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Volume 6, Issue 4
Serving More Than A Million Catholics in the Diocese of Brownsville
Hundreds
registering
for
YouthBLAST
2014
Lumen
Christi
Award
The Valley Catholic
Sisters honored
for sharing the
light of Christ
Special to The Valley Catholic
PEÑITAS — Sister Carolyn
Kosub, Sister Emily Jocson and
Sister Fatima Santiago of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were awarded
the national 2014 Lumen Christi
Award, which in Latin means,
“Light of Christ.”
“We’re overwhelmed and
amazed, because, of course, we
never did this with the idea of getting publicity or personal recognition,” Sister Kosub said. “We just
are here to be with the people, to
serve them and to have our faith
grow together because they were
already people of great faith. We
just helped bring them together as
a community.
“We’ve come a long way by the
grace of God and there’s just no
other way to explain it. It’s fantastic.”
The three women first came
to the tornado-stricken colonia of
Pueblo de Palmas, in Peñitas, Texas, in 2003 at the request of thenBishop Raymundo J. Peña. Upon
arrival, the sisters were shocked
not only by the destruction they
encountered, but also by the poverty. Moreover, they were deeply
moved by the richness of faith
they found there. They decided to
make this colonia the focus of their
missionary efforts and moved into
the community to live in solidarity
with the residents.
Since that time, the sisters have
worked tirelessly to listen to the
residents, establish trust and meet
their most basic needs. In 2004,
they created Proyecto Desarrollo
Humano (The Project for Human
Development), an outreach center
dedicated to health, social services, education and evangelization.
Through the center, the sis» Please see Lumen Christi, p.15
OCTOBER 2014
Blessing of Altar
Photo by Cesar Riojas/The Valley Catholic
The Litany of the Saints was sung as part of the dedication rite for the new altar on Sept. 15 at the historic Immaculate Conception
Cathedral in Brownsville. See page 8 for more photos.
LIVING THE GOSPEL
LIGHT OF CHRIST
THOSE WHO SERVE
WESLACO — YouthBLAST, a
conference for high school youth,
is set for Saturday, Oct. 25.
Hundreds of high school students from across the Diocese of
Brownsville are expected to unite
in celebration of their faith at
Mary Hoge Middle School, 302
S. International Blvd. in Weslaco.
The event runs from 8 a.m. to 6:30
p.m. The cost is $25 and includes
meals and a T-shirt.
The theme of YouthBLAST
2014 is taken from the Beatitudes,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
(Mt 5:3)
In Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis asked the young people “with
all my heart” to read the Beatitudes again and to make them the
action plan for their lives: “Look,
read the Beatitudes: that will do
you good!”
International World Youth
Day gatherings occur about every three or four years, but the
Holy Father invites us to celebrate
World Youth Day in our parishes
and dioceses every year.
“YouthBLAST coincides with
the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
(Oct. 26), which in the United
States is the national celebration
of World Youth Day,” said Angel
Barrera, director of youth ministry for the diocese.
This particular Sunday is intended to highlight the presence,
energy, and diversity of youth and
is an opportunity for the entire
faith community to join in affirming the gifts of the young Catholic
Church.
“Youth ministry, especially at
the parish level, is a real encounter
of people working together to experience Christ and the Church in
a very real, human, incarnational
way,” Barrera said. “Youth ministry has developed into more than
just a healthy alternative for kids
— it is part of the history — but
there is much more to that.
“Some people see youth min» Please see YouthBLAST p.12
EN ESPAÑOL
Artículos sobre la Fiesta de
la Virgen del Rosario, un
testimonio de conversion de
un ex imán, y el matrimonio y
la boda de 20 parejas
“VERBUM MITTITUR
SPIRANS AMOREM”
(“The WORD is sent
breathing love.”)
Volunteers from near and far
respond to help refugees
Page 3
Meet the Sisters working in
Peñitas
Page 8
Father Oliver Angel, JCL
Page 9
Paginas 11-13
DIOCESE
2
Triunfo
de la Santa
Cruz
V
iajo mucho. No quiero
decir que es una cruz
tener que hacerlo-- no
llega a compararse con lo que
cargan otros -- pero sí les confieso que no cuento el embarcar y
desembarcar de aviones entre mis
actividades favoritas. Sin embargo, forma parte del ritmo de mi
vida como obispo. Conozco bien
la rutina de seguridad. Quito mis
zapatos, el saco y el cinturón; con
prisa saco de la mochila la bolsita
de plástico con los líquidos de
tres onzas. Con toda precaución
para no ser causa de demora en
la línea de espera, me acerco al
aparato con aspectos de burbuja
enorme al estilo Star-Trek para
que me tomen la radiografía.
Siempre me dicen lo mismo:
Espérese aquí a un lado. Sin
excepción me cachean alrededor
del pecho, buscando el objeto que
provoca el curioso relucir debajo
de la camisa negra. Es la Cruz
que siempre traigo puesta, un
crucifijo que he usado por más
de treinta años, que antes usaba
mi papá. Me he acostumbrado a
sacarlo para que los de la seguridad lo vean, pero de todos modos
me inspeccionan atentamente.
Pronto me dejan pasar.
Me pregunto ¿por qué no
me la quito antes de pasar por
la línea de seguridad? Sería más
conveniente, y evitaría la demora
de siempre. Pero, no, por instinto
de gracia, o por ser un poco terco
– ¿quién puede juzgar su propio
caso? – no me la quito. Resisto
quitarme la Cruz porque no es
un sombrero, o un cinturón.
De alguna manera, ser cristiano
significa sentir que la Cruz forma
parte esencial de nuestro propio
ser. Y eso no se puede quitar para
evitar algunos momentos extras
en la línea de seguridad.
¿Qué significa amar la Cruz
de Cristo? Significa corresponderle el amor ofrecido desde
ahí. Implica una respuesta al Hijo
de Dios quien acepto ser Hijo de
María precisamente para poder
asumir dentro de su divinidad lo
que pertenece a nuestra humani-
The Valley Catholic -
The triumph of the Holy Cross
I
travel frequently. I will not say doing so is
a cross- it does not compare to what others carry — but I do confess that boarding
and disembarking from airplanes is not one
of my favorite activities. Nevertheless, it’s part
of my life as a bishop. I know airport security
measures really well. I take off my shoes, and
my belt; and from my backpack I quickly take
out the plastic bag with the 3.4-ounce liquids.
Careful not to cause a delay in the waiting
line, I approach the enormous Star Trek style,
bubble-like machine so TSA employees can
run the scan. They always tell me the same
thing: Wait here to the side. Without fail
they pat down my chest area looking for the
curious object detected under my black shirt.
It is the Cross I always wear, a crucifix I have
used for more than 30 years, which my father
once wore. I am used to taking it out so that
the security guards can see it, but they inspect
me meticulously either way. Soon they let me
pass.
I ask myself, why don’t I take it off before
passing the security line? It would be more
convenient, and I would avoid the regular
delays. But no, by instinct of grace, or because
I am stubborn – who can judge his own case?
– I don’t take it off. I resist taking off the Cross
because it’s not like a hat or a belt. In some
way, being Christian means feeling the cross
as an essential part of our own being. And
that cannot be taken off to avoid a few extra
minutes in the security line.
What does it mean to love Christ’s Cross?
It means to reciprocate the love he offered
from there. It implies a response to the Son
of God who accepted to be the Son of Mary
precisely to be able to assume within his
divinity what belongs to our humanity. We
cannot talk about what belongs to the human
being without mentioning sin and death. It
is the language of the faith to say it this way.
But we must get to the point. On the Cross,
Christ loves us until death, and he accepts being a victim to the power of sin. On the Cross
dad. No podemos hablar de lo
que pertenece al ser humano sin
mencionar el pecado y la muerte.
Bueno, es el lenguaje de la fe
decirlo así. Pero debemos llegar
al grano. En la Cruz, Cristo nos
ama hasta la muerte, y acepta ser
víctima del poder del pecado. En
la Cruz se muestra como víctima
triunfante precisamente porque
siendo Dios el poder del pecado
lo puede matar, pero no puede
quitarle la vida (para decirlo
de una manera paradójica). No
700 N. Virgen de San Juan Blvd., San Juan, TX 78589-3042
5FMFQIPOFt'BY
Bishop Daniel E. Flores
Publisher
Brenda Nettles Riojas
Editor
Rose Ybarra
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OCTOBER 2014
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MOST REVEREND
DANIEL E. FLORES
BISHOP OF BROWNSVILLE
he shows himself as a triumphant victim
precisely because by being God, the power of
sin can kill him but cannot take away his life
(to say it in a paradoxical way). We cannot
love the Cross without confessing that sin and
death are real, strong and beyond our strength
to abolish or control. And further, loving the
Cross implies confessing that God had to
intervene to overcome the nefarious power of
what ails us.
Today’s world doesn’t talk much about sin
and tries to evade the word – apparently to
avoid leaving any sign of judgment or responsibility in secular-speak (a word I use to name
the campaign to erase the traits of religious
meaning from everyday language). At the
moment, though, there is no reason to engage
in discussions about judgment or responsibility. First things first. We call sin that nefarious power within human beings and within
history that always results in the crucifixion of
human beings. Be it the last illness and natural
death, be it an unjust sentence, be it betrayal,
or Cain’s fratricide, be it the poverty of the
innocent, whatever it may be, the most obvious fact is that men suffer the Cross because
human reality and history give testimony to
this inexorable experience. If modern men
and women who have no interest in religion
do not want to talk about responsibility or
judgment, and because of that they do not
talk about sin, it’s okay, it’s a topic for another
day. But they should be honest and admit
that suffering has a cause, and it is not limited
podemos amar la Cruz sin confesar que el pecado y la muerte son
cosas reales, fuertes, y más allá
de nuestras fuerzas para abolir o
controlar. Y además, amar la Cruz
implica confesar que Dios tuvo
que intervenir para superar el
poder nefasto de lo que nos aflige.
El mundo de hoy no habla
mucho del pecado, y busca
como evitar la palabra—supuestamente para evitar rasgos
de juicio o de responsabilidad
en el modo de habla-secular
(palabra que he inventado para
nombrar la campaña de borrar
seña de los significados religiosos
en el idioma común). Pero por
el momento, no hay para que
entrar en discusiones de juicio o
responsabilidad antes de tiempo.
