HCW newspaper. Apr 2022. Vol. XLII, No. 2.

A Celebration of Juan Diego

We were inspired by a sermon on St. Patrick’s Day this year at St. Patrick’s Cathedral (online at 6 a.m. on weekdays) as the celebrant of the Mass reminded us of how the patron saint of a place looks out for the people of that parish or other place named for the saint, from heaven. With this reflection we realized anew how much we count on the support and prayers of Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe at Casa Juan Diego.

We Chose the Name Casa Juan Diego

Juan Diego’s name was chosen for our work by Mark Zwick when we began. It was over 20 years later when Juan Diego was declared a saint.

Why Juan Diego?

Why did we choose Juan Diego as our patron when we started Casa Juan Diego? The bigger question--which is really the answer--is why did God choose Juan Diego to be the recipient of the apparitions of Our Lady at the foot of that hill of Tepayac?

The response of many Americans may be, how odd of God to choose Juan Diego when there were so many respected people to choose from. Wasn’t it strange that God would choose a Native American without a college degree or a master’s degree in theology as the messenger to evangelize the local Bishop about the importance and dignity of the indigenous? Wasn’t it strange that he did not send Mary directly to the bishop? What a symbol Juan Diego was and is for those who are nobodies in the eyes of the powerful but are greatly appreciated by God.

Why Casa Juan Diego in Houston?

Forty-two years ago we started the Houston Catholic Worker, possessing nothing except our patron, Juan Diego--and what could he do for us, anyhow?

all worried about liability and that stuff. We did not have a penny.

The financial support was forthcoming. A Westside pastor gave us our first check. A young mechanic who lived in our neighborhood asked if he could do something. He went into his house and returned with five one hundred dollar bills. We were on our way.

Since this beginning countless people and other parishes have helped us to be able to respond to the hundreds of people who come each week to seek help, not only for refuge, but for food or medical care.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Appeared in the Darkness

Juan Diego was one of the few indigenous people who had converted to Catholicism during the time of the cruel conquistadors. It was a very dark time, and most of the Native population was not convinced about any good intentions of the conquerors or, by association, their faith.

One day Juan Diego, a fairly new Catholic, was walking along at the foot of the hill of Tepayac. He was amazed to hear beautiful music and to see a beautiful lady who spoke to him in loving terms. It was Mary, who appeared to Juan Diego as a brown-skinned Aztec princess and spoke to him in his native tongue, Nahuatl. the language forbidden by the conquistadors, She had a mission for Juan Diego.

As Mark said, the Blessed Mother always seems to be sneaking in the poor uneducated people or children for honors, witness Fatima, Lourdes, etc.

The message of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was in the messenger, Juan Diego. The chosen one was poor, without formal education, did not speak Spanish, and was one among the race of people not accepted by some of the conquering conquistadors as human beings or having souls.

Our Lady of Guadalupe changed all of that when she sent Juan Diego to the Franciscan Bishop.

It was a perfect match. Juan Diego was poor, powerless and a nobody in a worldly sense and so were we. So were the people we would serve who were sleeping in cars in the used car lots on Washington Avenue, refugees from the wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We, too, were nobodies as we began taking in refugees in the early 1980’s.

The immigrants and refugees who came and continue to come to us with only the shirts on their backs are wanted by many only for their work, but are not considered human beings by many, just as the first Juan Diego was so considered. Like Juan Diego, they do not speak the language and have no rights.

The priest who blessed our first poor building, the ugliest building in Houston, remarked that we would need $40,000 (in 1980 dollars) to begin. We had nothing, but we did have experience and wobbly faith—

The Lady asked him to take her message to the Bishop of Mexico. Juan Diego begged her to send someone else, someone noble, someone wellknown and respected. He did not think the bishop would listen to him or believe him. But she convinced him to go.

Juan Diego went to visit the bishop. After several people who worked at the bishop’s office ran interference for a while, the bishop listened, but found it hard to believe what Juan Diego was telling him about the appearance of the Lady from Heaven. He asked Juan Diego to bring him a sign to verify the truth of his words.

Juan Diego returned to Our Lady and told her the bishop had asked for a sign. She told him to go the next day to the top of the Tepayac hill, cut the flowers he would find growing there, and bring them to her. When he went there, he was amazed to find beautiful flowers in that rocky place. He gathered them in his tilma (a cloak similar to a Roman toga) and took them to Mary. She received the flowers in her hands and then placed them again in his tilma, asking him to take them to the bishop as the sign. She cautioned him to show them to no one except the bishop. continued pg. 8

Artist: L.V. Diaz

Artist: Angel Valdez

Casa Juan Diego was founded in 1980, following the Catholic Worker model of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, to serve immigrants and refugees and the poor. From one small house it has grown to ten houses. Casa Juan Diego publishes a newspaper, the Houston Catholic Worker, four times a year to share the values of the Catholic Worker movement and the stories of the immigrants and refugees uprooted by the realities of the global economy.

• Food Donation Central Office: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007

• Women’s House of Hospitality: Hospitality and services for immigrant women and children

• Assistance to paralyzed or seriously ill immigrants living in the community.

