MRS > Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees > The Networker: Volume 6, Number 3 - September 1998
On the first of October, I will officially begin my new position as Director of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees. I look forward to collaborating with you in this most important area of ministry in the life of the Church and in the life of our country. I am leaving a parish, St. Anne's in San Francisco, which has experienced dramatic demographic change in the last twenty years from European immigrants to Asian immigrants, mainly Filipino and Chinese. It has been a great grace for me as pastor to help shepherd the people of that neighborhood to accept the newcomers, not as a threat, but as an enrichment to parish life and to help the old-timers involve themselves actively in the integration of the newcomers in a truly Christian way. None of this process happens without stress and difficulty, but if the leadership is positive and caring, the integration can be mutually enriching.
I look forward to working with you as you face similar stresses and difficulties and want you to know that, if I can help you in any way, I will do my best. After I settle into the office and meet all the appropriate people on staff and in Migration and Refugee Services, and after I find my way around this enormous building, I hope to be able to visit the different regions and ethnic apostolates and to have a first-hand experience of your ministry. In an area of slim resources, our mutual support counts tremendously.
I have received the results of the survey sent out by this office and I want to thank you for taking part in response to the questions. In future articles of The Networker, I hope to be able to delineate a response to some of the concerns. Between the survey and my contacts with you in the coming year, I hope with the staff here to offer you helpful assistance in your ministry.
I am very grateful to my co-workers here at PCMR and at MRS for all they have done to carry on the work of the office in the absence of a director. Thanks also and best wishes to Sr. Suzanne for the generous service which she rendered as director of this office. May the Lord bless her in her new ministry.
As I enter this new ministry, I am particularly aware of the great commitment of the American bishops, especially the bishops on the Committee on Migration, to this important area of Church life. May we all assist them effectively in this most important enterprise.
Your Brother in Christ,
Rev. Anthony E. McGuire
The Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees and the Division of Catechesis and Multicultural Concerns of the USCC Department of Education convened a meeting with Asian/Pacific Islander pastoral agents to analyze the results of the 1998 Catechetical/Pastoral Assessment Survey. Through this consultation, the NCCB/USCC sought to formulate effective pastoral strategies to address intentionally the catechetical needs of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific.
Out of this meeting the following proposals emerged:
- That a resource database be developed by the USCC Department of Education that would include information on Asian/Pacific Islander catechetical materials available in the U.S. and information about Asian/Pacific Islander catechists. This information could be made available through an Internet Website or through a newsletter.
- That an Asian/Pacific Islander Catechetical Conference be planned to gather catechetical and pastoral leaders to encourage dialogue and training. This conference could be held bi-or tri-ennially in collaboration with dioceses that hold religious education/catechetical congresses.
- That efforts be made to help diocesan offices of Religious Education become more aware of the needs of immigrant communities. This might include promoting (or hosting) Multicultural Day for diocesan personnel.
From this consultation, the Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees and the Department of Education will investigate:
- forming a USCC/NCCB catechetical task force that will assist in implementing catechetical plans with Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants,
- publishing an Asian/Pacific Islander newsletter featuring materials and events,
- organizing an Asian/Pacific Islander Catechetical Conference,
- encouraging local dioceses to sponsor multicultural days,
- conversing with publishers regarding copyrights and publication of Asian/Pacific Islander catechetical materials,
- forming a national network of Asian/Pacific Islander catechists and catechetical leaders.
If you have any Asian/Pacific Islander catechetical resources for the database, please send this information to Dan Mulhall, Department of Education, USCC. Fax: 202-541-3390 e-mail: dmulhall@nccbuscc.org. This information should include: title, language, type (RCIA, First Communion), cost or free, name, phone/fax numbers, and e-mail address for ordering.
A display on the Circus Apos-tolate was prepared by Karen Gregory, Staff Assistant for the People on the Move section of PCMR for the Circus Fans of America Convention from June 17-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Father Jerry Hogan, National Coordinator for the Circus Apostolate; Father Richard E. Notter of the Diocese of Toledo; Father Ralph Pollone of the Diocese of Springfield; and Sr. Charlotte Hobelman from PCMR represented the circus ministry at the convention.