Lo primero, primero. Nosotros
llamamos pecado a ese poder
nefario dentro del ser humano y
dentro de la historia que siempre
resulta en crucificar al hombre.
Sea la enfermedad última y la
muerte natural, sea condena injusta, sea la traición, o el fratricidio de Caín, sea la pobreza de los
inocentes, sea lo que sea, lo más
obvio es que el hombre sufre la
cruz porque la realidad humana
y su historia dan testimonio de
esta experiencia inexorable. Si
los modernos sin interés en la
to natural causes such as illnesses or earthquakes. Human beings themselves have been
responsible for actions afflicting other human
beings. These actions of hate and vengeance,
the lies invented to justify the rejection of the
unwanted, the savage appetite to maintain
control and power, the game that betrays the
vulnerable - all this shows that the world has
walked a crooked and mistaken historic path
since before books were written to record it.
I repeat the question: What does it mean
to love Christ’s Cross? We will experience the
Cross with or without Christ Jesus. In other
words the Cross is the sign of our own most
profound wound. By embracing the Cross
with Christ, we love the God of love that offers
us an exit from the vicious cycle of sin, suffering and death. In Jesus Christ, God accepted
being crucified with the rest, that is, with all
of us. They crucified him, and he accepted
being crucified. One has to do with the game
of the world under the power of sin, the other
has to do with our Lord’s freedom, surrendering voluntarily. We love the self-gift He gives,
the love, which motivated God our Lord to
identify in a definite way with our condition,
giving us proof that love triumphs over sin. To
believe in the Cross means to believe that in
the end the love of God present in us defeats
hate, and that life defeats death. On the Cross,
God’s justice shows itself as a sign of mercy
offered to us.
In the larger scheme of things, what one
does in the security line at airports, taking
off the Cross or leaving it on, doesn’t reach
astounding heights. But what does touch upon
our salvation is our attitude in front of Christ’s
Cross. The Cross is the center of a Catholic’s
life; to say I am Christian is equivalent to
saying I believe in the power of Christ’s Cross.
If by God’s grace you and I reach eternal
salvation, without a doubt it will be because
we have persevered in the faith we have in the
Lord’s Cross, and because we have reciprocated the victorious love he has offered us.
religión no quieren hablar de
responsabilidad o juicio, y por eso
no hablan de pecados, está bien,
es tema para otro día. Pero que
tengan la honestidad de admitir
que el sufrimiento tiene causa,
y no se limita a causas naturales
como enfermedades y terremotos.
El mismo ser humano ha sido el
que ha sobreabundado en obras
afligiendo a otros seres humanos.
Estas obras de odio y venganza,
las mentiras inventadas para justificar el rechazo de los indeseables,
el apetito voraz para mantener
el control y poder, el juego que
traiciona a los vulnerables, —
todo esto muestra que el mundo
ha caminado un camino histórico
chueco y equivocado desde antes
que existiesen los libros para
catalogarlo.
Repito la pregunta: ¿Qué
significa amar la Cruz de Cristo?
Nosotros viviremos la Cruz con
Cristo o sin Él. Es decir que la
Cruz es símbolo de nuestra más
profunda herida. Pues, abrazando
la Cruz con Él, amamos el Dios
de amor que nos ofrece salida
del ciclo interminable de pecado,
sufrimiento y muerte. En Cristo
Jesús, Dios aceptó ser crucificado
con los demás, o sea, con todos
nosotros. Lo crucificaron, y aceptó ser crucificado. Uno tiene que
ver con el juego del mundo bajo
el poder del pecado, el otro tiene
que ver con la libertad del Señor,
voluntariamente entregándose.
Amamos la entrega, el amor, que
motivó al Señor Dios identificarse de una manera definitiva
con nuestra condición, dándonos prueba que el amor triunfa
sobre el pecado. Creer en la Cruz
significa creer que al fin y al cabo,
el amor de Dios presente en el
hombre vence sobre el odio, y la
vida sobre la muerte. En la Cruz,
la justicia de Dios se muestra
como misericordia ofrecida hacia
nosotros.
En la gran esquema de las
cosas, lo que hace uno en la línea
de seguridad de los aeropuertos,
quitándose la cruz, o dejándola puesta, no llega a alturas
asombrosas. Pero lo que sí toca
a la salvación es nuestra actitud
delante de la Cruz de Cristo. La
Cruz es el centro de la vida de un
católico; decir que soy cristiano
equivale decir que creo en el
poder de la Cruz de Cristo. Si por
la gracia de Dios llegamos usted y
yo a la salvación eterna, sin duda
será porque hemos perseverado
en la fe que tenemos en la Cruz
del Señor, y en corresponderle
el amor victorioso que Él nos ha
ofrecido.
Bishop Flores’ Schedule October 2014
Oct. 1
10 a.m.
Pharr
Children’s Mass at Oratory School
Oct. 2
8 a.m.
McAllen
Children’s Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church
Oct. 19
5 p.m.
Weslaco
Misa para Movimiento de Cursillos de Cristiandad
Oct. 23
6:30 p.m.
McAllen
White Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish
Oct. 25
4 p.m.
Weslaco
Mass for 2014 Youth BLAST
Oct. 25
7 p.m.
McAllen
Mass at Sacred Heart Church
Oct. 25
8 p.m.
McAllen
Bread, Wine & Cheese Social at Sacred Heart Church
Oct. 26
6 p.m.
Edinburg
Mass at St. Joseph Church
Oct. 30
6 p.m.
Brownsville
Red Mass
OCTOBER 2014
DIOCESE
- The Valley Catholic
New church for Holy Rosary Parish
Faithful save for five years to build sanctuary
The Valley Catholic
MISSION — As a parishioner
walked in to the new Our Lady of
the Holy Rosary Church in Mission
for Mass, he gasped and said, “Oh,
my God!”
“That is the kind of reaction we
are getting,” said Father Oliver Angel, JCL, who has been pastor of the
church for seven years.
Father Angel himself had to
adjust to the size of the new 11,741
square-foot sanctuary, which is located at 923 Matamoros St.
“It is so vast compared to the
old church,” he said. “The first few
Masses were an emotional experience for me and the parishioners.
We worked for this for a long time.”
Bishop Daniel E. Flores blessed
and dedicated the new church on
Aug. 29. Bishop Emeritus Raymundo J. Pena and Bishop James
A. Tamayo of the Diocese of Laredo were also in attendance at the
three-hour service.
Designed by Milnet Architectural Services in McAllen, the new
church seats more than 700.
“The architectural style of the
church is modern with an Italian
Late Renaissance façade with the
vocabulary found in the Palazzo
del Te in Mantua, Italy designed by
the architect Giulio Romano,” said
architect Rudy Molina of Milnet
Architecture Services. “The three
niches framed at the entrances by
the columns are symbolic of the
Holy Trinity with the emphasis on
the center window, which features
a dove in stained glass.”
Blue accents were used
throughout the church in honor
of Our Blessed Mother. The aerial
» Please see Holy Rosary, p.13
3
Red Mass
committee
honors two
Brownsville
natives
The Valley Catholic
The Valley Catholic
The architectural style of the new Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church is modern with an Italian Late Renaissance façade. The
altar and baptismal font are monolithic – formed out of one single piece of stone – a tradition that dates back to classical
Roman and Judaic times. The 11,741 square-foot sanctuary seats 724.
BROWNSVILLE — The 21st
Annual Red Mass celebration is set
for Thursday, Oct. 30 at three historic Brownsville locations.
The intentions of the Red Mass
are for all protectors and administrators of the law, including lawyers, judges, government officials
and their support staffs.
The festivities will begin with
a procession at 5:30 p.m. from the
Dancy Building, 1100 E. Monroe
St., to the Immaculate Conception
Cathedral, 1218 E. Jefferson St.,
where Bishop Daniel E. Flores will
celebrate Mass at 6 p.m.
Immediately following the
Mass, a banquet will be held at
Brownsville Market Square, 1150
Market Square St.
Texas Supreme Court Justice
Eva Guzman, the first Latina on
the court, will deliver the keynote
address. Two Brownsville natives
who have expressed Christ’s love
through dedicated service to others will be honored at the banquet:
Sister Norma Pimentel of the Missionaries of Jesus and executive
director of Catholic Charites of the
Rio Grande Valley and Jesuit Father T.J. Martinez, founder of Cristo Rey High School in southeast
Houston, which provides a tuitionfree Catholic education to children
whose families are living at or below the federal poverty level.
» Please see Red Mass, p.16
Responding to the call
“My neighbor is in trouble that
is why we are here. The true
reason is they need us.”
“God called my daughter and me to volunteer… We don’t realize
how much we are serving God, but seeing their smiling faces is
enough.”
- Herminia Forshage, 54, St.
Joseph Parish, Edinburg
- Sonia Ann Briones, 57, Harvey Drive Church of Christ, McAllen
“There are families here, children here and
we don’t even know what they have been
through. We simply serve them. I have the
time, what better way to use it?”
- Rachel, 85, First Presbyterian
Church, Mission
“They need the help… This is
something I can do and I enjoy it.
It’s nice to come help and talk with
the patients.”
“We said to God, ‘Use us. We are doing it
for you’… God called us to love, to step out
and speak louder.”
- Sylvia Cardenas, 78, Holy Spirit
Parish, McAllen
- Altland Family, 44, 42, 12, 10, Christ
American Baptist Church, Pennsylvania
“I feel it is very important to witness to them
and to welcome them with compassion and
love as they journey into something new in the
United States
- Brother Andre Lemay, OFM, 66, Holy Family
Parish/Sacred Heart Parish, Edinburg/McAllen
Living the joy of the Gospel
“I fell in love with the stories of the
people. I feel like I need to help them.
Maybe give them what they need.”
- Carmen Garza, 46, Our Lady
of Sorrows Parish, McAllen
Meet some of the volunteers who help refugees
from Central America at the respite center at
Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. The center
opened June 10 and hundreds of volunteers have
served more than 7,500 people. To volunteer call
(956) 292-5852.
DIOCESE
»Women speak for themselves en la Frontera
4
OCTOBER 2014
The feminine Church, Mary our guide
H
ail Mary, full of grace, the
Lord is with you; blessed
are you among women...”