• Casa Don Marcos Men’s House: For immigrant men new to the country.

• Casa Don Bosco: For sick and wounded men.

• Casa Maria Social Service Center and Medical Clinic: 6101 Edgemoor, Houston, TX 77081

• Casa Juan Diego Medical Clinic

• Food Distribution Center: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007

• Liturgy: In Spanish Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. 4811 Lillian at Shepherd. (Temporarily Suspended)

• Funding: Casa Juan Diego is funded by voluntary contributions.

Houston Catholic Worker Vol. XLII, No. 2

EDITORS Louise Zwick & Susan Gallagher

TRANSLATORS Blanca Flores, Sofía Rubio, Carmen Troya

Maria del Pilar Hoenack-Cadavid

CATHOLIC WORKERS Dawn McCarty, Marie Abernethy Gabriela Medina, Mary Ebberwein, Noah Helm Luke Prohaska, Kevin McLeod, Gwendolyn Loop

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Joachim Zwick

DESIGN Bea Garcia Castillo

CIRCULATION Stephen Lucas

AYUDANTES TEAM Julián Juárez, Manuel Rangel, Ramiro Rescalvo Roberto Narvaez, Victor Díaz, Erick Gonzalea, Oscar Marcano Henry Gallardo, Oscar Quezada, Johalbert Marin, Frank Matos Daniel Marrero, Manuel Lemos, Lewis Pereira Rafael Gutierres, Irvin Maradiaga, Dannis Jose Primero

PERMANENT SUPPORT GROUP................Louise Zwick, Stephen Lucas

Dawn McCarty, Lillian Lucas, Andy Durham, Betsy Escobar

Kent Keith, Pam Janks, Julia Gallagher, Monica Hatcher Alvaro & Jane Montealegre, Joachim Zwick

VOLUNTEER DOCTORS Drs. John Butler, Laura Netfield, Yu Wah

Jorge Guerrero Sr., Nageeb Abdalla, Wm. Lindsey, Laura Porterfield

Darío Zuñiga, Cecilia Lowder, Roseanne Popp, CCVI, Enrique Batres

Jaime Chavarría, Amelia Averyt, Deepa Iyengar, Justo Montalvo

Mohammed Zare, Maya Mayekar, Joan Killen, Stella Fitzgibbons

VOLUNTEER DENTISTS.................Drs. Justin Seaman, Michael Morris

Peter Gambertoglio, Mercedes Berger, Jose Lopez

Maged Shokralla, Florence Zare

CASA

Zapata and Manuel Soto

MARK ZWICK – Founder

The Migration of the American Spirit

By Luke Prohaska Artist: Angel Valdez

One of the most fascinating eras of American history, in my opinion, is the Great Depression. To further extend some personal opinions of mine, no story encapsulates the Great Depression quite like John Steinbeck’s great American novel, Grapes of Wrath (feel free to send me some reading recommendations if you disagree). What has always struck me about this book is the tremendous tenacity of the depression-era, working-class American in the face of daunting trials. With dirty hands, unquenchable hope, and a fierce love for their families, they forged on with a nearly inhuman strength. After ten months working and living in Casa Juan Diego, I have come to believe that this “American” spirit isn’t exclusive to the United States. Instead, the American spirit that made its home in the simplicity and poverty of the working men and women of the Great Depression has roots in another place in the Americas: Latin America.

One of the first parallels between a depression-era, working-class American and a working-class Latin American is their love of work. More often than not, one of the first things I hear out of a Latin American man’s mouth that has just arrived at Casa Juan Diego is that they want to work, and that they are willing to work anywhere as long as it allows them to support their families. Another similarity is that many Americans in the Midwest during the Great Depression had to flee their homes and migrate just like our Latin American brothers and sisters. Upon arrival, they were often considered a threat to the established status quo and lived on the margins of society, suffering the ire and disdain of those already established and successful. A further connection to the depressionera American is that many of our guests from Latin America want to send money to their families suffering in crumbling Latin American economies, where one day of work here can equal weeks of work in these developing countries. Before they even have a change of clothes or their own place to live, our guests are looking to support their loved ones. Their self-sacrifice is remarkably similar to that of the mothers and fathers of the depression era forgoing food and other essentials for the well-being of their children.

One of my first striking examples of this was Gabriel, who had grown up on the streets of El Salvador, orphaned and homeless, since he was five. Sitting at dinner, Gabriel, teary-eyed, was recounting the hardships of surviving the streets alone during his childhood. He also could not stop reiterating how thankful he was to have found work here in the United States. Gabriel’s philosophy regarding labor was reminiscent of the philosophy of Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Instead of being a burden, he considered work to be a gift. Part of this excitement was because he had promised God on his journey here that as soon as he was able to find employment, he would send half his paycheck back to Mexico to a church he attended there. Gabriel no longer had family to support, and yet with his Latin American spirit, was immediately looking to others he could support and practice charity towards in his life.

