In the distant past of early 2012, candidate Mitt Romney generated enormous amounts of laughter when he suggested that the solution to the problem of illegal immigration was for those persons who had entered the country illegally should simply “self-deport” themselves. Can’t you see 10 or 12 million people laying down their rakes and shovels and hitching rides to the nearest freight train which would take them down to the Rio Grande? When they got to the Mexican border they would not be home. They would have another 1,500 or 2,000 miles to get down into Central America, a poverty area from which they had fled earlier solely because they had a desperate desire to survive and to feed their children. Self-deport indeed!
Life in this country for undocumented people can be extremely difficult and even dangerous but the real danger is to be found in the process of getting here! Tens of thousands of Central Americans, many of them as young as 10 and 12 years old, take the enormous risks of trying to cross Mexico in order to get to what they hope and dream will be the land of plenty, the United States of America. Hundreds and hundreds of them never make it. The statistics will never be known. Their bodies are found beside railroad tracks or their skeletons peeking out from parched sands of the deserts of northern Mexico. It is a terrible situation but despite the grimness of the scene there is some small cause for optimism and hope.
Thanks be to God there are generous men and women, citizens of Mexico, who establish small programs to help these migrants continue on their dangerous journey. A little food, the essentials of water, a safe place to sleep. The people doing this work are themselves poor but they have a powerful sense of solidarity with their neighbors to the south and their help makes the difference for many in terms of being able to survive as far as the Rio Grande.
The solution? Economic development across the planet in a way that would have all peoples gain an adequate education to survive in the modern world and have access to the resources that they need in order to live simple but safe and stable lives. I know, I know. That is a dream but it is already true for much of North America, Western Europe and the Asian Rim. Developed nations of the world need to recognize the hopes and longings of people in undeveloped parts of this planet, and see them as human beings desiring to share in the blessings of this planet and not merely look upon them as an inexpensive source of raw materials in order to enhance the wealth of those who already have enough.
 

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Have you ever driven to Monterrey, Mexico? If you have, you have experienced the seemingly endless miles across the plains, the flat world of South Texas. You cross the Rio Grande and the miles seem to continue to stretch endlessly before you, but on a clear day suddenly you see them – the mountains of Northern Mexico. I always loved the experience because I think mountains are so symbolic and they can carry you emotionally in either direction. They are an obstacle, they are a threat, they can be dangerous or they can be a special place where God really touches us. In Advent, the latter is the case. Both Isaiah and Jesus often refer to the fact that God frequently deals with us in terms of mountains. I think that we should give some serious thought to this as we continue to prepare for the great feast of Lord’s birth.
Isaiah tells us (25:6-9) that on the mountain Yahweh will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines… on this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples…and destroy death forever. Each one of the Gospels, of course, makes a number of references to Jesus in the mountains.
What do we see when we see the mountains in the distance? Does it frighten us or does it give us the determination to go forward with courage? Do we see it as a potential blessing where God’s actions will be carried out in a way that will really help? Each of us have mountains in our lives and it is our attitude and our reaction to them that decides whether or not they will be heavy burdens or wonderful blessings.
Onward into the hills!
 

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I was very amused last month with the statistics coming out about Texas and the United States about the fact that the white anglo dominance in North America since the 1650’s can see its numeric influence gradually eroding. The change in the racial makeup of our country is only natural in view of the fact that for the most part the upper echelons of our society have ever smaller numbers whereas immigrants, coming in from Mexico, South America and Asia, tend to have sizable families. Gradually, you see the white majority slipping from the 75% to 55% and now just going under 50%.

This fact in itself doesn’t mean the end of the world, although some whites react as though it did. The crucial need is that the dominant forces in our society need to pull out all the stops regarding our educational systems. We are not doing that! At the local, state and national levels drastic cuts have been made over the last five years from the resources allocated to education. At the same time, there is a marked increase in jails and prisons and there is a direct relationship between those two budget items.

And happily the negative mood present in our society regarding our failing schools is reversible. We have the technical know how and the resources to handle the problems smoothly but our response to this new situation must be devoid of racism, fear, panic and vindictiveness. The ideal of a fair and equitable education being provided to all of our young people is not a nice goal to be pursued. It is an absolute necessity if we are to have a stable society twenty and thirty years from now.

Let’s pray that our leaders understand the importance of giving everyone a good education and the poor require not an equal education but the best education. What we have to do is all too clear. Whether or not we will do it is questionable. Let’s also pray that we are not a nation of ostriches.

