“Échame tierra y verás como florezco” (“Dump soil on me and see how I blossom”). These words from Frida Kahlo were a key refrain in Bishop Mark Seitz’s powerful, heartfelt homily at an interfaith prayer event on March 24 in El Paso. It marked the 45th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, and this saying well characterizes the hope and positive energy that I experienced.
The gathering at the downtown plaza, the procession and the prayer at our parish, Sacred Heart, was a testimony by clergy, people of faith and good will blossoming in the midst of crisis. The message was clear: As people of faith, we must defend migrants and refugees at a time when the state is increasingly moving to dehumanize them. We must be true to our humane Christian and American values.
Monday was an energizing event that moved hearts. It moved mine with hope. Participants from the Catholic Church and many others were at their best, peacefully but forcefully defending Gospel values and human rights in the face of constant and cruel anti-immigrant actions in the United States by the Trump administration.
[Related: Making a Nation of Immigrants Great Again]
We were honored by the presence of Cardinal Fabio Baggio, under secretary of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, who together with Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., prefect of the same dicastery, regularly meets with Pope Francis regarding migrant and refugee peoples. Cardinal Baggio widened our knowledge and perspective, since forced migration is a reality and crisis throughout the world.
I felt consoled and confirmed by the cardinal’s comments regarding challenges that the Catholic Church faces. What I have experienced in my life as a priest and pastor in several different cities appears to be an international reality: Catholic social teaching and doctrine is marginally known and is not integrated into the life and the formation programs of the church. Hence the unfortunate characterization that it is the “church’s best kept secret” continues to be true.
In a meeting with some of the priests who focus on migration as a pastoral priority, Cardinal Baggio questioned why, for example, church youth gatherings don’t focus on Catholic social teaching. Why is it not an integral part of sacramental formation programs in parishes? Whose kingdom are we building if we disregard this doctrine?
The international dimension of the migration crisis was reinforced by the participation of the bishops who direct the office of migration in Canada and Mexico. The bishops of the dioceses of Las Cruces, N.M., San Antonio, Tex., Santa Fe, N.M., and Lexington, Ky., joined Bishop Seitz and Auxiliary Bishop Anthony of El Paso and hundreds of people walking the streets in procession, led by several groups of matachines, traditional Mexican dancers.
But the witnesses included more than only Catholic clergy. It was wonderful to see Pastor Rose Mary Sánchez-Guzmán of Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey, who for decades has brought groups to learn about the border and in the past offered sheltering to migrants in her church. Ruben Garcia, who was inspired by Mother Teresa’s visit to El Paso and founded Annunciation House 50 years ago, also spoke. The center of hospitality has become an iconic symbol of total dedication to migrant and refugee peoples.
Annunciation House has been targeted by the anti-immigrant Texas state government. A similar witness and prayer event occurred in El Paso in April 2024 in support of Annunciation House and its important ministry.
The church was packed with many who have been serving migrants and asylum-seeking peoples. Hundreds of people have said yes and have generously served at shelters as organizers, drivers, cooks, laundry workers, intake interviewers, medical professionals, translators and more. Organizations like Las Americas are at the forefront of service in this crisis. Their director, Marisa Limón Garza, participated along with her mother, El Paso city representative Lily Limón and her husband. Our area city representative, Chris Canales, who has been vocal about defending those in need, was also present.
I felt honored that Sacred Heart was chosen as the location for the interfaith prayer. In December 2022, hundreds of Venezuelan people were in our streets, women, children, men, vulnerable, in the cold. With God’s grace and the generosity of many, many people, we quickly opened our gymnasium building as a shelter. What a blessing and opportunity God gave us to serve God’s vulnerable and suffering migrating people! We served around 25,000 people in the 22 months that we were open.
Frida Kahlo’s saying became real in the saint and martyr Óscar Romero: “If they kill me, I will rise in the Salvadoran people.” Inspired by him, blossoming has occurred all over the world. As in St. Romero’s time, the established powers and their misuse of that power threaten to destroy many fundamental values of our country and of churches: the dignity of all human persons, hospitality, solidarity, the right to migrate to protect life. The values being peddled and imposed are materialistic, and this distorted view of patriotism is tainted with idolatry.
Soil is being dumped on the nation, on us, especially on the “least brothers and sisters,” whom Jesus puts first. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., mentions in a past past presentation that the prophetic position is to be on the edge of the inside. One hopes, pushing the envelope, but as part of the inside. There we may get dumped on with soil from people both on the inside and on the outside. Our hope, task and prayer is that we all, churches and people of good will, blossom and bear fruit for freedom, peace and survival—for the kingdom of God!