To “see Christ in the poor” — an emphasis of the Catholic Worker movement — is remarkably easy in beautiful moments like these. Pope Francis exhorts in his encyclical The Joy of the Gospel that, “in all places and circumstances, Christians, with the help of their pastors, are called to hear the cry of the poor.” (96) As I have shared life with the poor of Casa Juan Diego, I have realized why Pope Francis makes this imperative. A part of the complete face of Christ is hidden from us until we are able to see the poor embracing their poverty to give from the little that they have as the poor widow did (Mark 12: 42-44) and humbly working manual labor as Christ and St. Joseph did. These examples of holiness evangelize us to a new way of thinking and being. However, serving the poor often does not contain the “love of dreams” that “thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with everyone watching” that is spoken of by Father Zosima, a character from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (58). Serving the poor also reveals the face of Christ because it calls us out of our comfortable existence and calls us into the “harsh and dreadful love” that Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, so loved to quote from The Brothers Karamazov (58). This is paramount because it is specifically this “experience of active love” that, according to Father Zosima, teaches us how to cultivate an authentic faith when we are stricken by doubt (56). We must refrain from an incurvatus in se, or a turning inward on ourselves, which St. Augustine boldly claims to be the root of all sin. Instead, we turn outward to love and experience Christ hidden in our brother, especially our poor brother. When we can become poor and give of ourselves for the sake of the most needy, we move closer to being like Christ in that “though he was rich, yet for your sake, became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

I previously mentioned that the blue-collar, hardworking American spirit has taken residence in a new place in the Americas. Through my time in Casa Juan Diego, we have also received numerous guests from Africa, and even a few from the Middle East and eastern Europe. I have seen this same affinity to work in many of them. This makes me reflect: what is it that gives poor immigrants this propensity to work hard as well as put the needs of others before themselves, despite having less means to give than many of those in the United States? My working hypothesis is that it is precisely the material and spiritual poverty of our guests that allows them to live close to the Lord’s heart and to be inclined to think of the common good. For example, many aspects of the lives of the immigrant are completely out of their control; this leads to a unique trust in the Lord’s plan and providence. Many of us living more comfortable lives never get to experience this radical trust in the Lord’s goodness and sovereignty. Living this material and spiritual poverty also liberates them from the pursuit of the material and instead allows them to be more concerned for the needs of their fellow brother. A pertinent example is when I am moving food or supplies within or between the houses. As soon as I open the door, multiple men will nearly jump from their chairs with a “¿te ayudo?” and an offer to help. There is a certain awareness and willingness to respond to the need of the other that many of our guests possess. Another example is one of our guests from Benin, Emmanuel, who upon realizing that there was an Afghan family at our door asking for food, went up to them and gave them some cash. Emmanuel does not have a work permit, his own place to live, or permanent status in the United States. He does not have very much money. However, he told this Afghan family that he has food and shelter and everything he needs to live here, and they need that money more than he does. This is a prime example of the radical readiness and openness to living your life as a gift that poverty provides.

So now all this begs the question: what does this mean for us? The working-class farmers of the Great Depression and the immigrants of today’s day and age did not necessarily choose this poverty. At face value, it might seem that they are simply in a different stage of life than many of us who are materially comfortable. We also recognize that poverty is not destitution, which is a lack of basic necessities that robs us of our human dignity. However, poverty, although not valuable in itself, creates a space for something greater to take root. This is the basis of the Catholic Worker tradition of voluntary poverty. As I have already mentioned, practicing voluntary poverty, or accepting poverty that life imposes upon us, rids us of distractions and creates an openness to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and to the needs of our neighbor. And when we ask, “and who is my neighbor?” as the man asked Jesus in the Gospel of Luke’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, we realize that Jesus’ answer is that our neighbor is the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden, the marginalized. Given that we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, this starts to raise questions of how much we can live our life more extravagantly than our poor neighbors who surround us and who live all over the world. continued pg. 6

WHERE IS PETER MAURIN?

By Catherine Doherty

“LADY,” HE SAID, “OFF THE RECORD, IS THAT GUY A MADMAN OR A SAINT? I AM A CATHOLIC MYSELF, BUT THERE HE SITS IN IMMIGRATION H.Q., SURROUNDED BY ALL ON DUTY, TELLING THEM ABOUT GOD AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH — THINGS I NEVER HEARD BEFORE.”

The telephone rang insistently. It had been ringing all day for we were expecting Peter Maurin — co-founder, with Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker movement — to come for a lecture. He was also expected to speak elsewhere in the city, at St. Michael’s College. But as yet there was no sign of him. The Catholic Worker, when we phoned long-distance from Toronto to New York, told us that he had left for Canada more than a week ago. Of course, with Peter Maurin, anything could happen — and usually did. He was that kind of apostle. An article that someone once wrote about him was entitled “On the Bum,” and that described him very well. He would start for a city in the north and perhaps wander all through the southern part of the continent to get there. So I was not too worried. But the college was, and so were many people who were anxious and eager to hear this extraordinary man speak. Hence the busy phone. This time the call had definite news about Peter. He could not phone himself, the caller said. He was being detained on the Canadian border by the immigration authorities. One of the officials was calling. He wanted to know all about Peter. His official voice droned on and on, asking all kinds of questions. We were wondering where all the money would come from to pay for his collect call.

