Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Recently, the Provincial Minister of Our Lady of Guadalupe Province, Fr. Larry Hayes, O.F.M., emailed to all the friars of the province a letter, a portion of which I wish to share with you here:
“Pope Leo XIV has designated 2026 as the Jubilee Year of St. Francis as the Church honors the 800th anniversary of the death of the Poverello. For Franciscans of every age and place and denomination, the designation of this Jubilee Year calls us to celebration, renewal, and bold proclamation of the virtues exemplified by St. Francis: gentleness toward and solidarity with those on the margins of society, respect for each individual, reverence toward creation, and zeal in the service of reconciliation and peace. As the Definitory of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we ask you to consider the following:
- We believe individuals and families are best served by a well-ordered society, and so we uphold the rule of law and the right of nations to control their own borders. At the same time, we uphold the Catholic Church’s position that people have an inalienable right to emigrate whenever their human dignity or safety are at risk.
- We stand with Pope Leo XIV and those Catholic bishops who have spoken against mass deportations, dehumanizing language, terroristic misuse of violence, and the general disregard for human dignity and Christian charity.
- As Franciscans reflect on the signs of the times and the events in our country and throughout the world, we diligently attempt to discern how God is calling us to respond with the challenging demands and the healing balm of the Gospel and our unique charism.
- To fail to speak or act in accord with our values may rightly open us to accusations of being apathetic toward the plight of the marginalized. Silence could brand us as being complicit with or even in favor of actions and language which violate human dignity and human rights.”
I am grateful for Fr. Larry’s thoughtful message to us. A few weeks ago, at our weekly staff meeting, I initiated a discussion about how I had been feeling in the aftermath of the shooting death of Renee Good on January 7th by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. That incident was followed by the detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father on January 20th. Who will ever forget the photo of the boy in a blue knit cap and a backpack caught up in a moment no one would have ever thought could happen today? Fortunately he and his father were released last weekend. Tragically, another fatal shooting occurred on Saturday, January 24th as Alex Pretti, a nurse at a VA hospital, was brutally shot multiple times.
I doubt any of us know what the future holds for us and our country. Yes, we certainly need to find a way to deal justly and humanely with the issue of immigration, and we are not the only country trying to find the right solution to this worldwide question. Wars and violence across the globe have created a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions to which there are no simple answers.
I am also grateful that our religious leaders, from Pope Leo to the members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to our own Franciscan leaders, have spoken out forcefully on behalf of those who are being unjustly victimized by our government.
We may agree or disagree, but we must find a way forward because we are in a very perilous moment in our history. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am somewhat reticent about how we can ‘celebrate’ the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence when we might not have anything to actually celebrate. But the people of Minneapolis have shown us that with courage and unity, change can happen, and good can arise even from the evil of inhumanity.
As Archbishop Bernard Hebda of Minneapolis stated: “While we rightly thirst for God’s justice and hunger for his peace, this will not be achieved until we are able to rid our hearts of the hatreds and prejudices that prevent us from seeing each other as brothers and sisters created in the image and likeness of God. That is as true for our undocumented neighbors as it is for our elected officials and for the men and women who have the unenviable responsibility of enforcing our laws. They all need our humble prayers.”
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M.
Pastor