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The three bishops were concelebrating Mass together in early November but at the Sign of Peace, instead of embracing each other, they touched their palms through the chain-link fence! This Mass, being celebrated at the border between Texas and Mexico, is a ten-year old tradition uniting the Church in Mexico and the Church in the United States despite the presence of a barrier fence that has been established by the U.S. government. The Mass was initiated in 1999 during the worst period of murders of female factory workers who were simply disappearing and later being found dead after being sexually assaulted. The number of these victims has been projected as high as 400. In addition, Ciudad Juarez has seen nearly 9,000 murders as a result of the brutal drug war.

The bishops’ Eucharist celebration is a wonderful example of a human’s desire for unity and the Church’s desire for oneness in the human family. In his homily, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, stated, “Once again, we ask for forgiveness for the crimes, sins, violence and injustice that the border fence represents” stating that the physical barrier of the fence should not stop those on both sides of the border from loving each other, “as brothers and sisters they are in the eyes of God.”

History has always shown that fences and walls do not work in the long run.

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All of our newspapers carry the stories.  We all know that nearly 30,000 people have died violently in Mexico since the federal government declared all out war on the drug cartels.  We also know that the area along the U.S./Mexican border is the region where most of the tragic killing has occurred but Juarez is by far the worst of the lot.  In 2008, over 7,000 people were killed just in the City of Juarez.  The population is down by a quarter of a million as people exit for the safety of other places.  A third of the private hospitals and clinics have closed and many small businesses and grocery stores are shuttered.  Another 14 people are killed every day while extortions, kidnappings, robberies occur constantly, but most are not reported because the people are threatened and/or they don’t trust the authorities.

If you are drinking coffee while reading the morning paper, all this may slip past you!  We are so used to bad news out of Mexico.  But if it is related in a letter from personal friends who live in Juarez, it makes a very different impression.  I have a number of friends in Mexico but I received letters from three of them working in the slums of Juarez, two sisters and a priest, who told me in January,

“Within four blocks of our house 14 people have been killed, four bodies dumped, three people kidnapped to say nothing of the robberies or extortions.  Our colonia is not the worst.  The violence comes from drug cartels, delinquents, some by police or army.  There is little trust.  Nobody knows who is involved and people say ‘better not to know anything.’”

“Two months ago, four young men were gunned down at mid-day just three short blocks away.  Two weeks ago, just around the corner a young organizer of the youth soccer league in the neighborhood was shot dead and two family members wounded.”

“Still efforts for peace spring up all over town. The university students one day, the women another, the medical doctors the next.  No broad organized movement yet.”

I was happy to learn from my friends that the bishops in the area are trying to make a measurable contribution.  Bishop Raul Vera of Saltillo has joined with Bishop Renato Ascensio of Juarez in developing justice and peace programs.  Vera has long been engaged on the side of the poor and the vulnerable when he was in Chiapas with Bishop Samuel Ruiz.  In Saltillo, Vera has been outspoken in denouncing government failures to defend the rights of minors and women abused by the military.

May God bless both bishops and my three brave friends and continue to bless them with Christian faith, hope and courage!

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I was saddened by a short story that appeared in the New York Times last week.  It recounted that Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia died at the age of 86.  He had been bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal.  In that position, he carried on the heroic work of the 16^th century Dominican missionary named Fray Bartolomé de las Casas who fought heroically on behalf of the native population in the face of Spanish oppression and enslavement.  In so many ways, Bishop Ruiz was the ideal successor to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, that heroic early missionary.

On taking office as bishop, Bishop Ruiz saw that the native people of the State of Chiapas were often mistreated and abused.  He took their side and maintained that position until his death.  There was a considerable amount of violence and conflict in Chiapas and in the mid-1990’s a group of armed Indian rebels occupied several Chiapas towns.  They were virtually at war with the central government of Mexico.  Bishop Ruiz openly supported the rebels’ goals but did not endorse their violent tactics.  Regretfully, the landowners hated this modern defender of Indian rights but thankfully, serious efforts to kill him, including ambushing him on a mountain road, failed.

I met Bishop Ruiz only once and oddly enough, it was in Dublin, Ireland, but I followed his work for 25 years and always had tremendous admiration for his clear thinking and heroism.  May God bless him for his commitment to justice and may God sent new protectors for his beloved Indians.

The poor of Mexico still suffer terribly.  Let’s pray that the Catholic Church uses all of its resources to improve their quality of life.

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The Church is nearly a 2,000-year-old story.  During those centuries, several billion people have been baptized into the life of the Church and, needless to say, together they have generated an extraordinary range of mysterious, wonderful and sometimes terrible events.  I would just like to remind you of one event that was very small at the time but has  tremendous impact on the Western Hemisphere.  I am thinking about a young Indian peasant by the name of Juan Diego.