We answered as patiently as we could under the circumstances. Suddenly, the voice changed tone, and became the voice of a normal human being instead of an official. “Lady,” he said, “off the record, is that guy a madman or a saint? I am a Catholic myself, but there he sits in Immigration H.Q., surrounded by all on duty, telling them about God and the Catholic Church — things I never heard before. It sure is interesting but, you know something, if what he is saying is true, I have a lot of reading up to do. How about it, lady?”

I assured the caller that Peter was okay, on the way to sanctity and not madness — unless the madness was the madness and folly of the cross. Then I asked if Immigration would let him in. Yes, they would, if we came and fetched him and would take responsibility for him while he was in Canada. We said we would. It was then somewhere around 11 p.m.

More phoning — lots more. We got a driver and a car and off we went to Windsor, arriving in the wee hours of the morning to look for Peter. We found him happily discoursing about God, while he ate a substantial meal of coffee, sandwiches and doughnuts provided by Immigration. All were standing around, looking somewhat dazed, listening to him.

Formalities over, we hustled Peter into the car and brought him back in time for Mass and breakfast. It was good to see him come through the Blue Door, which gave him its benediction, as he brought us his. Peter Maurin was an inspiration to thousands and, to my mind, a veritable saint. I had met him before, but on this occasion

he was at his best. He spoke in blank verse of God and the Mother of God, of Jews and gentiles, of justice and injustice. In sharp, concise and precise phrases, as only his wisdom and knowledge could mold them, he spoke of heaven and hell, of workers and management, of the whole social scene and the apostolate of the Church. He spoke of what he really knew. He was that perfect combination of student and worker.

As I listened to him, I thought of how much we of Friendship House owed to him and to Dorothy Day, and to their family of the Catholic Worker. I doubt if I would have persevered in the apostolate were it not for the help of these two burning apostles of God and of his love. Peter had brought me the vision of the whole that day. To all of us, in fact, he made it crystal clear that we were each re- sponsible for the state of the whole world everywhere, for every person individually and for all collectively. We all, in fact, were our brothers’ keepers.

Under his clear exposition, the doctrine of the Mystical Body became luminous. Peter was like that. He could take sublime verities which, over centuries, had become enveloped in a heavy garment of words, and bring them into the light of day. Peter’s body rests in a cemetery near New York City, but he lives on in the hearts of those who feast on his Easy Essays. Yes, it was a blessed day when he passed through the Blue Door of Friendship House.

From Not Without Parables by Catherine Doherty, pp. 61-63. ©Madonna House Publications, 2007 www.madonnahouse.org/publications

Catherine Doherty founded the Madonna House Apostolate

Photo: Peter Maurin, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement Credit: Marquette University Archives

NEW BIOGRAPHY OF PETER MAURIN

Reviewed by Allison Clifton

When Jean-François Salles, a photographer in Lozère in southern France, met an American Catholic Worker looking for traces of Peter Maurin in the region, he knew little about the man they were seeking. For the first time, he heard about Maurin’s importance in the United States as a founder, with Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker movement. Salles became particularly interested when he learned that he and Maurin had studied at the same school, Saint Privat, run by the Christian Brothers in the small town of Mende. Salles began to research him, explaining in his book: “I wanted to discover this person, who, across the Atlantic, had become a prophet who remains unknown in his own country…I became passionate about this unusual man. I tried to know him in order to better understand the actions that he undertook for the poorest among us. And also to make him known.”

In his brief biography, Peter Maurin l’appelait la Green Revolution (Peter Maurin Called It the Green Revolution), Salles traces Maurin’s life, education, and work. The book, published in French by l’ours de granit, a new regional publisher based in Mende, is abundantly illustrated with black-and-white photographs and includes a bibliography and notes. Very little has been written in French about Maurin. Drawing extensively on English-language biographies and scholarship about Maurin, Salles gives the French reader a compelling overview of his life and its impact.

Born in 1877 on a farm in the village of Oultet where enough food was grown to feed the family’s twenty-one children, Peter was raised in the strong Catholic faith of his parents and grandparents, all of whom instilled a love of charity and the poor in the boy. He first attended the village school, then Saint Privat, where he discerned a vocation, entering the Christian Brothers’ novitiate, first in Buzenval, then in Paris. He studied the Bible and Church Fathers and trained as a teacher, eventually teaching in several Christian Brothers’ schools. While in formation, he joined Le Sillon, a lay Catholic movement for workers, and began his military service. At the age of twenty-six, just before taking his final vows, Peter left the order, wanting not only to teach the poor, but also to find out about the source of their poverty. He worked, joined literary circles, read extensively, and continued as an active member of Le Sillon while still having to do periodic military service. By 1909, as France was becoming increasingly anti-religious, Peter decided to resist his next stint of military service by emigrating to Canada, which had no conscription. There he tried farming, but by 1911, he had moved to the United States, where he spent years working in construction, on the railroads, and finally as a teacher of French to soldiers about to enter World War I. Peter gave private French lessons, improved his English, opened a school, and for a time, lived a relatively comfortable life. Later, Peter said that during that time he felt removed from the Church and wasn’t living as a Catholic should.

