During a recent three-day trip to the U.S.-Mexican border, Rev. Stephen Lundrigan saw up close the humanitarian crisis many Americans are by now well aware of.
But he also found a glimmer of hope: a surprisingly well-coordinated effort by the local Catholic churches on either side of the border near the McAllen, Texas-Reynosa, Tamaulipas region that was helping the hundreds of migrants stopped or stranded at the crossing.
The question he returned with, and asked attendees at a presentation he gave at Anna Maria College on Thursday afternoon, was what could other people of faith do to help solve the problem? And what solution could they possibly come up with on a large enough scale, he asked, to solve the “chaotic situation” at the border?
“There are no simple solutions,” said Rev. Lundrigan, a pastor at Annunciation Parish in Gardner and lecturer at Anna Maria, and the answers either side of the U.S. political spectrum have proposed “don’t really capture the reality of the situation.”
That reality, he pointed out, is that the entirety of the migrants flowing into the border each day can’t be easily summed up; they are not all criminals, nor are they all well-intentioned people.
For the latter population, however, Rev. Lundrigan said there isn’t much help from a U.S. border enforcement system that isn’t really designed to help them transition to life in America. The immigration detention centers set up along the border “are built and set up as a prison,” he said.
Some migrants don’t even get that far; when he and his four fellow priests on the trip traveled south of the border to Reynosa, for example, they encountered a “big crunch” made up of thousands of Mexicans, Central Americans and other nationalities who were held up at the border, or deposited on that side by American authorities for violating immigration laws.
One boy they met, just 16, had made his way up all the way from Honduras, where his local bishop had given him a note to show immigration officials saying he would be killed if he went back. But for whatever reason, he was not even allowed to cross at the U.S. checkpoint, said Rev. Lundrigan, who showed the audience a picture of the boy crying in the arms of one of his fellow priests, Rev. Peter Joyce of Milford.
“He can’t go home, he can’t go up (to America) – he’s stuck. He’s a 16-year-old kid,” he said.
There were several similar tales at Thursday’s talk – the 17-year-old girl who walked for 28 days from Guatemala to the border, the boy who had walked up in flip flops and “had ulcers between his toes” – and Rev. Lundrigan said for many of those people, there isn’t yet a good solution.
But the Diocese is helping in small but growing ways. In Mexico, the Church has set up a refugee center to provide basic needs to migrants and, just as important, give them temporary safety. The facility was surrounded by razor wire, Rev. Lundrigan said, “not to keep them in, but to keep others out” who prey on the vulnerable refugees.
On the U.S. side, meanwhile, the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brownsville have built an even more intricate network of support for migrants who manage to cross over and go through the U.S. detention system. The Church has worked out a deal with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to take in migrants, whom the government won’t release unless they have a transportation or lodging plan, he said.
In the McAllen area that Rev. Lundrigan toured, there was a nursing home converted into a migrant center, which he described as feeling like a “triage center – there were people everywhere, bodies everywhere ... it seemed chaotic, but it’s really very organized.”
For migrants who have to stay longer at the border – those without an established family member in the U.S. to stay with, for example – there was also a long-term shelter facility that could accommodate 15 to 20 people.
The idea that garnered the most interest from audience members on Thursday, however, was what Rev. Lundigran described as a makeshift village taking root near McAllen – a community of small shacks surrounding a central facility providing classrooms, a medical and dental center, and computers. Living there were immigrants who had found jobs, and simply needed a place to make their home.
While that concept seemed to be flourishing, he said, “it’s a long way off for most people” who cross the border. “Only a small percentage get to them, because there are not many of those (communities) ... we just don’t have the infrastructure to do all that.” Some U.S. towns and cities also likely wouldn’t want to host such a village, Rev. Lundrigan said.
“How do you replicate a model like that is the question,” he said at the conclusion of his presentation, which challenged attendees to think about how the U.S. – and people of faith – could answer it.
Article written by Scott O'Connell fromt he Telegram and Gazette
https://www.telegram.com/news/20190328/rev-stephen-lundrigan-describes-recent-trip-to-mexico-border-in-talk-at-anna-maria-college
All I want is to be the river though I return again and again to the clouds
Anna Maria College is enriching its theology offerings in response to particular needs in the Worcester Diocese and a highly educated world.
The Paxton college is restarting its master’s degree in pastoral ministry, starting two certificate programs as part of this graduate program, and adding a bachelor’s degree in theology, according to Marc Tumeinski, director of the graduate program in theology. Currently the college offers a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies.
Candidates for the permanent diaconate, who have been taking courses online, are to again earn their master’s degree at Anna Maria. People serving in parishes and Catholic schools also can earn their master’s in pastoral ministry there, with a concentration on religious education, said Professor Tumeinski. Tuition discounts are available through arrangements with the diocese and the college.
“I really wanted to find ways that the college could support the diocese,” said Professor Tumeinski, who also coordinates the theology department’s certificate program and undergraduate degree program.
“The bishop has been very supportive. … We felt well supported throughout the college and throughout the diocese,” he said.
The college already has a bachelor’s in Catholic studies, but the bachelor’s in theology is a deeper dive into Scripture, tradition and Church teaching and can prepare students who want to go on for graduate studies, Professor Tumeinski said.
He said he saw a need to restart the graduate program, because the college had previously offered it and wants to be open to expressed needs of the diocese.
Deacon William A. Bilow Jr., director of the diaconate office, asked about restarting the master’s degree for the deacon candidates, and other people asked about having a bachelor’s in theology and programs focused on teaching and spiritual accompaniment. Looking at Anna Maria’s faculty, as well as its education and psychology programs, and the theology department, Professor Tumeinski realized the college could help in these areas. 
