Faith in Focus: Into the Desert

As many of you know, I have been reassigned to a Jesuit work at the international border at Nogales, Arizona. Let me tell you a bit about this project. It is called the KINO BORDER INITIATIVE named after a dynamic European Jesuit of the 17th and 18th Centuries in what we now call Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Eusebio Kino established 9 missions including his last one near Tucson, Arizona called San Javier del Bac, founded in 1700. Kino died in 1711.

So what does the KINO BORDER INITIATIVE do at the International border now? The reality is that every year, thousands of migrant men, women and children are deported to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico or arrive in the city fleeing north from southern Mexico or Central America or the Caribbean. They often arrive with only the clothes on their backs. The Kino Border Initiative provides direct assistance and accompaniment including meals, clothes, articles of personal hygiene, and medical and legal services. When I arrive in Nogales this September, I hope to be able to take time to learn how to provide the specific pastoral care as a chaplain that is appropriate to the realty at the border.

What has attracted me to this ministry in the desert is the chance it affords me to live closer to the great ideal of Jesus in Matthew 25 to provide people in need with food, shelter, clothing and especially simple human care and encouragement. I am filled with gratitude to God for these past grace-filled 8 years with you at St Ignatius Parish. Thank you for your friendship in the Lord and for your encouragement. - Fr. Joe