Eventually he began to give away his money, told his students to pay only what they wanted to, and began writing what would later be called his “easy essays.” He moved to New York and spent five years reading in libraries there: his own period of “clarification of ideas,” when he studied Karl Marx, Peter Kropotkin, papal encyclicals, Léon Bloy, and many others. Peter began to speak in public, trying to put his ideas into action.

Salles cites previous biographers of Peter Maurin, including Arthur Sheehan, Marc Ellis, Lincoln Rice, Richard Wolff, and Richard Devine, as well as the historian of the Catholic Worker movement, William Miller. He also relies on writings of Dorothy Day in recounting Peter’s collaboration with her in founding the Catholic Worker movement. His purpose is to familiarize French readers with the story, not to propose a new version. He briefly recounts Dorothy’s life before her meeting with Peter, her work as a journalist, her conversion to Catholicism, and then goes on to describe the beginning of the Catholic Worker newspaper. Salles explains Peter’s idea of a Green Revolution (as opposed to the red revolution of Marxists and communists and the white revolution of fascists), referring to the green pastures for all the sheep of the Good Shepherd. As Peter envisioned it, there were three elements: Cult (religion), Culture (houses of hospitality), and Agriculture (farm communities). He was influenced by Emmanuel Mounier, Jacques Maritain, Nicholas Berdyaev, and Charles Péguy, and shared their ideas during the programs of round-table discussions that he started in cities all over the country.

Peter’s “Easy Essays” began appearing in the Catholic Worker newspaper in 1933 and were collected in a volume in 1936. Sometimes called a troubadour or a modern Saint Francis of Assisi, Peter wrote these prose poems to be recited. Salles attributes Peter’s simplicity of expression and his repetition of key ideas and phrases to Peter’s training in the pedagogical techniques of the Christian Brothers, where concision and directness were valued. The essays are still widely read and have been published in many editions and translated into many languages.

Salles writes of Peter’s close association with Dorothy, of their work together, and of her care for him during his final years, from his stroke near the end of 1944 until his death in 1949. He talks about the numerous houses of hospitality that still exist today and the lasting importance of Peter’s ideas, and concludes by arguing that he should be considered for canonization along with Dorothy Day. Salles includes in the appendix a French translation of the Houston Catholic Worker article published in July 2010 by Mark and Louise Zwick, “Why not Canonize Peter Maurin?”

SALLES EXPLAINS PETER’S IDEA OF A GREEN REVOLUTION..., REFERRING TO THE GREEN PASTURES FOR ALL THE SHEEP OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

Maurin l’appelait la Green Revolution by Jean Francois Salles (Mende, France : L’ours de granit 2021) www.loursdegranit.fr

Despite a couple of inaccurate dates in the photo captions and a few typos, this very appealing volume provides a fine introduction in French to Peter Maurin’s life and work.

Peter

Fr. Jacques Fabre, CS Named Bishop of Charleston: A Haitian First for the United States

By Nate Tinner-Williams

For the second time this month, a Fabre has been named a Catholic bishop in the United States by Pope Francis — with both involving Black men making historic firsts. This week’s beneficiary is Fr. Jacques Fabre, CS, who has been announced as the next Bishop of Charleston, a position that has awaited an appointment since late 2020. Succeeding Bishop Robert Guglielmone — who submitted his mandatory resignation at the age of 75 that December — Fabre is set to become the first Haitian-American Catholic ordinary in US history. The news of the appointment was announced this morning by the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. “I feel like I’m the prophet Amos,” Fabre said in a quadrilingual introductory press conference this morning, streamed live from South Carolina. “I’ve been called from a mission church into the cathedral.”

Fabre, 66, will be just the second Haitian Catholic prelate of any kind in America, following the late Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq of Brooklyn, who retired in 2010 and died suddenly last August. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1955, Fabre immigrated to the United States as a child, living in Brooklyn and later attending St John’s University in Queens. After deciding to become a priest, he also studied at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He entered religious life with the Missionaries of St Charles Borromeo (aka the Scalabrinians) and studied at their seminary, also in Chicago, before his ordination to the priesthood in Brooklyn in 1986. The Scalabrinians, founded a century prior, are a missionary group focusing on ministry to migrants. Like Sansaricq, Fabre served as a minister to Haitian immigrants early on in his priesthood, with refugees detained at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba following Haiti’s 1991 coup d’état. Also like Sansaricq, Fabre studied in Rome, attending the Pontifical Urban University from 2004 to 2006 for a degree in Migration Studies.

His work in diverse communities has been noted in local Catholic media as well as in a number of books published within the last two decades. Of particular interest was his ministry across language barriers, being fluent in English, Spanish (from his novitiate in Mexico), Italian, French, and Haitian Creole. “English is my third language,” Fabre said during his press conference. As such, his ministry assignments over the years have included stops in the Dominican Republic, and with the Hispanic community of Immokalee, Florida, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. He arrived in Georgia in 2006.