Father Jerry Hogan celebrated a baptism under the performers entrance to the big top of the Big Apple Circus before the Saturday afternoon show.
Father David López, a priest of the Diocese of Huehuetenango, and Sister Nancy Wellmeier, SND de N, Coordinator of PCMR's Maya Pastoral Project, have been making a series of pastoral visits to local Mayan communities in the United States in the past few months. So far they have visited the groups in Los Angeles, San Diego, Escondido, Fallbrook, and Sacramento, California; Mesa, Arizona; West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Homestead, Immokalee and Indiantown, Florida; Morganton, North Carolina; and Greenville, South Carolina. The local pastors have been very welcoming, and the families are delighted to participate in the Mass offered in Q'anjob'al.
The communities in the United States, particularly those from the area of Santa Eulalia, Guatemala, have been involved in the effort to reopen the diocesan hospital there. Recently, Most Reverend Rodolfo F. Bobadilla Matta, Bishop of the Diocese of Huehuetenango, sent a letter of appreciation to the Mayan Catholic communities residing in the United States, thanking them for their support. The hospital reopened in March and provides some routine surgical procedures, eliminating the need to transport patients in poor health to Huehuetenango.
According to the United States Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS), the top ten countries of origin for immigrants in 1996 were Mexico, Philippines, India, Vietnam, China, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Ukraine, Russia and Jamaica. However, the most refugee applicants approved for the same year were from the former Soviet Union, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq, Laos, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and Rwanda.
As one of the largest refugee resettlement institutions in the United States, the Church will resettle about 18,000 refugees in 1998 alone. These refugees represent more than 50 different ethnic groups. Since 1975, the Church in the United States helped nearly one million refugees begin new lives. This number represents approximately thirty-five percent of refugees resettled in the United States.
For current information and reports from the Census Bureau, check out their website at http://www.census.gov.
The Third National Brazilian Apostolate meeting will be held October 13-14, 1998 at the Archdiocese of Newark Youth Center in Kearney, NJ. This meeting is designed for those in ministry to Brazilians, or of Brazilian nationality. The program focuses on the development and future organization of the Brazilian Apostolate. For more information, contact Tim Reid, Staff Assistant, MRS/PCMR at 202-541-3366 or e-mail: treid@nccbuscc.org.
The New England Regional Meeting will be held November 4, 1998 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel/St. Ann Parish in the Diocese of Worcester. The purpose of this meeting is to dialogue and explore pastoral care issues with newcomers and new immigrants. For more information or registration materials, please contact Sr. Marie Prefontaine, Office of Newcomers, Diocese of Worcester, at 508-791-7171.
Open the Doors to Christ -- A National Catholic Gathering for Jubilee Justice, Thursday, July 15 - Sunday, July 18, 1999, Los Angeles, California. This three day event is an opportunity to Open the Doors to Christ by highlighting the good work being done by the Church and to reflect on how to carry social ministry into the new millennium. People will gather from various ministries at all levels of service from every vocation for prayer and worship, inspiration and information, skills and strategies, around our common challenge of putting justice at the center of Jubilee. More than 40 national offices and organizations are involved in planning this unprecedented event.
Every effort is being made to keep this event affordable; registration will not exceed $195 per person. On campus and hotel housing, as well as an inexpensive meal plan will be available. Look for registration packets in February. Your participation in this event is crucial for its success. Check us out on-line at www.nccbuscc.org/jubileejustice
Proclaiming Migrants Rights, The New International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; published by the World Council of Churches/CICARWS,. Cost -US $20 for 10 copies, surface postage included . Available in French, German and Spanish. Pre-paid orders only. Send your request with a check or international money order made out to World Council of Churches Acct. 481 021 0001 to the above address.
Achieving Dignity, Campaigner's Handbook for the Migrants Rights Convention, produced by the International Migrants Rights Watch Committee, World Council of Churches, Migration and Refugee Service, P. O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland; phone: (41 22) 791 6320; fax: (41 22) 788 0067; e-mail: pt@wcc-coe.org.
