Newsworthy nuns, priests and brothers

THE LA LOMITA historic landmark chapel that Father Roy Snipes, O.M.I. wants to preserve.

EVEN BEFORE he began making headlines for his opposition to a border wall that he says would hurt his parish in Mission, Texas, Father Roy Snipes, O.M.I., a Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate priest, had a big personality. Locals call him the “cowboy priest,” and he tends to keep his three dogs next to the altar at Mass. He frequently boats down the Rio Grande from one part of his parish to the next, literally straddling the border.

Snipes is pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, which includes La Lomita, an 1899 chapel located on a peaceful stretch of land near the Rio Grande. Federal plans for the wall originally called for the chapel to be placed in a “no man’s land” on the Mexico side between the wall and the Rio Grande. Local opponents said the wall would divide a parish community that is accustomed to easily crossing the border, and it would contribute to an increasingly military feel in the now heavily patrolled area.

In February 2019, the chapel appeared to be saved by a deal inserted into the U.S. budget, but protests continued, with Snipes still at the forefront.

Snipes is hoping that legal action—and local resistance—will eventually nix the wall for good and he can return to being the cowboy priest.

SISTER LEADS THE FIGHT ON HUNGER

AS DIRECTOR of Caritas Los Teques in Venezuela, Sister María José González, ccjes, has been working to help a group in acute need: hungry children. In a country hard hit by economic and political crises, where 90 percent of households have a substandard diet, González runs a food program in the Mirandas region. One effect of hyperinflation in Venezuela has been that average families cannot purchase enough food for three nutritious meals a day.

SISTER MARÍA JOSÉ González, ccjes, is director of Caritas Los Teques, a social service program responding to critical needs in Venezuela.

Youth synod energizes outreach, vocation efforts

YOUNG CATHOLICS met with Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster prior to the youth synod.

YOUNG PEOPLE from around the world had an opportunity to give input at the international bishops synod held in October 2018 that focused on youth, faith, and vocation discernment. They communicated several messages that seemed to resonate with the bishop participants, including:

• Church ministers are encouraged to go where young people are. Listen to what they seek from the church and walk with them on their vocational and life journeys. • Young people prefer to be heard without judgment, even if their ideas about faith may not always be orthodox.

• Young people long for a connection to God, and many seek help making that connection.

• While they seek wisdom, young people also desire opportunities to lead, to help shape the church.

Learn more about the synod and find related documents at www. synod2018.va.

FRIARS HELP DRIVE DETROIT RENEWAL

FATHER MAYNARD Tetreault, O.F.M. (below, left) and

Father Alex Kratz, O.F.M. converse near one of the newest friaries.

RESIDENTS of Detroit—many of whom have battled poverty and decline for years—now have three more people on their side: members of the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province. In late 2017 the religious community established another friary, or residence for friars, in the city, this one at a merged parish called St. Moses the Black. The friary is located in an economically depressed area in a rectory that had been vacant for 20 years.

Father Maynard Tetreault, O.F.M. is a Detroit native who reported in a community blog that an increased Franciscan presence in Detroit could be positive: “I think our presence among marginated people is important. I think it is a tiny gesture of hope.”

Tetreault lives at the friary with Father Alex Kratz, O.F.M. and Brother Louie Zant, O.F.M. The three spent their initial year getting to know their neighbors and learning their needs. Today they each contribute by being immersed in parish life, helping with building maintenance, and taking care of many behindthe-scenes needs. Kratz holds responsibilities in other Detroit-area ministries but lives at the friary and assists as he’s able.

While the St. Moses the Black Friary is a newer outreach, other priests, brothers, and sisters within the Franciscan family have ministered in the Detroit archdiocese for many years and are involved in a wide range of ministries.

A quiet labor of love

COFFEE,CANDY, coffins, cards. Those are just a few of the many products that can be purchased online and in person at monasteries in the United States and around the world. Monasteries that produce consumer goods have a long tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages when European monasteries produced beer and wine—both products that continue to flow from religious communities.

Many religious communities, especially monastic ones, are immersed in manufacturing and handcrafting products to support their way of life. Members of monastic (enclosed contemplative) orders focus on prayer, and part of their day is set aside to earn money in a way compatible with a communal, prayer-focused lifestyle. A TRAPPIST NUN makes candy at Our Lady of the

Products sisters, brothers, and priests create are both practical Mississippi. (income producing) and spiritual (made with a conscious effort to lift the labor up to God at every step). Products also keep communities connected to other people.

“For us, trade is not only about making a living, it is also about meeting the outside world, and allowing people who do not know us to come to us,” a brother who sells these products told Marie-Catherine Paquier for the Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion. The public can readily find items made by sisters, brothers, and priests by searching on a browser with the word “monastery” along with the category of product.

COURTESY OF OUR LADY OF THE MISSISSIPPI

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A sister’s courage honored

SISTER ORLA Treacy, I.B.V.M., a Loreto sister from Ireland, received an International Women of Courage Award from the U.S. State Department in March 2019 for her efforts to educate girls in the diocese of Rumbek, South Sudan. Treacy and her community established a girls’ secondary boarding school there in 2008 and in 2010 opened a co-ed boarding school.

South Sudan has been damaged by recent civil wars, and is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. The female literacy rate in South Sudan is just 16 percent, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and arranged marriage with brides under age 18 is common.

The Loreto schools founded by Treacy graduate approximately 200 young women each year.

RON PRYZSUCHA / U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

SISTER ORLA TREACY, I.B.V.M. receives the International Women of Courage Award from Melania Trump as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on.

AMAZON ECOLOGY A SACRED CONCERN

POPE FRANCIS has called for an October 6-27, 2019 Synod of Bishops on environmental concerns in the Amazon region in South America. As with past synods, religious orders will play an important role in planning and conducting the gathering. Sister María Irene Lopes Dos Santos, S.C.M.S.T.B.G. is among the members of the planning council. Dos Santos is a member of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and delegate of the Confederation of Latin American Religious. Father Peter Hughes, S.S.C., a Columban Missionary, is an advisor to the planning council.

Other religious who work directly with people in the multinational Amazon area are expected to weigh in on the human impact of ecological concerns in the Amazon region. It is the world’s largest rainforest, and home to earth’s most dense biodiversity as well as to many indigenous people. However, native people, animals, and plants have been encroached upon for centuries. The synod’s theme will be: “Amazonia: new pathways for the Church and for an integral ecology.”

LOGO of the Amazon synod.

See our video at tiny.cc/holyfamilymsf

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