroe, MI who are doing wonderful art work in their retirement years.

·         Lou Anne Willette – a Sinsinawa Dominican who spent 15 years in Bolivia and is currently working with the immigrant community of Milwaukee.

·         Rita Specht - an RSM from Chicago who lived and worked in this area for a number of years and who currently works with the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants.

·         Kate Cartwright – a married woman and professor at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.

·         Brittni Hayes – a senior at Kansas State University who I taking a semester off to work at House of Hope – a Pregnancy Resource Medical Center.

·         Christa Parra – a junior professed with the IBVM’s who is studying for a Masters in Divinity at CTU who is interested in border ministry.

·         Joyce Schramm – a Precious Blood sister from O’Fallon, MO who spent 10 years working in Bolivia.

·         Susan Buerkle – a partner in Ministry with Joyce’s congregation who is married and works as a physical therapist.

Please continue to keep all of us and the people we serve in your prayers.

Peace,

Elaine

Grand View

Susan, Joyce, Terri, Donna, Rose Ange, Missy, Brittni, Kate

"Instead of Fences on Border, Bridges"

On Saturday one of the Sisters of Saint Joseph from Concordia, Kansas, Missy, took me to see the fence that forms the border with Mexico. It stretches for miles as a formidable barrier.

In his homily yesterday on the Day of Prayer for Immigrants, Padre Arturo Banuelas spoke of the cost of building the border fence. If I understood his Spanish correctly, he noted that it costs about $16 million dollars per mile!

El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz, in an article in the OSV Newsweekly published on 12/30/2015, was interviewed about the significance of Pope Francis' visit to Juarez in February. Juarez and El Paso were one city in Mexico for hundreds of years until the border was drawn in the 1800's.  He says: "The river makes up most of the division between our two places...So geographically, we're one city. If you get up on a high point, the city really is, like the name says, a pass - El Paso- between the mountains...When you come to a high point and look out over the city, you can't see the river, you can't see the fence, all you see is one city stretching out for miles." 

He further states:  "...we're working to develop a sense of unity among our dioceses and across borders, and we think it can present a very helpful model at a time when people are more and more polarized because of borders- when they're more and more fearful of what's on the other side of the border. Instead of building fences higher, we're trying to build bridges that cultivate a sense of community and unity."

How contrary that sense of unity is to what the migrants face. In an article in today's paper, Ruben Garcia, the Director of the organization with which we are volunteering, spoke of what happens to them. "To get to the border, some families are paying the smugglers $7000 or more. Then, just to extract an extra $1000 or more from them, the smugglers take them to the border fence in the middle of the night and tell them to climb the fence and cross over, and that's where the Border Patrol intercepts them. "

 

Several migrants  have been injured by climbing the fence when they could have gone to a port of entry to ask for asylum. 

Please continue to pray for bridges, not walls.

Peace,

Elaine

                                                    A view from the convent where I stay. 

                                                       Another view from the convent.

 A view on the way from the grocery store.

"The Refugees at Our Door"

In an article entitled "The Refugees at Our Door," Sonia Nazario wrote last October about "a ferocious crackdown on refugees fleeing violence in Central America." This article says that Mexico carried out the crackdown at the request of President Obama. "The United States has given Mexico tens of millions of dollars for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to stop these migrants from reaching the United States border to claim asylum." 

Today's paper speaks about the round ups of refugees in the United States for deportation back to their own countries.

All of this is hard to believe and understand as I encounter the people we are serving. Let me tell you about one little boy.  Juan, about five years old, took a shine to me in the clothing room. He wears a permanent toothless grin and whenever he sees me, he grabs either my hand or clothing. I've danced with him and played his favorite game. He takes both my hands and jumps up and puts his feet around my waist and then does a back flip to the floor.

As I was working to clean and straighten the room where jackets, hats and gloves are kept for distribution, he and his mother appeared at the door asking for a hat for him. I looked in the bin and we had a few scarves and a baby's hat but nothing for him. I felt terrible. In the process of cleaning further I discovered that the container with more hats had been buried by other clothing and there was a hat in it that would fit him. Happily, I practically ran down the hall to find him in the playroom. He seemed delighted as I put the new hat on his head and he took off once again on the toy he was riding around the room. His mother gave me a heartfelt smile as I left the room.

Blessings for the New Year. 
Elaine