SJB pastor visits migrant shelters

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Father Michael Meany, pastor of St. John Brebeuf Church, enjoys playtime with a migrant child during his recent trip with Catholic Extension of the Dioceses of El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Father Michael Meany, pastor of St. John Brebeuf Church, recently traveled with Catholic Extension of the Dioceses of El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, to visit two temporary migrant shelters. While he was there, Father Meany met the people and learned about the relationship between United States Citizenship and Immigration Services as well as the Catholic Extension, whose mission is to support poor and very rural Catholic dioceses in the United States and to offer humanitarian aid to people entering the United States legally.

Highlights of the trip included the presentation of the Lumen Christi award to Sr. Marie-Paule Willem, FMM, of the Diocese of Las Cruces. Each year, Catholic Extension presents the $50,000 award to an outstanding example of the “Light of Christ” among the poor. He also participated in the pilgrimage up Mount Tortugas for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and attended Mass at the summit celebrated by Bishop Ricardo Ramirez.

The trip began with a visit to the Centro San Juan Diego, former home to an after-school evangelization program run by Dr. Veronica Rayas. Responding to a call put out by Annunciation House which has sheltered migrants in El Paso for more than 40 years, Dr. Rayas and her colleagues have converted the center to a temporary migrant shelter. The second visit was to one of the hotels that Annunciation House has been renting for migrants.