Bead after bead we meditate on
the life of Jesus Christ and venerate his Holy Mother when we pray
the Rosary. Bead after bead, we
are reminded that God entrusted
salvation in the hands of a woman.
For a Church too often criticized by some who claim women
are excluded from an institution
led by a hierarchy of men, the
Virgin Mary stands as a witness to
the value placed on women.
In October, the month of the
Rosary, we offer roses to a woman
who has been elevated to a place of
honor in the Church. We also celebrate the feast day of Mary, Queen
of the Holy Rosary on Oct. 7. A
devotion promoted by popes and
saints and practiced for centuries,
the Rosary honors and contemplates Our Blessed Mother, Mary.
With each Ave Maria we invite
her to pray for us as she guides us
to her son and with each decade
we meditate on the mysteries of
salvation.
Pope Francis, who entrusted
the world to Mary during a Marian celebration during the Year
of Faith, reminds us, “When the
Church looks for Jesus, she always
knocks at his mother’s door and
asks, ‘Show us Jesus.’ It is from
Mary that the Church learns true
discipleship.”
It is from Mary and her son
who we as women draw strength
and inspiration to share our
charisms. Pope Francis, has spoken
often about women in the Church.
He has said that without
women, the Church grows barren. “A Church without women
would be like the apostolic college
without Mary. The Madonna is
more important than the apostles,
and the church herself is feminine,
the spouse of Christ and a mother.”
Brenda
Nettles Riojas
Editor, The Valley
Catholic
“The Church is not ‘il Chiesa’ (‘the
Church, masculine); it is ‘la Chiesa’
(feminine),” he said.
Pope Francis said more exploration is needed in developing a
theology of women in the Church.
“I believe that we have much more
to do in making explicit this role
and charism of women. We can’t
imagine a Church without women,
but women active in the Church,
with the distinctive role that they
play.” “The role of women in the
Church must not be limited to
being mothers, workers, a limited
role… No! It is something else!”
As we continue to explore the
role of women, the month of October also gives witness to several
women who have influenced the
Church, among them two Doctors
of the Church, St. Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate
Oct. 1, and St. Teresa of Avila, who
we honor on Oct. 15.
Also, in this month’s edition
of The Valley Catholic, we feature
three special women honored nationally by Catholic Extension with
the 2014 Lumen Christi Award,
which in Latin means, “Light of
Christ.” Sister Carolyn Kosub, Sister Emily Jocson and Sister Fatima
Santiago of the Missionary Sisters
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
came to the Rio Grande Valley 11
years ago and made the colonia of
Pueblo de Palmas, in Peñitas their
home and the focus of their work.
Through their tireless efforts they
have done amazing work and empowered a community. (See page
one and page eight.)
When I started working for
the Diocese of Brownsville 16and-a-half years ago, some of my
friends were surprised. They were
concerned my talents might be
undervalued and that I would not
have a voice in the Church. I admit
there was an adjustment, but not
the way you might think. The adjustment took the form of learning
to embrace my work as a ministry,
and more importantly learning to
listen to God’s voice and not my
own. I have also come to value
working alongside men of intellect
who respect the gifts and opinions
women offer.
I will not deny that, just as in
the secular sphere, instances exist
where some men do not esteem
a woman’s viewpoint. But I have
come to appreciate that each person, male and female, have a role
in the work of the Church. Men
and women are different, but each
created with equal dignity. They
complement each other, called
to serve, to labor together in the
vineyard.
I work with many talented and
educated women whose gifts bear
much fruit in the Church, women
who hold leadership positions in
key ministries. I have also met
countless others who contribute to
the life of their local parishes. These
women are an inspiration, and
mentors through their example of
self-giving love and their commitment to living the Gospel values.
The feminine presence in the
Church is evident as we take note
of all the women active in different roles. Each has a distinct gift to
offer. St. Therese of Lisieux reminds
us that just as there are different
flowers, we are each unique.
This month of the Rosary, I
trust Our Blessed Mother will
continue to draw us to her son and
to inspire our work in building up
the Kingdom of God alongside our
brothers.
»Family Life
Through the eyes of love
G
od sees us: who we are;
how we think; what we
do, through eyes of love.
As the divine parent, He knows us
intimately. The lyrics to the song
by Dan Schutte “Yahweh, I know
you are near,” state: “Lord, you
have searched my heart, and you
know when I sit and when I stand.
Your hand is upon me protecting
me from death, keeping me from
harm. You know my heart and its
ways, you who formed me before I
was born in the secret of darkness before I saw the sun in my
mother’s womb.”
As human parents, we see our
children and/or grandchildren
through eyes of love. We know that
they, like us are imperfect human
beings and that although we are
made “in the image and likeness of
God” (Genesis 1:26 ) we each have
our strengths and our limitations
which are usually the two sides of
the same coin: the blessing and the
curse.
As a child, I recall my mother,
Carmen Colegio Reyna delighting in what my siblings and I
would do and say. I believe she
saw us through “eyes of love” and
intuitively understood that each of
the five of us were unique in our
gifts and talents and in how we
saw the world and respected our
individuality.
From my perspective, she
parented us accordingly. I recall a
Lydia Pesina
Director, Family
Life Office
lesson I learned from her when I
was in first grade which was my
first school experience since I
did not attend Kindergarten. My
classroom teacher Mrs. Reed had
requested “goodies” from each
student for a Christmas party and
I was assigned “cookies”. At the
grocery store I insisted I wanted to
take a small box of Animal Crackers when my mother was buying a regular package of cookies
explaining that the cookies were
for sharing and not just for me.
Because I stubbornly insisted, she
let me buy and take the small box
of Animal Crackers. When I saw
what the other students had taken
to share I realized what my mother
meant. I am 60 years old and can
still remember the smirk on the
teacher and assistant teacher’s
faces. Lesson learned!
My husband Mauri and I were
childless for eleven years and then
adopted our daughter as an infant.
Being an only and much awaited
child, I know I have always seen
her through eyes of love. Growing
up she was quite precocious and
I learned how important it was to
read as much as I could on parenting to find ideas on how to best
parent and then place decisions in
prayer for the Lord to guide us.
Parenting is not a science with
predictable results but it is one
of the most important things I
believe I will do in my life. There
is a philosopher that states that a
prophet is not called to success but
to fidelity and I would say that is
true of parenting: a parent is not
called to be successful but rather
to be faithful in what and how we
teach, nurture and guide with eyes
of love and the rest is up to them.
As a grandmother, it is a joy
to see my daughter parent her
18-month-old son, Elian. It is a joy
to watch her delight in him as we
have delighted in her all her life
and as I see my mother at 90 years
of age continue to delight in all of
us. My mother still tells us stories
of what she remembers us doing as
children and also what she remembers about her grandchildren and
great grandchildren (and she just
became a great-great grandmother
recently).
Seeing others with eyes of love
does not mean that we don’t see
the faults and shortcomings but
rather that we strive to see the
potential that God has given each
us in our own unique journey of
life. I wonder if God tells stories
of how he sees each of us through
eyes of love!
The Valley Catholic
Father Amador Garza, rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del ValleNational Shrine, offers the Blessing of the Animals every year.
Blessing of the Animals
The Valley Catholic
Several churches in the Diocese of Brownsville will have the
Blessing of the Animals in honor
of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of
animals and the environment on
or around Oct. 4.
The faithful bring their dogs,
cats, fish, birds and other animals
to the church grounds for prayers,
poetry and a special blessing. All
animals are invited but should be
properly restrained.
For a complete schedule,
please visit the Diocese of Brownsville’s web site www.cdob.org
Blessing of
the Animals Prayer
“Blessed are you, Lord God,
maker of all living creatures. You
called forth fish in the sea, birds
in the air and animals on the
land. You inspired St. Francis to
call all of them his brothers and
sisters. We ask you to bless this
pet. By the power of your love,
enable it to live according to your
plan. May we always praise you
for all your beauty in creation.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, in
all your creatures!
Amen.”
»Birthday & Anniversary Wishes
The list of birthdays and ordination anniversaries is provided so that
parishioners may remember the priests, deacons and religious in their
prayers and send them a note or a card.
»
2
2
4
8
10
11
13
13
14
16
16
18
31
October
Birthdays
Rev. Marco A. Reynoso
Rev. Tony O’Conner, SM
Rev. Francisco Acosta
Rev. Robert DeLong, MSF
Rev. Cesar U. Partida
Rev. Paul Roman, FSSP
Rev. Joel Grissom, SM
Rev. Eddie Villa
Rev. Franciscus Eka Yuantoro
Rev. Edouard Atangana
Rev. Msgr. Heberto Diaz
Rev. Jean Olivier Sambu
Rev. Tomas Mateos
10 Brother Moises Lopez, MSC
11 Sister Jane F.Ambrose, SHSp
14 Sister Elizabeth Iruka,DMMM
17 Sister Gayle Hurban, SSND
5 Deacon Jesus P. Galvan
5 Deacon Sergio Garcia
6 Deacon Bruno Cedillo
6 Deacon Francisco R. Flores
13 Deacon Eduardo Ovalle
14 Deacon Ignacio R. Gonzalez
15 Deacon Eduardo Reyna
17 Deacon Guillermo Castañeda Jr.
20 Deacon David Espinoza
22 Deacon Oscar Garcia
23 Deacon Alvin H. Gerbermann
» Anniversaries
17 Rev. Luis Javier Garcia, JCL
November
» Birthdays
5 Rev. Mario Castro
9 Rev. Eduardo Gomez
10 Rev. Raju Antonisamy, OMI
16 Rev. Ruben Delgado
17 Rev. Jose J Ortiz, CO
20 Rev. Lawrence Klein
22 Rev. Luis Fernando Sanchez
23 Msgr. Agostinho Pacheco
28 Rev. Esteban Hernandez
7 Deacon Genaro Ibarra
10 Deacon Catarino Villanueva
11 Deacon Israel Sagredo
12 Deacon Juan F. Gonzalez
14 Deacon Inocencio Diaz
15 Deacon Alberto X. Chapa
20 Deacon Jesus Reyes
20 Deacon Benito Saenz
24 Deacon Juan Barbosa
28 Deacon Heriberto Solis
29 Deacon Francisco Garza
30 Deacon Graciano Rodriguez
5 Sister Colette Kraus, SSND
13 Sister Leticia Benavides, MJ
13 Sister Nancy Boushey, OSB
» Anniversaries
27 Rev. Jose Rene Angel, JCL
28 Rev. Samuel Arispe
4 Deacon George Terrazas
11 Deacon Jose Luis Mendoza
30 Deacon Reynaldo Q. Merino
OCTOBER 2014
DIOCESE
»Sunday
Readings
The Word of God in the Life
and Mission of the Church
OCTOBER 5
( Twenty-seventh Sunday in
Ordinary Time)
Reading1
IS 5:1-7
Responsorial Psalm
PS 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
Reading 2
PHIL 4:6-9
Gospel
MT 21:33-43
OCTOBER 12
(Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary
Time)
Reading 1
IS 25:6-10A
Responsorial Psalm
PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6
Reading 2
PHIL 4:12-14, 19-20
Gospel
MT 22:1-14
OCTOBER 19
(Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary
Time)
Reading 1
IS 45:1, 4-6
Responsorial Psalm
PS 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
Reading 2
1 THES 1:1-5B
Gospel
MT 22:15-21
OCTOBER 26
(Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
»Making Sense of Bioethics
The good, bad in end of life planning
P
lanning for end of life
situations is important.