A skilled financial manager, Fabre has been noted for assisting his current parish —- San Felipe de Jesús Mission in Forest Park — with self-financing a new church building in 2011. He has also served on the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Finance Council for over a decade. Fabre’s appointment to Charleston is somewhat unique in that he had not previously served as an auxiliary bishop, but he currently serves as the local superior of the Salabrinians in Atlanta. His appointment makes for just the second new Black American bishop in the Catholic Church during the past 5 years, and the third since 2010. He will be entering a diocese with an estimated 8,000 Black Catholics as of 2016, and which currently boasts of 10 predominantly Black parishes — one of which was infamously abandoned by the diocese for several decades following the Civil War.

At least two other Black parishes were closed by Guglielmone, who has served since 2009, and the diocese has faced a number of other racial controversies under his leadership — including three White students being expelled from local Catholic schools since August 2019 due to threats of violence against African Americans Fabre, representing a potential change of pace, will be installed in Charleston on April 29th.

Reprinted

American Spirit

continued from pg. 3

The more that I reflect on Jesus’ incarnation into poverty, Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels, the lives and teachings of the apostles and Church Fathers, the saints, and the writers influential in the Catholic Worker movement, the more I am convicted of the transformative power of practicing voluntary poverty. In a physical and a spiritual sense, embracing poverty “sets the world on fire” (Luke 12:49), so that we might build a more just and loving world in the ashes of our old master, money (cf. Matthew 6:24).

I bring up the example of the depression-era, working-class American because I believe, with hindsight, these are a people that we celebrate in contemporary society. We applaud their work ethic, their resolve and hope, and their deep concern for both their families and those suffering poverty alongside them. We forget that, in their epoch, these families often faced rejection and derision from those comfortable in their material success. Thus, we must use this lesson to rectify our past errors and recognize the same dignity in our brothers and sisters from other lands pursuing a more edifying and sustainable life for themselves and their families. To do this, living a life of Gospel poverty is advantageous in “what it makes possible and much easier to attain: a radical readiness, a sensitivity to what Jesus is about, a sharing with the needy, an apostolic credibility, a pilgrim witness in a world of dwindling resources.” (Dubay, Happy Are You Poor, 14).

We ask the Lord to convict us in order that we may “love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind,” and that we might “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Matthew 22:37-39).

After graduating from Kansas State University, Luke has spent the past year living and working as a Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego. He will begin medical school in the fall.

Lillian Lucas R.I.P.

Lillian Lucas, long-time Board member of Casa Juan Diego, passed away on April 14, 2022. Lillian supported Casa Juan Diego for decades, most notably working together with Stephen and our guests in preparing the Houston Catholic Worker newspaper for mailing. She will be missed.

We Need Your Help

Casa Juan Diego Is Overflowing

At this time, surprising numbers of immigrants and refugees are arriving. Our beds are full. We have cots lined up on the floors for the overflow. We take in as many as we can, but have to refuse others who call or agencies or parishes calling to send people to us. We even have had to refuse families recently reunited with their unaccompanied minors who came alone because we did not have space. People often appear at the door with no notice. This increase in numbers of people is before the lifting of Title 42. We are very glad that the inhumane title 42 will be lifted. That policy has exposed so many families to kidnapping, rape, and death. We, however, need help from the larger community to receive the refugees who are and will be arriving. Some days 20 have been arriving at Casa Juan Diego. They come with papers from ICE authorizing them in the country until they appear in court. The ones who come to Casa Juan Diego are people who do not have families to receive them. Some have just been released from detention in ICE jails. They can hardly believe that they can walk out the door into the sunshine or the rain. Others are arriving straight from the border with temporary papers. Among the many with nowhere to go are families with small children. There are many young men. All seek a safe place to stay for long enough to find work and their own place, often after a terrible journey of many months and much suffering coming through the jungle. We have tried to refer potential guests of Casa Juan Diego to shelters in Houston when we are so full that we cannot manage more people. Some shelters will not accept people without a picture ID, some will not accept undocumented people. The shelters are already full of homeless people who are not immigrants. And because of language and cultural issues, immigrants refuse even to try to go to other places. They prefer to camp out in front of our houses where they feel safe. We pass out blankets or sleeping bags to those we cannot accept. Our Catholic Workers are tired and stressed. Receiving people does not just mean saying, “come in.” Each person has many questions, many needs.

Help is Needed for More Places for People to Stay.

Because of so many arrivals, we have to limit the time that people can stay We often assist with a ticket to travel if people have any destination. We hope that other places in Houston will open to help with housing. In the meantime, donations of sleeping bags are welcome for those who are on the street.

What Can People Do After ICE Confiscates Their Passport?

Artist: Angel Valdez

We have found that ICE generally confiscates the passports of immigrants and refugees as they cross the border. The people are left with no identification except the temporary papers given them by ICE. There is one new avenue now to help those in this situation: — The Harris County Libraries are giving an ID, or “enhanced library card” to people who do not have an ID. They honor immigration paper work and have listed other documents on their web site that people can present to obtain this ID. (This is not a state ID, but much better than no ID.) We are hoping that Houston Public Library will implement something similar.

