MARCH 22, 2024
mississippicatholic.com
Border pilgrimage like Stations of the Cross for sisters as they learn of migrants' hardships By Rhina Guidos
a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, said of the tales of hardship along the SAN DIEGO (OSV News) – Conway. gress's latest attempt at immigration Sister Suzanne, along with Sacred reform in early February was going Heart Sister Lisa Buscher, Mercy Sisdown in flames. ter Mary Waskowiak, and Franciscan The sisters were keeping tabs on it. Friar Keith Warner – all from CaliBut their focus Feb. 5-9 was the road fornia's San Diego and Palm Desert from San Diego via the cold desert area – organized the pilgrimage. It betoward Mexico, to see what the landgan and ended with a reflection at the scape, migrants and the Holy Spirit Franciscan School of Theology at the had to say to them during a five-day University of San Diego. "border pilgrimage." The organizers billed this on the "This wasn't just nuns crossing theology school's website as an opthe border and feeling good," said Sisportunity for congregations to think ter Suzanne Cooke, provincial of the about "next steps in ministry to miU.S.-Canada province of the Society grants, whether direct service, pasof the Sacred Heart, who was one of toral care, education or advocacy." about two dozen sisters from various But the pilgrimage also provided the congregations who participated. opportunity to network and discern, It was an opportunity to contemas religious, what is happening at the plate "What is God saying? What's my border beyond the headlines and how responsibility?" she told Global Sisters to respond, Sister Suzanne said. Report Feb. 9 about the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage sought to go beWhat spoke to her and others were A group of women religious, along with a priest and a Franciscan friar, stop by an the stories from those they met on abandoned camp in the desert, near Jacumba Hot Springs, south of San Diego, yond a border immersion experience, both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Feb. 7, 2024. Some prayed near the shoes, tattered tents and wet sleeping bags Sister Lisa said, and attempted to enincluding a family of 10 from Afghani- left behind where migrants sought shelter from winter storms affecting the San gage sisters in looking at the situation "with the eyes of the heart." stan running from the Taliban's treat- Diego region. (OSV News photo/Rhina Guidos, Global Sisters Report) At times, it was an exercise that ment of women; a Peruvian family of produced pain and tears. seven who left after threats from crimburied and kept behind a chain link fence in a cemeSister Clara Malo Castrillón, provincial of Mexinal elements; and a young Chechen escaping Russia. tery. Or a group of feeble tents, the only shelter that Though silent, landmarks that sisters visited in the protected recent border crossers from the winter's cold ico's Society of the Sacred Heart, wept as she rested desert also told of the tragedies and ignominy people rain and snow that have pummeled the desert south of her head against a fence that separated the migrant remains buried at Terrace Park Cemetery in Holtville, on the move are increasingly facing, such as "a potter's San Diego this season. California, during a Feb. 7 pilgrimage stop. field with a fence," as one sister said of a dirt plot where "We were talking 'pilgrimage,' but it seems almost unidentified remains – believed to be of migrants – are like the Stations of the Cross," Sister Suzanne Jabro,
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24 'perpetual pilgrims' eager to lead 'biggest Eucharistic procession in world history' By Maria Wiering
studying theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the (OSV News) – A profound experience with the Eucharist during Mass in his Dominican House of Studies in Washington. "I think Jesus will sanctify this land in freshman year at Texas A&M University compelled Charlie McCullough to make an unimaginable way, even invisibly and in an unseen way. But obviously, we will be visible and we will be easily noticed, and I just look forward to what Christ in the Jesus the center of his life. "Every decision that I've made after that has been a small step in that relation- Eucharist can bring to other people." Weiss, 27, grew up in Regensburg, Germany, where elaborate Corpus Christi ship and a small response to that invitation," said McCullough, a 22-year-old north Texas native. "And now the invitation is him saying, 'Come and follow me,' as we go processions are commonplace, and people are familiar with Europe's long history on pilgrimage across the United States." – Continued on page 6 – McCullough is one of 24 young adults who will be journeying with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament along INSIDE THIS WEEK four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes leading to the National Eucharistic Congress. The "perpetual pilgrims" will begin their treks May 17-19 – the weekend of Pentecost – from San Francisco; New Haven, Connecticut; Brownsville, Texas; and the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. Their routes – a combined 6,500 miles – will converge eight weeks later in Indianapolis for the July 17 opening of the five-day congress in Lucas Oil Stadium. Along the way, the pilgrims will go through small towns, large cities and rural countryside, mostly on foot, with the Eucharist carried in a monstrance designed particular20th celebration 4 Youth 11 From the archives 7 ly for this unprecedented event. Christ the King celebrates Youth photos from DCYC St. Michael Church re"This will be the biggest Eucharistic procession 20 years in location in Vicksburg minds us to watch the Gulf in world history," said Kai Weiss, a perpetual pilgrim