We should put in place an
advance directive before our health
takes a serious turn for the worse
and we are no longer able to indicate our own wishes or make our
own decisions. Advance directives
can be of two types: living wills
and health care agents.
Bringing about a pregnancy by
intThe best approach is to choose a
health care agent (a.k.a. a “proxy”
or a “durable power of attorney
for health care”). Our agent then
makes decisions on our behalf
when we become incapacitated.
We should designate in writing
who our health care proxy will be.
The National Catholic Bioethics
Center (http://www.ncbcenter.org)
and many individual state Catholic
Conferences offer helpful forms
that can be used to designate our
proxy. Copies of our completed
health care proxy designation
forms should be shared with our
proxy, our doctors, nurse practitioners, hospice personnel, family
members and other relevant parties.
In addition to choosing a
health care proxy, some individuals may also decide to write up a
living will in which they state their
wishes regarding end of life care.
Living wills raise concerns, however, because these documents attempt to describe our wishes about
various medical situations before
those situations actually arise,
and may end up limiting choices
in unreasonable ways. Given the
breathtaking pace of medical advances, a person’s decisions today
about what care to receive or refuse
may not make sense at a later
timepoint. In the final analysis, it
Reading 1
EX 22:20-26
Responsorial Psalm
PS 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
Reading 2
1 THES 1:5C-10
Gospel
MT 22:34-40
The word of the Lord abides for ever.
This word is the Gospel which was
preached to you” (1 Pet 1:25; cf. Is
40:8).
With this assertion from the First
Letter of Saint Peter, which takes up
the words of the Prophet Isaiah, we
find ourselves before the mystery of
God, who has made himself known
through the gift of his word.
This word, which abides for ever,
entered into time. God spoke his
eternal Word humanly; his Word
“became flesh” (Jn 1:14).
This is the good news. This is the
proclamation which has come down
the centuries to us today.
Matachines
Festival
The Valley Catholic
St. Francis Cabrini Church
in Pharr is hosting its second
annual Matachines Festival on
Saturday, Nov. 15.
A procession featuring
dancers from across the diocese
will begin at 2 p.m. at Junior’s
Supermarket, located at 6501 S.
Cage Blvd. in Pharr and end at
the parish.
For more information, call
(956) 787-3554.
5
Father Tadeusz
Pacholczyk
Priest of the
Diocese of Fall
River
is impossible and unrealistic to try
to cover every medical situation
in a living will, and it is preferable
to have a proxy, a person we trust,
who can interact with the hospital
and the health care team, weigh
options in real time, and make
appropriate decisions for us as we
need it.
A new type of living will
known as a “POLST” form — a
tool for advance planning — also
raises concerns. The POLST form
(which stands for Physician Orders
for Life Sustaining Treatment)
is a document that establishes
actionable medical orders for a
patient’s healthcare. The form is
typically filled out with the help of
trained “facilitators” — usually not
physicians — who ask questions
about patients’ health care wishes,
and check boxes on the form that
correspond to their answers. The
facilitators receive training that can
lead them to paint a rather biased
picture of treatment options for
patients, emphasizing potential
negative side effects while sidestepping potential benefits or positive outcomes.
POLST forms thus raise several
significant moral concerns:
1. The approach encouraged
by the use of POLST forms may
end up skewed toward options of
non-treatment and may encourage
premature withdrawal of treat-
ments from patients who can still
benefit from them.
2. Filling out a POLST form
may preclude a proxy from exercising his or her power to protect
the rights of the patient, since the
form sets in motion actual medical
orders that a medical professional
must follow. As a set of standing
medical orders, the POLST approach is inflexible. Many POLST
forms begin with language like
this: “First follow these orders,
then contact physician or health
care provider.” Straightforwardly
following orders created outside
of a particular situation may be
ill-advised, improper and even
harmful to the patient.
3. In some states, the signature
of the patient (or his or her proxy)
is not required on the POLST.
After the form has been filled
out, it is typically forwarded to a
physician (or in some states to a
nurse practitioner or a physician’s
assistant) who is expected to sign
the form. Thus, in some states, a
POLST form could conceivably
be placed into a patient’s medical
record without the patient’s knowledge or informed consent. In a recent article about POLST forms in
the Journal of Palliative Medicine,
approximately 95% of the POLST
forms sampled from Wisconsin
were not signed by patients or by
their surrogates. Fortunately, in
some other states like Louisiana,
the patient’s signature or the signature of the proxy is mandatory for
the form to go into effect.
The implementation of a
POLST form can thus be used to
manipulate patients when they are
sick and vulnerable, and can even
» Please see Planning, p.13
Los dichos and the spiritual life
G
rowing up I often heard
my grandmother and
my mother speak with
“dichos” (Spanish proverbs). Two
have stayed with me. The first,
“Dios tarda pero no olvida.” (God
delays but he doesn’t forget.) In
other words God listens to your
prayer but may not answer right
away. “Sometimes God may take
years to answer your prayer,” my
grandmother would say. The second, “Dios aprieta pero no ahorca.”
(God squeezes but not enough to
choke you.) That was her way of
saying, “God will never give you
what you cannot handle.” In other
words with God’s help everything
is possible and he will never leave
you.
Often I would hear my grandmother and mother say, “Si Dios
quiere,” (If God wants) or “Primero Dios” (first God; let’s see what
he says). Little did I know then as
a child that their faith and their
dichos were preparing me for a
spiritual life. They were my first
catechists and my role models in
the faith.
As Catholics everything that
we do is to save our souls and to
recover the grace that was once lost
by our spiritual parents Adam and
Eve. Ultimately we are all on our
journey back home, to heaven. To
make it to heaven we are in need
of God’s grace. This is the spiritual
journey that we must all embark
upon and the only food that can
sustain us on this journey is found
at the altar at Mass every day. Jesus
Deacon
Luis Zuniga
Director, Office for
Pastoral Planning
& San Juan Diego
Ministry Institute.
in the Eucharist.
Jesus reminds us in the Gospel
of John: “A thief comes only to
steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have
life and have it more abundantly.”
(John 10:10). In the world that we
are living today, I am convinced
that the devil wants us to believe
that God doesn’t love us. In Jesus
we see how much God really loves
us, all we have to do is look at the
cross. “For God so loved the world
that he gave* his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him
might not perish but might have
eternal life.” (John 3:16).
Many people today say, “I’m
spiritual but not religious.” This
leads me to believe that there is
a disconnection with the faith or
a dissatisfaction with life. Which
is why I suspect some people distance themselves from the Church.
The sad part is that they haven’t
taken the time to know their faith
or appreciate the rich tradition of
the faith. We cannot give what we
don’t have and we cannot speak
of that which we have not experienced. If we have never been in
love then we don’t know what love
is or if we have never experienced
the death of a loved one then we
don’t know what death is. The
same can be said if we have never
been forgiven then we don’t know
the love of God.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a
Catholic writer, thinker and mystic
was a Trappist monk at Our Lady
of Gethsemani Abby in Kentucky
who once said, “We are not at
peace with others because we are
not at peace with ourselves, and
we are not at peace with ourselves
because we are not at peace with
God.”
This is what Catholic spirituality is really about, to help us
understand our relationship with
God. Even in our struggles with
everyday life God is there with us.
Ultimately we need to find peace
with ourselves and with others so
that we can be at peace with God
our loving creator.
I remember 28 years ago when
I was on retreat and heard these
powerful words, “En la vida, nada
es concidencia, todo es providencia, la mano de Dios esta en todo.”
In English it means, “In life nothing is coincidence, everything is
providence, the hand of God is in
everything.”
I pray we may live conscious
that God loves us so that we may
see the hand of God every day in
our lives and see God’s providence
in everything. Everything in our
lives is meant to be a grace for us
and we are called to be channels
of God’s grace to everyone whose
lives we touch.
Courtesy photc
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unclear if Pelagia was a real person.
»Feast Day
- Oct. 8
Spotlight on
St. Pelagia
On Oct. 8, we have the celebration of a feast which could be
for one of several women saints.
It is not known if their stories,
which come down to us from the
Desert Fathers of Egypt of the
4th and 5th centuries, are factual
or a fiction written to illustrate
and teach virtue and Christian
life.
One is inclined to believe in
Pelagia’s existence but whether
her name was Pelagia, Thais,
Margaret, Appolinaria or Theodora or some other name is not
as important as the life of this
young woman.
Regardless of the real identity
of this woman, her story shows
us God’s love and acceptance of
all peoples regardless of what
their life may have been like prior to their conversion. God’s forgiveness is not reserved for only a
few, but for all.
Pelagia, according to the
Bishop of Edessa, St. Nonnus,
was an actress from Antioch. She
was very beautiful, very wealthy
and was known to live a sexually
promiscuous life.
According to the Desert Fathers traditions, St. Nonnus was
speaking with a group of bishops
outside the basilica of St. Julian,
Martyr. While he was talking
with these bishops, Pelagia, riding on a white horse and wearing
her famous jewels and scantily
dressed like the prostitutes of her
day passed by. She was accompanied by many admirers and attendants.