VISA Bulletin Number 90, Volume VII, issued by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs contains instructions for the 2000 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2000). A copy of this publication was attached to the August 31 issue of UPDATE. If you would like to receive a copy of this publication, call MRS/PCMR at 202-541-3230 or e-mail: pcmr@nccbuscc.org.
An online directory of Catholic archives nationwide will be available on the Internet as of September 30, 1998. The United States Catholic Historical Society (USCHS) began the project under the direction of Brian Butler, MD, the president and chairman of the board, and the society's Archival Committee, comprised of leading Catholic archivists from around the nation. The site will include names, addresses and a summary description of what is available in each archival collection listed in the directory. Web site: www.uschs.com.
Deacon Bob Balderas, National Director, Apostleship of the Sea, has been on the go this past month with visits to the following ports: Seattle, Tacoma, Kalima, Vancouver, Washington, Portland, New York and Miami. The AOS ministry to seafarers around the world is working with people on the move. The port chaplains have an important job visiting the seafareers on the ships daily, and the National Director's main purpose is to support the chaplains in their ministry by visiting them and maintaining the network through these site visits.
The Catholic Social Services Refugee Department of the Diocese of Lincoln has hired Alexis Heaslip as the Coordinator of Education and Outreach Ministry. In future issues of The Networker, we will highlight some of Alexis' efforts in the diocese with the hope that it will encourage other diocesan offices to embark on similar ventures. Alexis writes:
"I am Alexis Heaslip and I work for Catholic Social Services in the Diocese of Lincoln. My title is Education and Outreach Ministry Coordinator in the Refugee Department. This means that I am to go into all the schools and parishes in this diocese and teach the people about refugees/immigrants and how to welcome them and help them. The most important part of the job is that I teach children and adults that "There are no distinctions between people—-there is only Christ." (Col 3:10-12.)
The results of this job have been outstanding. I am first concentrating on the city of Lincoln. There are ten Catholic schools and eleven parishes in this town. I am working with nine of them so far. I have done in-services and will be teaching from the curriculum manual, Who Are My Sisters and Brothers? The excitement is wonderful and contagious. If I have learned nothing else, it is that people want to help, they just need to know how."
The Migration and Refugee Services' Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees (MRS/PCMR), through its Ethnic Ministries Small Grants Program is again offering one-year, non-renewable grants of $500-$1000. These grants are designed to provide seed money to local initiatives that seek to: encourage an appropriate welcome of the newcomer into the Church, provide language and culturally appropriate liturgical and religious education materials, or assist with pastoral leadership development from within ethnic communities. This year the staff review committee will give special consideration to proposals which seek to address the needs of migrant and immigrant women. Completed application forms must endorsed by the diocesan ethnic ministries office and be postmarked no later than November 6, 1998. Notification of awards will be made on or around December 4, 1998.
An application form is enclosed with this mailing. To request additional applications, contact MRS/PCMR at 202-541-3230.
Timothy Reid is the new Ethnic Ministries staff assistant for MRS/PCMR. He replaces Miss Toni Pyke, who has returned to the United Kingdom to pursue graduate studies. Tim comes to MRS/PCMR from the NCCB Secretariat for the Third Millennium and Jubilee Year 2000. He is a native of Indianapolis, and holds degrees from Indiana University and the Catholic University of America.
Carolina Salvador is the new staff assistant for MRS/PCMR who works with the National Director of Apostleship of the Sea and the Coordinator of Migrant Farmworker Ministry. She comes to PCMR from the NCCB Secretariat for Latin America. Carolina studied at Marymount University for two years majoring in Psychology and is currently pursuing a major in International Studies with a minor in Communications at Trinity College. She was born in El Salvador and has been in the U.S. since she was 10 years old. She proudly became a U.S. citizen on September 10, 1998, her 20th year of residing in the U.S.
