New Catholic ministry to serve deportees to Mexico
J
an. 17, 2009 07:52 PM
Associated Press

TUCSON - A Catholic ministry aimed at providing aid and other services for illegal immigrants deported from the United States will be launched Sunday in Nogales, Mexico.

The Kino Border Initiative, which will involve Jesuits from the United States in their first migrant ministry on the Arizona-Mexico border, is a binational effort that will provide direct service to people deported every day from the United States, said the Rev. Sean Carroll, executive director of the border initiative. It will also provide education through parish presentations and community workshops about the realities of the border and immigration policies, and research and advocacy on immigration and the border.

"The Kino Border Initiative is the culmination of a three-year process of investigation and reflection of what the greatest needs are concerning immigration on the border," Carroll said. "Our main focus is to be of service to those who are being affected by this issue. I think that's our focus and our attention."

Six Catholic organizations from the United States and Mexico are collaborating on the project: the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson and Archdiocese of Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora; Society of Jesus (Jesuit) organizations from California and Mexico; Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, a religious congregation in Colima, Mexico, and the Jesuit Refugee Service U.S.A.

"It will be a ministry specifically for the deported that will be run on both sides of the border," said Fred Allison, a spokesman for the Tucson diocese.

The other interesting thing, he said, will be the presence of the Jesuits, the world's largest Catholic religious order of men, who have not had a migration-related ministry on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The project is named for Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary who traveled across northern Sonora and what is now southern Mexico introducing native tribes to Christianity between 1687 and 1711, when he died. He also founded more than 20 missions.

"Obviously, we've named the initiative for him, because he was someone who served in this region in responding to people's greatest needs, and that's what we're trying to do with this initiative," Carroll said.

An outreach center in Nogales, Mexico, near a commercial port of entry, will provide deported people with food, clothing, hospital care and information, and will offer an eight-bed shelter for unaccompanied women and children, Carroll said.

The educational mission will focus on the reality of immigration and the current border setting and Catholic social teaching, Carroll said. Students from high schools and universities, and members of parishes will take part to facilitate in parishes about migration and immigration.

Carroll said plans call for having the visiting groups experience both sides of the border, to meet with and serve people being affected by immigration issues. Some would help in the outreach center, he said.

"Our intention is to serve and accompany" people who have been caught by Border Patrol officials and returned to Mexico. "Certainly we're not telling them to cross again," Carroll said, but the four priests and three sisters working with the program will be "a caring, loving presence."

Space will be provided for visiting scholars and academics to conduct research on immigration from the border - participating in the initiative's activities but perhaps also researching and writing books about immigration and the border, Carroll said.

"We're trying to build bridges of cooperation between the United States and Mexico with respect to immigration," Carroll said. "I think it's going to be a tremendous help that through this initiative, people will have a chance to reflect on this, to interact with people who are directly affected by it and through that process to be educated both in their minds and in their hearts."

In Naco, Mexico, a non-Catholic Migrant Resource Center has been operating for a year, providing food, drinks, clothing and advice to deportees dropped off at the border by Border Patrol agents

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