St. Nonnus went on to explain that he was pleased to see
her because of God’s great lesson
to him through her. Here was a
woman who took a great deal of
time and effort to make herself
look beautiful and to practice her
dancing so as to be pleasing to
men. He went on to say, “But we
are less zealous in the care of our
dioceses and of our own souls.”
The story goes on to tell of
Pelagia being irresistibly drawn
to the Church the following day
and hearing St. Nonnus preach,
she then repented her dissolute
life and asked to be baptized. St.
Nonnus agreed.
Eight days later Pelagia is
said to have given all her property away to the poor, dressed in
men’s clothing and disappeared
from the city. Later she is said
to have made her way to Jerusalem and lived as a hermit in a
cave, coming to be known as “the
beardless monk.”
6
DIOCESE
OCTOBER 2014
Our Mother Church
Restoration of new altar complete
Photos by Cesar Riojas/The Valley Catholic
Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville,
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conceived, received a newly consecrated altar and
renovated sanctuary Sept. 15 on the feast of Our Lady of
Sorrows.
The founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate, St. Eugene de Mazenod, was present
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Grande Valley. St. Eugene’s relics were deposited in
the altar during the dedication ceremony led by Bishop
Daniel E. Flores.
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Gothic sanctuary. Bishop Flores said, “The renovation
completed in September sought to restore the
architectural and artistic integrity of the sanctuary, while
allowing for the adaptations needed for the Church’s
liturgical practice.” To see photo album visit the Catholic
Diocese of Brownsville Facebook page.
OCTOBER 2014
DIOCESE
7
»Hope in Action:
A Spotlight on Youth
Student-athlete strives
for spiritual growth
Fernando Dávila has been a
part of the Oratory School System
since Pre-K 3. He is now a junior
at the Oratory Athenaeum for
University Preparation where he
is an active member of both the
football and soccer teams — the
Ocelots.
One of his most memorable
experiences has been the year he
spent in Ireland at the Dublin Oak
Academy, a Catholic boarding
school for boys whose mission is
to form Catholic Leaders focusing
on the complete human, spiritual
and apostolic formation.
Dávila states that aside from
the breathtaking landscape of Ireland, what he appreciated most
was daily Mass celebrated with his
peers, many from Latin American
countries.
He is currently taking dual enrollment courses with South Texas
College where his favorite subject
is Math. Dávila considers math
fun!
Dávila’s various acts of charity include school fundraising for
scholarships, Pennies for Pasta
benefitting children with Leukemia, Shoes for Orphans and “Inteletón”, and a seasonal Mexican
charity that benefits children’s
hospitals.
Name: Fernando Dávila
School/ Grade: Oratory Athenaeum for University Preparation/
11th grade
How I Serve: I serve in the
altar as an acolyte and play the
guitar in the chorus at my school’s
weekly masses.
Talents/ Gifts: I enjoy playing soccer, American football and
playing the guitar.
Best Movie Ever: “Nacho Libre”
Most listened to song on my
iPod: “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis
Presley
I was really young when I first
Courtesy photo
Courtesy
Fernando Dávila, a junior at Oratory Athenaeum in Pharr, balances academics,
athletics and a strong faith life.
heard the music of Elvis, his voice,
his style, his originality, really
struck a chord.
TV show I never miss: “Prison Break”
Book I’d read again and
again: “The Alchemist”
Future Plans: Finish High
School and study at an excellent
university. Since being raised by
a family of ranchers, I’d really like
to study Agriculture. It’s in our
blood.
Meaningful quote: “Ubi concordia, ibi Victoria.” (Where there
is unity, there is the victory) - Publius Syrus.
Who has made an influence
in your life or who you admire
and why?
My parents have made a great
influence in my life. They are always there for me and they make
sure I get not always what I want,
but surely what I need. Thanks to
them, I am who I am today.
—
If you would like to nominate a
student to be featured in “Hope in
Action: A Spotlight on Youth,” please
email Angel Barrera, director of
Youth Ministry, at abarrera@cdob.
org.
Twins Daphne and Denise with their older sister, Maria. The girls need sponsors to continue their education in Mexico.
Benefactors can sponsor a child for just $15 a month.
Building a brighter future
Sponsors needed to
support education
in Nuevo Progreso
The Valley Catholic
NUEVO PROGRESO, Mexico — “Please help me send my
twin daughters to kindergarten this
school year. I can’t do it without
you. I need help. Thank you, Marina.”
That is an excerpt from just
one of the letters that Sister Maureen Crosby of the Sisters of St.
Dorothy has received from parents in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico
who need assistance to send their
children to school.
Sister Crosby enlists sponsors
from the United States and Canada to help make the dream of an
education a reality for hundreds of
poor children in Nuevo Progreso
and Estación Canelas.
“The goal of my ministry is to
see that the children get an education in order to apply for better
work positions and help change
their country for the better,” said
Sister Crosby, who has worked
in this ministry for more than 23
years. “Without an education, this
cannot be done.”
The students do not pay tuition to attend school but there
are other obstacles to obtaining an
education. They are charged for
uniforms, registration fees, exams,
lunches and even toilet paper and
drinking water. Other students
will not attend school due to a lack
of personal hygiene products and
undergarments. The ministry also
provides those items for the students who need them.
Several of the students who
have received assistance from the
program have gone on to attend
university.
The waiting list of students
needing a sponsor is currently
very long. Sister Crosby is asking
families to please consider spon-
soring a student.
“I am looking and praying
to receive more sponsors, generous people like yourselves,” Sister
Crosby said. “If they are in need
and show promise, we accept
them.”
Sponsors receive a photo of
the student, grades and notes and
may correspond with the student
by mail.
The students who receive assistance are monitored for grades
and attendance. All the money
goes directly for the child’s education. The program is a non-profit
organization and is operated by
volunteers.
The fee is $180.00 annually and can be paid in monthly
installments as low as $15.00
monthly. This will put one child
through school for one academic
year. For more information, call
(956) 787-8571 from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., Monday through Friday or
email Sister Crosby at mcrosby@
cdob.org
Catholic school educators honored
Educators were honored for
their milestone years of service
to Catholic education in the Diocese of Brownsville at the annual
Eucharistic Celebration/Diocesan Teacher Inservice held on
Aug. 29 at Our Lady of Sorrows
Church in McAllen.
5 YEARS
St. Joseph Academy (Brownsville): Anabel Aldrete, David Bonnet,
Rose Champion, Gus Zavaletta, Jr.
Oratory Schools (Pharr): Jesus
Barrientos, Martha Duran, Cecilia
Garcia, Maribel Garcia, Patricio Garcia, Nalda Gonzalez, Ismelda Moroles, Cynthia Urbina, Catalina Faz
St. Joseph School (Edinburg):
Aimee Closner
Incarnate
Word
Academy
(Brownsville): Sonia I. Khamo
Guadalupe
Middle
School
(Brownsville): Dandy Pilon
San Martin de Porres School
(Weslaco): Susan Garcia, Natividad
Ramirez
Immaculate Conception School
(Rio Grande City): Pamela Reyes,
Mitchelle Rodriguez
Our Lady of Guadalupe School
(Mission): Sister Colleen Matarese,
SSD, Ana Torres
Our Lady of Sorrows School
(McAllen): Jesus Lopez
10 YEARS
St. Joseph Academy (Brownsville): Rene Lerma, Monica Leyendecker, Lupita Montoya, Christian
Putegnat, Pamela Quantz
Oratory Schools (Pharr): Elizabeth Shuttlesworth
St. Joseph School (Edinburg):
Estela Peralez
Incarnate
Word
Academy
(Brownsville): Reynaldo Garza,
Margaret Mendoza, Sister Marilyn
Springs, IWBS, Alicia Trevino
San Martin de Porres School
(Weslaco): Sheila Vemu
Immaculate Conception School
(Rio Grande City): Gilberto Martinez,
Cresencio Rivas
St. Mary School (Brownsville):
Leticia Silva
(McAllen): Yvonne Arizpe, Denia De
Los Reyes, Frances Fabela, Martha
Finn, Martha Jarvis, Sylvia Pedroza
15 YEARS
(McAllen): Liz Camarena, Melissa
Cuevas, Hugo De La Rosa, Noemi
Peralez, Jessica Ramirez
Juan Diego Academy (Mission):
Robert J. Schmidt
St. Joseph Academy (Brownsville): Christine Gloor
Oratory Schools (Pharr): Gloria
Irma Ceballos, Juliana Ruiz Aguilar
20 YEARS
St. Luke School (Brownsville):
Rosie Ruiz, Elma Wood
Incarnate
Word
Academy
(Brownsville): Jose Antonio Davila
Oratory Schools (Pharr): Rev.
Jose E. Losoya, C.O.
Juan Diego Academy (Mission):
Sister Marcella Ewers, D.C.
Blanca Chavez, Maricela Sanchez,
Leonor Zamora
Our Lady of Guadalupe School
(Mission): Diana Olivarez
25 YEARS
Incarnate
Word
Academy
(Brownsville): Sister Irma Gonzalez,
IWBS, Enedelia R. Varela
(McAllen): Mary Gonzalez, Velma
Gonzalez
Maria Dolores Ongaro
30 YEARS
St. Joseph Academy (Brownsville): Brother Francis Garza, FMS
(McAllen): Luis Abraham
60 YEARS
St. Joseph Academy (Brownsville): Brother Paul Phillip, FMS
8
DIOCESE
OCTOBER 2014
Bringing hope to the colonias
Three missionary Sisters who empowered a community
Courtesy Photos
Since 2004, the sisters have worked tirelessly
to listen to the residents, establish trust and
meet their most basic needs. They created
Proyecto Desarrollo Humano (the Project for
Human Development), an outreach center
dedicated to health, social services, education
DQGHYDQJHOL]DWLRQ,QWKH\EXLOW6W$QQH
Church. To learn more about their work visit
www.catholicextension.org or www.cdob.org.
OCTOBER 2014
DIOCESE
Those Who Serve:
9
Father Oliver Angel, JCL
Priest responds to a need in our diocese
Judicial vicar gives
insight on his call
to study canon law
By ROSE YBARRA
The Valley Catholic
MISSION — “As a seminarian,
if you would have asked me to
make a Top 10 list of what advanced
degree I wanted to pursue, canon
law would have been my 11th
choice,” said Father Oliver Angel,
who has served as pastor of Our
Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in
Mission for seven years. “I found
canon law boring.”