At the September 14 meeting, the NCCB Committee on Migration approved the text of Resources for Receiving Pastoral Ministers in the United States, This booklet was developed by the MRS/PCMR staff as an aid to ordinaries who are interested in receiving priests, women religious, or pastoral agents from foreign countries The booklet contains information on religious worker visas, rationale for pre-departure and post-arrival orientation, models for diocesan orientation, and offers sample documents.
This booklet will be distributed to all ordinaries in the United States as a suggested resource for bishops who are in the process of receiving pastoral ministers. In addition, the booklet will be distributed to overseas episcopal conferences and major superiors upon request.
The bishops discussed the need for on-going orientation to U.S. culture for priests and religious workers in the United States. PCMR staff have discussed this important topic with attendees at regional meetings during the past several years. This past summer MRS/PCMR co-sponsored an orientation program for newly-arrived African sisters at Xavier University in New Orleans, LA.
Also, at the September 14 meeting, the bishops approved a Statement on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees in the United States that will be submitted by Most Reverend John Cummins, Chair, NCCB Committee on Migration, to the Pontifical Council on the occasion of the IV World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, October 5-10, 1998 at the Vatican.
From June 30-July 3, Sr. Charlotte Hobelman visited the Diocese of New Ulm Migrant Farmworker Ministry based in Clara City, Minnesota.
Three racially motivated arson fires were set in migrant housing near Bird Island and Olivia, Minnesota in February. Father Anthony Stubeda, Diocesan Director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, was threatened with violence since a March 4, 1998 letter to the editor, co-signed by Fr. Stubeda and Mr. Christopher Loetscher, Diocesan Director of the Office of Social Concerns, was published in the West Central Tribune in response to these incidents.
An additional arson fire in a private home and the beating of a white resident married to a woman of Mexican origin occurred in June.
Sr. Charlotte accompanied the Migrant Farm-worker Ministry team on their pastoral visits which included the areas where these hate crimes occurred. Consultation has occurred with the NCCB Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs and the NCCB Secretariat for African American Catholics in response to these incidents.
Sr. Charlotte Hobelman was invited by the Scalabrinian seminarians studying at their House of Theology in Chicago to present a workshop September 3-4 on the mission and projects of the MRS Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees with a particular focus on establishing links with its migrant farmworker ministry.
The workshop began with an initial presentation on pastoral ministry with migrants and refugees in the context of U.S. history. An overview of the work of Migration and Refugee Services and of the Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees was outlined in relationship to Church teachings from Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, to the NCCB Committee on Migration 1998 revised statement, One Family Under God.
An afternoon sharing session produced ideas on how the Scalabrinian seminarians could be more closely linked with PCMR's migrant farmworker ministry. The PCMR video, Who Are My Sisters and Brothers?, was viewed and discussed in relationship to its practical use along with the accompanying curriculum in the seminarians' local weekend ministry assignments in the Chicago Archdiocese. The workshop concluded with the sharing of a documentary film about the work of César Chávez.
Most Reverend John W. Yanta made his annual pastoral visit as Episcopal Liaison to the Migrant Farmworker Apostolate from July 24-27, 1998 in the Archdiocese of Louisville.
Sr. Lupe Arciniega, SL, of Catholic Charities Rural Ministry Office, coordinated the itinerary, and Sr. Charlotte Hobelman, SND, Coordinator of Migrant Farm-worker Ministry, and Ms. Celine Caufield, Executive Director of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network, participated.
Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly and Bishop Yanta attended an interdiocesan meeting of migrant ministry representatives from the four Catholic dioceses of Kentucky—Louisville, Lexington, Owensboro, and Covington—-hosted by Catholic Charities in Louisville on the afternoon of July 24.
An evening liturgy with the migrants and their families was celebrated by Bishop Yanta at Annunciation Parish in Shelbyville on the evening of July 25 and in St. Dominic Church in Springfield on July 26. The latter was followed by a fiesta and entertainment by young dancers from Michoacán. Bishop Yanta praised the migrant ministry initiatives of the Archdiocese of Louisville and encouraged its continued growth.
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