Pray for Us

We hope and pray that others will come forward to also receive the new refugees and immigrants. As we wait for assistance from the larger community, please pray for us as we try to respond to Jesus in the many poor who come to us.

How You Can Help

Here are some ways our readers can assist as we receive many immigrants and refugees.

1. Offer your convent or your home to take in an immigrant family.

2. Inexpensive rentals: Let us know if you know of an inexpensive room where people can rent.

3. Provide sleeping bags and back packs.

4. We cannot receive random clothing –too busy. But we need jeans for men, waist sizes 28 to 34, length 30-32. We need flip flops for the showers. Tennis shoes for men and women. Jeans for women. Shampoo, deodorant, conditioner, toothpaste, soap, body wash, hand lotion, razors.

5. Pinto or black beans in two-pound bags, cooking oil, maseca, cereal.

6 . Adult diapers, wipes, underpads for the injured and wounded.

7. Offer to drive people to medical appointments or airport

Artist: Angel Valdez

Juan Diego

Juan Diego had trouble getting to see the bishop again because the men around him were suspicious and refused to let him in. When Juan Diego did see him and showed him the flowers, the roses fell on the floor and the bishop and those around him saw the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe imprinted on his tilma.

The Image Imprinted on Fragile Amate Cloth is Still at the Basilica and Intact

Juan Diego’s tilma with the image of Our Lady is still in its place of honor in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. where Our Lady had asked that a church be built. The church has been rebuilt over the centuries, but the tilma is still there. Painters and even representatives of Kodak have examined and investigated the image over the centuries. They have all declared that no painter could have painted that image. No one has been able to explain how the image came there except through the events recounted by Juan Diego. The amate cloth on which the image is printed usually only lasts thirty years. Whole books have been written about all the symbolism contained in the visual details imprinted on the tilma.

The Dark Time of the Appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe

At the time of the conquest and colonization of the Americas when Juan Diego lived, many of the invaders thought the indigenous people did not have souls and that therefore did not have the right to own anything but should be subject. They were treated badly and enslaved. They were forbidden to speak their own language. (At least in Spanish-speaking countries, as Mark Zwick said, they were still alive, whereas in the United States few Native Americans survived.) With the conquistadors, however, also came missionaries who wanted to share their faith with them. It was

hard going because of the terrible treatment the people were receiving. Only a very few natives had become Christian.

Franciscan missionaries who worked hard to share their faith with the indigenous people defended them, during this time before Our Lady’s appearance, writing to the king of Spain and to the Pope to argue that they were human beings with souls. When they wrote, the missionaries described the cruelty, the corruption and hardness of heart of many of their own countrymen towards the people.

One of these Franciscans was Juan de Zumárraga, Bishop of Mexico. Parts of Bishop Zumárraga’s letters to King Carlos V of Spain are reprinted in a book in Spanish by Eduardo Chavez Sanchez, Juan Diego’s postulator. The book is called Juan Diego, una vida de santidad que marcó la historia (Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 2002). The quotes below have been translated from that book. Sometimes the story of Mary’s appearances has been told as if there were no receptive Spaniards at all. Chavez’ book shows how the apparitions were an encouragement for and working with the already existing efforts of some of the missionaries.

Chavez recounts how as the people were enslaved and their women taken by soldiers, the people came weeping to the bishop, who denounced the behavior in his weekly sermons where conquistadors attended Mass. The bishop complained that Hernan Cortés and his men fled from his sermons, no longer going to church. Because of his strong critique of the injustices, cruelty, thievery and corruption especially of those in charge of the Government of Mexico City, Bishop Zumárraga was threatened and lies were made up about him to discredit him and to try to have him replaced.

In 1529, one year and four months before the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego,

Bishop Zumárraga wrote to the king to tell him that the situation was so bad that only a miracle of God could save the situation and the earth: “si Dios no provee con remedio de su mano está la tierra en punto de perderse totalmente.” The missionaries prayed for a miracle.

God Provided the Miracle

Shortly thereafter, God did provide through Mary, the Virgin of Guadalupe, the remedy to what might have been the total destruction of a civilization and culture. One of those who had become Catholic was Juan Diego, who with his wife had been baptized and frequently received the sacraments. (By the time of the appearances, Juan Diego was a widower.) Devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, was very much a part of the evangelization in Christ which Juan Diego had received.

Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, speaking Nahuatl, and sent him to bring God’s message to the bishop, and through him, to all of us, leaving her own image, pregnant with the child Jesus, on his tilma as a sign of new life.

When she appeared to Juan Diego to ask Bishop Zumárraga to build a church in her honor, the Señora del Cielo, as Juan Diego called her, affirmed the dignity of an oppressed people in an unmistakable way.

Bishop Zumárraga’s Testimony

Bishop Zumárraga’s correspondence to Spain and to Rome after the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe reported that a great event had taken place. As Chávez writes, “The light of the Star of the Evangelization was revealed as a moment of intervention of God in human history. If human persons, in spite of the divine intervention, continued with their limitations, infidelities and betrayals; there is no doubt that immediately after the date of the apparitions a marvelous change in regard to the conversions of the indigenous and the change of attitude of the Spaniards took place. A change in the depth of being of the inhabitants of Mexico.”