In discussions with thenBishop Raymundo J. Peña, however,
he learned that the Diocese of
Brownsville had an urgent need for
canon lawyers. After much prayer
and discernment, Father Angel
answered that call.
He enrolled in the Catholic
University
of
America
in
Washington, D.C. to study canon
law.
“We reviewed and discussed
interesting case studies on the first
day of class,” he said. “After that, I
was singing a different tune. I was
fascinated.”
Today, Father Angel, 43, is the
judicial vicar for both the Diocese
of Brownsville and the Diocese of
Laredo.
“To my knowledge, he is the
only judicial vicar serving in two
dioceses in the United States,”
said Father Jose Rene Angel, who
is Father Oliver Angel’s older
brother. He is also the pastor of
Resurrection Church and a canon
lawyer, serving as adjutant judicial
vicar for the diocese. “Father
Oliver was asked to join the faculty
at Catholic University but declined
so he could honor his commitment
to the Diocese of Brownsville.”
The bishop or archbishop
of every diocese/archdiocese is
obliged by canon law to appoint
a judicial vicar. The judicial vicar
oversees the tribunal or court for
the local Church. The tribunal
handles marriage cases (i.e.,
petitions for annulment) and other
matters governed by canon law.
“The greatest reward, especially
with marriage cases, is helping
people,” Father Oliver Angel said.
“The annulment process helps
them to heal their hurts and move
on with their lives.”
The third of five boys, Father
Oliver Angel was born and raised
in León in the Mexican state of
Guanajuato in a spiritual and pious
family that holds dear their faith
and the right to worship openly
and freely.
His great-grandfather was
killed in Mexico during the
Cristero War (1926-1929) for
being a member of the Knights of
Columbus and his death has had
a deep and lasting legacy on the
The Valley Catholic
Above, Father Oliver
Angel accepts a lapel
pin for attorneys
from Bishop Daniel
E. Flores at the 2013
Red Mass. Right,
Father Oliver Angel
extends his hand in
prayer at the 2013
Chrism Mass.
family.
Father Oliver Angel said his
religious upbringing and his older
brother inspired him to become
a priest. He entered a junior
seminary at the age of 12.
Father Oliver Angel was
originally in formation for a
religious community in Mexico
but in the seminary, he felt called
to the diocesan priesthood.
Before he could arrange a
meeting to discuss his change of
heart with his archbishop in León,
he and several other seminarians
were invited by Bishop Peña to
come and see the Diocese of
Brownsville for a week.
“I didn’t even know where
Brownsville was,” Father Oliver
Angel said. “I decided to go
anyway, thinking, ‘I can always go
and take a nice paid vacation for
one week in the U.S. and see how it
works and have fun.’
“Bottom line, I visited the
Valley, I loved it and I stayed.”
After living in metropolitan
areas all his life, he welcomed the
slower pace of South Texas.
“I was kind of saturated with
big city life,” Father Oliver Angel
said. “I liked all the little towns in
the Valley. All the communities
were all very welcoming.”
He was ordained to the
priesthood by Bishop Peña at the
Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan
del Valle-National Shrine on May
26, 2001.
In additional to his many
years of service to the diocesan
tribunal, Father Oliver Angel has
also served in parish ministry at
Resurrection Church in Alamo,
St. Benedict Church in San Benito
and San Martin de Porres Church
in Weslaco.
10
IN THE NEWS
Judges: Deporting children
can be a death sentence
Catholic News Agency/EWTN
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
Many U.S. immigration cases are
effectively life-or-death trials, and
the Justice Department should
not be fast-tracking deportation
hearings for child migrants, said
federal judges at a talk in Washington, D.C.
“We deal with cases which are
often in effect death penalty cases,
situations where if the person is
removed from the United States,
they may be killed upon return
to their country,” said Judge Dana
Leigh Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration
Judges.
The U.S. Justice Department
recently began moving child migrant cases to the front of the immigration court dockets to help
address the surge in unaccompanied children crossing the border.
Judge Marks criticized the policy,
which speeds up deportation proceedings, saying that the cases
need special attention and “more
time.”
Catholic bishops have already
argued that child migrants face a
dire situation if they are deported,
and must have due process.
More than 40 percent of immigrants at hearings in fiscal year
2013 did not have an attorney, said
Judge Marks. This, combined with
the Justice Department’s policy
of fast-tracking the deportation
hearings of child migrants, puts
the children at a disadvantage.
“Our domestic law and international law have long recognized
that children are different. They
are a vulnerable population who
needs special protections,” Marks
argued.
“You need more time in order
to gain the trust and confidence
of a child who is in a scary situation when they come to court.
They need to be re-united with
family members and with responsible adults who can help them to
locate counsel.”
“This is not an amusement
park where you can fast-pass removal proceedings,” said Judge
Denise Noonan Slavin, executive
vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.
Judge Marks added that the
fast-tracking policy puts “subtle
pressures” on judges who are already overtaxed by their workload.
“I can honestly say that I have,
in the 27 years that I have been an
immigration judge, never been
told what the ultimate outcome
should be in a case. However,
there are subtle pressures when
you know that you are supposed
to do the case as quickly as possible,” she explained.
The number of pending immigrant cases is at 375,000, “the
highest it’s ever been,” Marks
stated.
The fast-tracking of child migrant cases also means that the
children often have their deportation hearings before their parents,
who have been in the country
longer.
“If the child is coming here
to be with his parents who are already in the court’s docket,” Judge
Slavin said, “it doesn’t make any
sense to hear the child’s case first.
It makes more sense to hear the
parent’s case first rather than send
them to the back of our line 15-18
months out while the child’s case
is heard.”
OCTOBER 2014
Paul Harring/CNS photo
Pope Francis walks
through the AustroHungarian cemetery for
soldiers of World War I in
Fogliano di Redipuglia,
Italy, Sept. 13. The pope
prayed for the fallen of all
wars and also celebrated
an outdoor Mass in front
of the nearby Redipuglia
war memorial, which
honors the 100,000
Italian soldiers who died
during World War I. .
‘War is madness’
Pope asks us to pray
that hearts will be
transformed
By CAROL GLATZ
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — When will
people ever learn that war is madness and conflicts are only resolved
by forgiveness, Pope Francis asked.
The pope said it is believed that
more than 8 million soldiers and 7
million civilians died during World
War I — a four-year-long conflict
that began 100 years ago.
The number of so many lost
lives “lets us see how much war is
insanity,” Pope Francis said after
praying the Angelus with those
gathered in St. Peter’s Square Sept.
14, the feast of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross.
“When will we learn this lesson?” he asked, telling people to
look at the crucified Christ “to
understand that hatred and evil
are defeated with forgiveness and
good, and to understand that responding with war only augments
evil and death.”
The pope’s remarks came the
day after a morning visit to Italy’s
largest war memorial —Redipuglia, a town in northeast Italy near
the border with Slovenia. Giovanni
Bergoglio, the pope’s Italian grandfather who later immigrated to
Argentina, fought nearby during
the Italian campaign against the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The memorial made of enormous stone steps leading to three
bronze crosses pays homage to
more than 100,000 Italian soldiers,
while a nearby military cemetery
is the final resting place for some
15,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers
— all of whom lost their lives in
nearby battlefields. The pope laid
a floral wreath at the cemetery, celebrated Mass at the memorial, and
prayed for all victims of all wars.
The gorgeous landscape used to
be a place where men and women
worked hard to raise their families,
children played and the elderly
daydreamed, he said in his homily.
Instead of safeguarding God’s
creation, especially his “most
beautiful of all, the human being,”
people have set about destroying it
through war, he said.
“Greed, intolerance, a lust for
power, these are the reasons that
incite decisions to go to war,” he
said.
Also, “behind the scenes, there
are special interests, geopolitical
plots, lust for money,” he said, as
well as the powerful arms industry.
But the most shocking aspect
of so much bloodshed is the continued legacy of indifference, the
pope said. Being indifferent began
with Cain murdering his brother
Abel and then rebuking God for
asking where his now dead brother
was, replying, “Am I my brother’s
keeper?”
Above the tombs of so many
dead, Pope Francis said, “hovers
the sneering motto of war” -- Cain’s
complaint of “What do I care?”
“All these people, here in
eternal rest, they had plans, had
dreams, but their lives were broken. Why? Because humanity said,
‘What do I care?’”
Today the world is still up in
arms with a kind of “World War
III (waged) ‘in bits and pieces’ with
criminal acts, massacres and destruction,” he said.
“To be honest, the newspaper
front page should have the headline: ‘What do I care?’”
Those who plot terror, organizations fueling conflict, as well
as arms manufacturers, all have
‘What do I care’ engraved in their
hearts,” he said.
Oratorian priest to be canonized
Blessed Vaz posed
as poor laborer to
evangelize Sri Lanka
By CAROL GLATZ
VATICAN CITY — Pope
Francis accelerated the sainthood
process of Blessed Joseph Vaz, an
Indian missionary and Oratorian
priest credited with reviving almost single-handedly the Catholic
Church in Sri Lanka during severe
persecution by Dutch colonial authorities in the 17th century.
Pope Francis moved the sainthood process forward without formally recognizing a miracle needed
for the canonization of Blessed Vaz,
a 17th-century Oratorian missionary from Goa, India, known as the
“apostle of Sri Lanka.”
The dates for the canonizations of Blesseds Vaz was to be announced during a yet-unscheduled
ordinary consistory.
Courtesy photo
An image of Blessed Joseph Vaz, an
Oratorian priest who is expected to be
canonized in 2015.
St. John Paul II beatified
Blessed Vaz during his first trip to
Sri Lanka in January 1995. Pope
Francis was scheduled to visit Sri
Lanka, together with India, 20
years later, this January.
“January 2015 marks 500 years
of the birth of St Philip Neri, so the
canonization of our brother will be
a perfect start for this Jubilee year,”
said Father Mario Avilés, procurator general of the Confederation of
the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.
Blessed Vaz, born in India in
1651, entered Sri Lanka in 1687
disguised as a poor laborer in order to minister to the underground
church.
At the time, the Dutch had
taken control of Sri Lanka’s coastal
areas from the Portuguese. Fearing
the island’s Catholics might remain
loyal to the Portuguese, the Dutch
made Catholicism illegal, banished
Catholic priests and confiscated
Catholic churches and schools.
