RELIGIOUS LIFE
JULIUS SCHLOSBURG, COURTESY OF KINO BORDER INITIATIVE
NOGALES is a city that straddles the U.S.-Mexican border 70 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. This is one of hundreds of crossing points along the 2,000mile border. Here women, supported by Kino Border Initiative, are on the south side of the border, appealing for asylum in the United States.
Mercy meets at the border by John Feister
John Feister is a veteran Catholic journalist and winner of the Saint Francis De Sales Award. He is the Glenmary Home Missioners’ communications director and editor of Glenmary Challenge, Glenmary.org.
Migrants and refugees who travel through Mexico to the U.S. border face many perils. Numerous men and women in religious life are there to provide humanitarian relief, spiritual care, assistance, and advocacy. Meet some of the sisters, brothers, and priests who “run toward the suffering.”
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T’S ONE OF THE GREAT SCANDALS of our time: Thousands of refugees fleeing terror, poverty, or both are stopped at the border of one of the richest nations on Earth, an immigrant nation at that. Who stands with the “least of these,” people who have risked everything and may be getting nothing? Faithful people. Catholic women and men religious—sisters, priests, and brothers—along with lay partners, have been there, often leading, for many years. Over time, relief organizations have grown on both sides of the border.
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