Written sources from the time of the apparitions confirm “…the great numbers of natives who asked for baptism after these first years, and in this moment, inexplicably, by the thousands: Those baptized by each of these was more than a hundred thousand…’ Motolina, one of the early writers, continued counting the thousands and thousands who had been baptized and arrived at the conclusion that the total for the year of 1536, would be ‘until today the baptized are about five million.’”

Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta, (Historia Eclesiastica Indiana) wrote that by the roads, mountains, and deserted spots a thousand or two thousand Indians followed the religious, just to go to confession, leaving behind their homes and properties; and many of them pregnant women, and so many that some had their babies on the way, and almost all carrying their children on their backs. Other elderly people who could hardly stand even with a supporting stick, and blind people, walked 15 or twenty leagues to search for a confessor. The healthy came thirty leagues, and others went from monastery to monastery, more than eighty

A fence at Casa Juan Diego dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

leagues. Because on every side there was so much to do, they found no entry. Many of them brought their women and children and their little food, as if they were moving to another area.

The numbers seeking baptism were so great that the missionaries stopped the baptisms for a time to write to Rome to ask how to proceed in such an unprecedented situation.

Juan Diego’s People Were Treated as Migrants Are Treated Today

Vast numbers of the poor of Latin America embraced Our Lady of Guadalupe and they still do. They know, through her, the mother of Jesus, that in spite of their poverty, they have great dignity and that God loves and respects them. Would that those who make economic and military decisions based on flawed philosophies could also realize it. What is taught in university business courses (including Catholic universities) comes from secular philosophies which over the last few centuries have upended the teaching of the Church from the Fathers of the Church through St. Thomas Aquinas and beyond. These newer philosophies, taught in business schools across the world, have presented that which was considered vice and sin, incredibly enough, now as virtues. The result has been a dehumanization of the poor and immigrants and refugees around the world. The poor and migrants today are considered by many as if they did not have souls or even humanity. Perhaps only emerging markets.

Pray With Us For the Intercession of Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe

Let us ask Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe to pray not only for indigenous peoples today, but also for immigrants and refugees who often are treated like the Juan Diegos of his time.

As Eduardo Chavez said, “Our Lady of Guadalupe is for all people, however, especially all of the Americas.” In his book Chavez sings of the meaning of her appearances and what Saint Juan Diego means today: “Juan Diego continues spreading to the entire world the great Guadalupan Happening, a great message of peace, of unity and love that continues to be transmitted through each one of us, converting our poor human history, full of tragedies, betrayals, divisions, hatred, wars, in a marvelous History of Salvation, because in the center of the sacred image, in the center of the heart of the Most Holy Virgin Mary of Guadalupe is found Jesus Christ Our Savior. It is precisely she, the Mother of God, our Mother, who presents her son Jesus Christ, brings him to us among flowers and songs, robed in the sun, dressed in stars, standing on the moon, among the clouds like a great treasure who comes from the invisible and which in her is made visible. It is she who, choosing a humble native Indian, Juan Diego, who had had little time to embrace the faith, invites us to embrace our God and Lord.”

RECOMMENDED READING

The Houston Catholic Worker recommends the books below, one on Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego. The other two explain the devastating effects of errors in standard economics and business practices today which contribute to the attitudes toward immigrants and the poor similar to that toward the people of Juan Diego in his time, These books present more just alternatives from Catholic Social Teaching.

Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy by Antony Annett; Georgetown University Press, 2022.

Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis by Massimo Borghesi; Liturgical Press, 2021.

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Juan Diego: The Historical Evidence by Eduardo Chavez; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I so appreciated the story by Sofia of giving birth to Emilio. The struggle of knowing his vulnerability to enter this world is poignant and in semblance with the immigrant population, so vulnerable as they cross the border. Making this connection addresses and connects the binary political positions of the Left and Right.

Carol Crossed, Rochester, New York

Dear Louise,

I’m happy to hear that the cause for Dorothy Day’s canonization is proceeding. In “Common Destiny” editorial in the Jan.-March issue of Houston CW, I welcomed references to Henri de Lubac and St. Augustine—stalwarts of the faith.

Paul Menge, Fort Worth, Texas

Dear Louise,

As your great piece remarks, I too treasure Henri de Lubac, S.J. In my early 30’s, he changed my teaching into multi-cultural Catholicism, and led eventually to my Ph.D. in Hispanic Marian cultures—especially on the border. Yes, pray for Ukraine, but let us not forget USA horrific record of butchering millions of Indians, and with U.S. support 500,000 Mayans in Guatemala, + Iraq, etc., etc. + U.S. slaves. God help us all.

Stephen Holler, Cincinnati, Ohio

Dear CWs,

Thank you for your important work helping Christ’s Body. Please pray for Healing, Peace, Unity, and Reform for the Church, Country, and World. We are living in dangerous times with much suffering.

Robert Thelen, Burns, Oregon