In the year 1531, Juan Diego, coming into Mexico City from his distant village, beheld the apparition that would so dramatically change the religious life of the people of what we call today the Republic of Mexico.  Before him, he saw a beautiful woman.  Being in awe, he knelt before the apparition and then in the ongoing dialogue was told that he was to take a message to the bishop of Mexico City and that a church was to be built there in her honor.  Juan Diego endeavored to carry out the Lady’s directions but was rebuffed by the staff in the bishop’s palace.  (Have you ever tried to drop in unexpectedly at the bishop’s house?)

At any rate, in a later visit, the mysterious Lady told Juan Diego to gather roses, which, despite being in mid-winter, were inexplicably growing in the area and to take them to the bishop as a sign that she was serious.  In the presence of the bishop, Juan Diego opened up his cloak to let roses drop to the floor and instead there was a mysterious representation of the Lady that we now refer to as Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The bishop yielded and a shrine was built on that spot, and became the center of popular devotion for Mexicans all over Mexico itself and the southwestern part of the United States.

The relationship between the Catholic Church and Mexico has been rocky and difficult but the commitment of the people of Mexico to their faith and their Lady has been unbroken and is as strong today as ever.

Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego on July 31, 2002.  Viva la Virgen and Viva San Juan Diego!

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Last week we were considering the agony of poor Mexico with hundreds of gang lords and thousands of innocent civilians being caught in a crossfire in the drug wars that mark that beautiful country.  I pointed out that it is not only death and carnage but also a tragic economic downturn that come together to make life miserable and difficult for most of Mexico’s citizens.  What is the basic cause?

The ultimate cause of Mexico’s agony is obvious.  That cause lies within the United States.  The murder of 70 people in Temaulipas two weeks ago should be measured in terms of two powerful tractions.  Drug cartels have come into existence to supply drug addiction in the United States, an addiction that generates an almost unlimited amount of cash.  The second pull is the flow of desperate immigrants northward fueled by the demand for low-wage labor north of the Rio Grande.

In last week’s notes, I suggested that the Church in Mexico should try to become involved in this terrible situation and utilizing whatever influence it may have.  However, could not the same be said about the Church in the United States?  Should there not be a major ecumenical push to get control of drug addiction in this country?  Is overcoming the menace of drug addiction in this country really the prime responsibility of the federal government, or shouldn’t the great religious families of North America make this a major issue?  I think all the churches should give serious thought as to how they can contribute to a solution for a problem that is really besetting Mexico, but caused by the United States.

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It is good to have positive thoughts about new developments in China and Israeli/Palestinian Authority area but now let’s shift our thoughts to south of the Rio Grande.  We all know about the terrible gangland slaughter going on all over Mexico but especially along the border.    Two weeks ago over 70 bodies were stacked in one area, poor migrants who passed through a dangerous area on their way to the United States but refused to cave in to the drug lords.  Seventy civilians killed in one place at one time and their bodies stacked in piles!  Many thousands have died in this way over the last seven or eight years and no one seems to be coming forward with a solution.

The problem is worse than the countless lives being lost cruelly and unnecessarily.  Formerly, Mexico’s main source of income was tourism.  It is a land blessed with great beauty, both natural and man made.  This tragic violence has cut deeply into tourism.  Even if you are not in an area not suffering from crossfire from drug wars, you are suffering from a tragic drop in the economy.  Regretfully, the Church has been forced to the edge of Mexican life for almost 100 years but now there is a desperate need for the Church to use what influence it may still have to foster peace, order and safety into this beautiful but tragic country.  Can the Church find a voice?  Will it use it?

Viva Mexico!

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In the last six weeks, millions of words have been written about a new state law that is being installed in the State of Arizona.  The law is controversial and will have diverse effects.  One of those effects might be that it motivates the United States Congress to enact a comprehensive immigration policy.  However, for my purposes today I want to look past the Arizona law itself, past the very real problem in Arizona, the other Border States and, for that matter, the entire nation – that is the desire of so many citizens of Mexico to re-establish themselves in the United States.  We have, of course, the anomaly of the world’s wealthiest nation sitting beside a developing but still poor nation with a 1,700-mile border.  It is a big problem but the ultimate solution is in Mexico, not on the Arizona border or Chicago for that matter.  American citizens ought to take seriously the issue of Mexico.  It will be our neighbor 100 years from now and 200 years from now.  Can we make those decades less painful?  Less conflicted?  More economically productive?  More just?  Safer?

The last 40 years have seen a great deal of progress in Mexico in terms of economic and social welfare but the present internal war, produced by drug lords, is threatening to undo that progress.  We must not let that happen.  We Americans need a healthy, safe, productive, friendly Mexico and need to support those who are trying to bring this about.

Viva Mexico!

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