Aided by lay leaders, Blessed
Vaz often went barefoot, with a rosary round his neck, ministering to
and organizing Catholics throughout the island where the church
had had no priests for over three
decades. He was the lone Catholic pastor of Sri Lanka until other
priests joined him in 1697 at his
request.
Surviving two years in prison
for being a suspected Portuguese
spy, Blessed Vaz was then given
permission to work as a missionary
in the Sinhalese kingdom of Kandy
until his death in 1711.
OCTUBRE 2014
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL 11
Eric Sánchez/
The Valley Catholic
‘Me decidí a aceptar a Jesus’
&YJNÈOIPZFT
predicador católico
en la India
ACI Prensa/EWTN Noticias
ROMA — Mario Joseph era
imán musulmán y tras convertirse
al cristianismo afirma que Dios lo
protegió de las amenazas de muerte
y tortura por parte de su propia familia.
El ex imán compartió su testimonio de conversión y posterior
persecución al programa Changing Tracks, transmitido por la Fundación E.U.K Mamie dirigida por
la comunidad religiosa Hogar de la
Madre.
Mario Joseph creció en la India
en una familia musulmana. Inscrito
a temprana edad en un colegio musulmán en Kerala, estudió filosofía
y teología durante 10 años. Se convirtió en imán antes de los 18 años.
Después de que una persona
le preguntara quién era Jesús, Mario comenzó a investigar sobre el
cristianismo. Estudiando el Corán,
se dio cuenta de que el nombre
de Jesús se menciona con mayor
frecuencia que el nombre de Mahoma. Asimismo, María, conocida
en árabe como Mariam, era la única
mujer mencionada por su nombre
en el Corán. En el Islam, María es
reconocida como una virgen perpetua que fue concebida sin pecado.
El Corán describe a Jesús como
la “Palabra de Dios” y el “Espíritu
de Dios”. Dice que Jesús sanó a los
enfermos, devolvió la vida a los
muertos y se subió vivo al cielo. No
atribuye nada de eso al Profeta Mahoma.
Cortesía
Mario Joseph, el ex imán que se convirtió
al cristianismo asegura que Jesús lo libró
de morir a manos de su padre.
Asimismo, Mario Joseph comenzó a ver a Dios como padre,
algo que también enseña el cristianismo. “Cada vez que pienso que el
creador del universo es mi papá,
tengo una especie de alegría que no
puedo expresar”, dijo en la entrevista.
Con esta motivación, explicó,
“me decidí a aceptar a Jesús”.
Sin embargo, esta conversión
provocó una violenta reacción de su
familia. Cuando su padre lo encontró en una casa de retiro católica,
lo golpeó gravemente hasta perder
el conocimiento. Cuando despertó,
se encontraba desnudo en una
pequeña habitación de su casa. Sus
brazos y piernas estaban atados y
había pimiento picante en su boca
y heridas.
Mario Joseph dijo que su padre estaba obedeciendo la ley del
Corán, que castiga a los que abandonan el Islam. Fue privado de
comida y agua por varios días y su
hermano lo obligó a beber orina
como castigo.
Después de 20 días su padre entró en la celda y lo amenazó con un
cuchillo a menos que renunciara a
Jesús.
“Cuando supe que era mi último momento... pensé, ‘Jesús murió, pero regresó. Si yo creo en Jesús
y muero, también recuperaré mi
vida’”.
En este momento se sintió lleno
de energía, tiró de la mano de su padre y gritó el nombre de Jesús.
Su padre se cayó y se cortó severamente con su propio cuchillo.
Cuando los familiares llevaron a su
padre al hospital olvidaron cerrar la
habitación.
El joven salió corriendo y cogió
un taxi. El conductor era cristiano y
le ayudó a conseguir comida y bebida.
“Ese día, realmente entendí que
mi Jesús está vivo, incluso ahora.
Cuando lo llamé, él me salvó”.
En la actualidad, Mario Joseph
vive en una casa de retiro católica
en la India, en donde realiza conferencias en diferentes idiomas.
Tomó el nombre de “Mario”,
versión masculina de María en italiano, y el de Joseph, por el esposo
de María.
Mario Joseph confesó que no
esperaba estar vivo después de su
conversión a los 18 años. Hay personas que aún buscan matarlo y sus
padres celebraron una ceremonia
fúnebre para significar que él era
un paria. En una tumba marcaron
como fecha de muerte la de su bautismo.
A pesar de que no ha tenido
contacto con los miembros de su
familia, Mario reza por ellos. Incluso si nunca aceptan el cristianismo,
explicó Mario, “Yo siempre digo
‘Jesús, llévalos al cielo’”.
Una imagen de la Virgen
del Rosario en la nueva
Iglesia Nuestra Señora
del Rosario en Mission.
Cuenta la leyenda que
la Virgen se apareció en
1208 a Santo Domingo
de Guzmán en una
capilla del monasterio
de Prouilhe (Francia)
con un rosario en las
manos, le enseñó a
rezarlo y le dijo que
lo predicara entre los
hombres;
además,
le ofreció diferentes
promesas referentes al
rosario.
'JFTUBEFMB7JSHFOEFM3PTBSJP
ACI Prensa/EWTN Noticias
Su fiesta fue instituida por el
Papa san Pío V el 7 de Octubre,
aniversario de la victoria obtenida
por los cristianos en la Batalla naval de Lepanto (1571), atribuida a
la Madre de Dios, invocada por la
oración del rosario. La celebración
de este día es una invitación para
todos a meditar los misterios de
Cristo, en compañía de la Virgen
María, que estuvo asociada de un
modo especialísimo a la encarnación, la pasión y la gloria de la
resurrección del Hijo de Dios.
Desde el principio de la Iglesia, los cristianos rezan los salmos
como lo hacen los judíos. Más tarde, en muchos de los monasterios
se rezan los 150 salmos cada día.
Los laicos devotos no podían rezar tanto pero querían según sus
posibilidades imitar a los monjes.
Ya en el siglo IX había en Irlanda
la costumbre de hacer nudos en
un cordel para contar, en vez de
los salmos, las Ave Marias. Los
misioneros de Irlanda más tarde
propagaron la costumbre en Europa y hubieron varios desarrollos
con el tiempo.
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL
12
» La Alegría de Vivir
»Vida Familiar
Deportacion inmediata de
menores…No es solución!
E
l senador republicano de
Texas, John Cornyn y el
representante de cámara
Henry Cuellar, un demócrata,
han propuesto una enmienda
o reforma a la ley que existe en
cuanto a la deportación de menores de edad que se encuentran
detenidos por las autoridades de
en forzamiento y control de fronteras (ICE como corresponde a
sus siglas en ingles) con lo cual se
aceleraría el proceso de remoción
de dichos infantes y jovencitos de
nuestro país y de vuelta a su país
de origen.
El gran problema que tiene
el sistema actual es la falta de
suficientes jueces en las cortes migratorias para escuchar cada caso
y decidir si el menor tiene alguna
oportunidad de permanecer legalmente en nuestro país acogiéndose a las leyes de asilo, o siendo
reclamado por un familiar directo
que ya viva legalmente aquí.
Los señores Cornyn y Cuellar proponen que en un plazo
de 3 días una corte decida si un
menor tiene elementos suficientes
para presentar un caso o si debe
regresarse a su país de origen
inmediatamente. Es una propuesta interesante, pero difícil que
se pueda llevar a cabo inmediatamente, sobre todo si hay un
tremendo rezago, de años, en las
cortes migratorias con los casos
que ya tienen, pues hay escases de
jueces ya que no hay partidas de
gastos autorizadas para contratar
más, además quienes serán los
encargados de representar a esos
menores, pues ciertamente si
un juez decidirá algo en su caso
tendría que escuchar argumentos
y lo justo es que sean hechos por
un abogado que sepa de leyes de
inmigración y que tenga como
prioridad lo mejor para ese
menor y no lo rápido que puede
ayudar a nuestro gobierno federal
a deshacerse del problema.
Otro gran punto a considerar
es a quién serán entregados esos
menores en custodia una vez
que lleguen a su país de origen,
cuando se detienen menores
mexicanos se les turna a las autoridades de protección al menor
de nuestro país vecino, es todo
un sistema implementado para
proteger al menor en situación de
orfandad, o riesgo por violencia
intrafamiliar, pero cuando los
YouthBLAST,
continued from pg. 1
istry as a good option instead of
getting involved with gangs or doing drugs, but it’s not the mission
of youth ministry today. We’re not
babysitting, we’re providing an experience of God and Church for
the young people and their families.”
Bishop Daniel E. Flores will
serve as the keynote speaker and
celebrate Mass at YouthBLAST.
Other presenters include missionary Ennnie Hickman, who
has traveled the United States and
abroad for nearly two decades and
Christian singer/songwriter David Moore.
As a host of the summer con-
OCTUBRE 2014
Msgr. Juan
Nicolau
Sacerdote jubilado
de la Diócesis de
Brownsville
menores son OTM (como los clasifican las autoridades fronterizas
abreviando la expresión en inglés
“other than mexican” o sea provenientes de cualquier otro país
distinto a México) las autoridades
no tienen una respuesta pues no
todos los países tienen organizadas instituciones de protección al
menor con instalaciones donde
puedan recibirlos mientras buscan a sus familiares, en muchos
casos los padres se encuentran en
nuestro país, y no es fácil contactar a quienes podrían ocuparse de
la tutela de esos menores una vez
llegados a su país de origen.
Además, ¿qué información
será usada para ubicar dichos
sujetos que se hagan responsables
de los menores deportados? Si
todo lo que se tiene es la información que pueda proporcionar
el menor, quien asegura que no
mentirán con tal de no regresar a
aquel sitio tan peligroso de donde
vienen huyendo, o que los datos
que proporciones no los han dado
bajo cohesión.
En buena consciencia, ¿quién
puede regresar a una creatura a
un lugar donde se sospecha que
pueden maltratarlo o puedan
traficar con el por estar en una
situación tan vulnerable?
El gobierno federal está
tratando de responder de una
manera justa y humana al tratar
de acondicionar albergues temporales en distintos estados de la
unión americana para resolver
este problema, pero la respuesta
de ciertos grupos protestando e
incluso bloqueando las propuestas del gobierno en cuanto a los
lugares donde se les dará alberge
a estos menores dan pena ajena,
dejan ver el racismo, la intolerancia y la ignorancia que existe en
nuestra sociedad.
—
Mons. Juan Nicolau, Ph.D. STL es
un sacerdote jubilado de la Diócesis de Brownsville. Es psicoterapeuta familiar y consejero profesional
con licencias.
ferences in Steubenville and as a
missionary with Adore Ministries,
Hickman has helped transform
thousands of lives. He is currently
working to expand his apostolate
to the under-served families and
young adults in Houston, where
he lives with his wife, Cana, and
their six children.
Moore, who was the founder
and lead singer of the band The
Glory Estate, has written many
songs that have been played on
Christian Radio stations. Moore
currently resides at St. Thomas
More Catholic Church and the
Newman Catholic Center in Corpus Christi.
For more information on
YouthBLAST, please contact
Monica Benitez at (956) 784-5036
or visit http://www.cdobym.org/
youthblast
Con ojos de amor
D
ios nos ve: quienes
somos; cómo pensamos;
qué hacemos, a través
de ojos de amor. Como el padre
divino, Él nos conoce íntimamente. La letra a la canción de Dan
Schutte “Yahveh, sé que estás
cerca,” dice: “Señor, has buscado
mi corazón, y sabes cuándo me
siento y cuando estoy de pie. Tu
mano está sobre mí protegiéndome de la muerte, guardándome del peligro. Tú conoces mi
corazón y sus caminos, tu quien
me formó antes de haber nacido
en el secreto de la oscuridad antes
de haber visto el sol en el vientre
de mi madre.”
Como padres humanos,
vemos a nuestros hijos y/o nietos
a con ojos del amor. Sabemos que
ellos como nosotros son humanos imperfectos y que aunque
fuimos concebidos “en imagen
y semejanza de Dios” (Génesis
1:26) cada uno tenemos nuestras
destrezas y nuestras limitaciones
las cuales usualmente son las dos
caras de la misma moneda: la
bendición y la maldición.
De niña, recuerdo a mi
madre, Carmen Colegio Reyna
disfrutando de lo que mis hermanos y yo hacíamos y decíamos. Yo
creo que nos veía a través de “ojos
de amor” y entendía intuitivamente que cada uno de nosotros
cinco éramos únicos en cuanto
a nuestros regalos y talentos y en
cómo veíamos el mundo y respetaba nuestra individualidad.
Lydia Pesina
Directora, Oficina
de Vida Familiar
Desde mi perspectiva, ella nos
educó bien. Recuerdo una lección
que aprendí de ella cuando estaba
en primer grado, la cual fue mi
primer experiencia escolar ya que
no asistí al pre-escolar. Mi maestra la Sra. Reed había encargado
“golosinas” de cada estudiante
para una fiesta Navideña y a mí
me encargaron las galletas. En
el supermercado yo insistí en
que quería una pequeña caja de
galletas de animalitos cuando
mi madre compraba un paquete
regular de galletas explicando que
las galletas eran para compartir y no sólo para mí. Debido a
que fui muy insistente, ella me
dejó comprar la pequeña caja
de galletas. Cuando vi lo que los
otros estudiantes habían llevado
me di cuenta lo que mi madre
quiso decir. Tengo 60 años y aún
recuerdo la mueca de la maestra y
la asistente. ¡Lección aprendida!
Mi esposo Mauri y yo no
tuvimos hijos por once años y
después adoptamos nuestra hija
de pequeña. Al ser hija única y
muy deseada, yo sé que siempre
la he visto con ojos de amor.
Mientras crecía ella fue muy
precoz y aprendí lo importante de
leer todo lo posible sobre la crianza para encontrar ideas sobre
cómo ser buen padre y así hacer
decisiones con oración para que
el Señor nos guiara.
Ser padre no es una ciencia
con resultados predecibles pero
es una de las cosas más importantes que haré en mi vida. Hay
un filósofo que dice que el profeta
no es llamado a ser exitoso sino
a la fidelidad y yo diría que lo
mismo es cierto para la crianza:
un padre no es llamado a ser
exitoso sino a ser fieles en qué
y cómo enseñamos, nutrimos y
guiamos con ojos de amor, y el
resto está en ellos.
Como abuela, es una dicha
ver a mi hija criar a su hijo de 18
meses, Elián. Es una dicha mirarla disfrutarlo como nosotros la
hemos disfrutado toda su vida y
como veo a mi madre de 90 años
seguir disfrutándonos. Mi madre
aún nos cuenta historias de lo que
recuerda qué hacíamos de niños
y también lo que recuerda de sus
nietos y bisnietos (ella acaba de
convertirse en tatarabuela recientemente).
Ver a otros con ojos de amor
no significa que no vemos sus
faltas y carencias sino que nos
esforzamos para ver el potencial
que Dios nos ha dado en nuestro
propio y único camino de vida.
¡Me pregunto si Dios cuenta
historias de cómo nos ve a través
de los ojos del amor!
OCTUBRE 2014
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL 13
Papa: El amor de Cristo puede sostener matrimonios
Inspira en los 20
nuevos matrimonios
un proyecto solidario
Por FRANCIS X. ROCCA
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO —
Presidiendo la boda de 20 parejas
en la Basílica de San Pedro, el papa
Francisco celebró el matrimonio
como la unión de un hombre y
una mujer teniendo roles complementarios durante su viaje en
común por la vida.
“Esto es de lo que se trata el matrimonio: hombre y mujer caminando juntos, donde el esposo ayuda a su esposa a ser cada día mejor
mujer y donde la mujer tiene la tarea de ayudar a su esposo a ser cada
día mejor hombre”, dijo el papa el
14 de septiembre. “Aquí vemos la
Holy Rosary
view of the church also features a
silhouette of Mary.
The plan itself is an eight-sided
polygon, which allows the faithful
to be at an equal distance from the
altar, Molina added.
The overall exterior height of
the altar area is 77 feet to the top
of the cross.
“When we pray, earth mingles
with heaven,” Father Angel said.
“We wanted to reflect that in our
new church.”
The stained glass windows include 12 installations featuring the
apostles of Jesus. Other features include a new tabernacle and a statue
of St. Joseph from Spain and a rep-
Planning
lead to mandated orders for nontreatment in a way that constitutes
euthanasia. The POLST template
represents a fundamentally flawed
approach to end of life planning,
relying at its core on potentially
inappropriate medical orders and
dubious approaches to obtaining
patient consent.
Notwithstanding the pressure
that may be brought to bear on a
patient, no one is required to agree
to the implementation of a POLST
reciprocidad de las diferencias”.
El papa habló durante una Misa
matrimonial para parejas de la
Diócesis de Roma.
En su típico estilo franco, el
papa Francisco admitió que la vida
matrimonial puede ser agotadora,
“pesada y a menudo hasta nauseabunda”.
Pero el papa les aseguró a las
novias y a los novios que el sacrificio redentor de Cristo les permitiría resistir la “peligrosa tentación del desánimo, la infidelidad,
la debilidad, el abandono”.
“El amor de Cristo, que ha bendecido y santificado la unión de
esposo y esposa, puede sostener el
amor de ellos y renovarlo cuando,
humanamente hablando, se torna
perdido, herido o gastado”, él dijo.
El papa Francisco también
ofreció consejos prácticos para atender la discordia marital.
“Es normal que los esposos
y esposas argumenten”, él dijo.
“Siempre pasa. Pero mi consejo es
este: nunca dejen que termine el día
sin haber hecho las paces. Nunca.
Un pequeño gesto es suficiente. Así
el viaje puede continuar”.
Los recién casados tienen
edades entre 25 y 56 años y representaban una variedad de situaciones, con algunos ya teniendo hijos
o habiendo vivido juntos antes del
matrimonio.
La cohabitación, aunque no es
impedimento canónico para el matrimonio, va en contra de la enseñanza de la Iglesia Católica sobre el
matrimonio y el amor sexual.
Como un regalo de agradecimiento al papa, las parejas contribuyeron conjuntamente a un
centro educativo y recreativo para
jóvenes desaventajados que ha de
ser establecido por la rama local
de Caritas en un vecindario suburbano de Roma.
lica of the image of Our Lady of
Guadalupe from Mexico City.
The altar and baptismal font
are monolithic – formed out of one
single piece of stone – a tradition
that dates back to classical Roman
and Judaic times.
Some pieces, including a statue
of Our Lady of Holy Rosary, were
moved from the old church to the
new one.
The community hopes to
convert the old church into a columbarium, a facility used for internment of urns with cremated
remains. Cremation of human remains was prohibited for much of
the history of the Church but today,
it is not only allowed, but growing
in popularity among the faithful.
Discussions to build a new
church began in 2009 as most of
the weekend Masses in the old
church, which was built in 1951 as
a mission church of Our Lady of
Guadalupe Parish, had overflow
crowds.
form. Patients are free to decline to
answer POLST questions from a
facilitator, and should not hesitate
to let it be known that they instead
plan to rely on their proxy for end
of life decision making, and intend
to discuss their healthcare options
uniquely with their attending
physician.
—
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of
the diocese of Fall River, MA, and
serves as the Director of Education
at The National Catholic Bioethics
Center in Philadelphia.
Paul Harring/CNS photo
(OSDSDRÀFLyHO
14 de septiembre
los primeros
matrimonios de su
SRQWLÀFDGRDOFDVDU
a veinte parejas a
las que recordó que
esta institución
es un “símbolo de
vida real, no es una
novela.”
Most of the funds to construct
the new sanctuary were raised
through parish festivals and raffles.
The total cost of the church
building was $1,796,060.00, with
85 percent of the amount paid, Father Angel said.
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary
Church offers seven Masses every
weekend.
14
DIOCESE
Bishop Flores visits Central America
“Children are literally forced to move drugs within the country or face death if they refuse.”
Photos courtesy of Bishop Daniel E. Flores
Bishop Daniel E. Flores, who serves on the
board of Catholic Relief Services, visited
Central America Aug. 24-28 to learn more
about the migration of so many children
from Honduras and Guatemala to the
United States.
He said, “The families we met reminded
us all that the greatest resource in a
country is the hope present within its
people.”
To read more about his journey visit
the bishop’s blog (En Pocas Palabras KWWSELVKRSÁRUHVEORJVSRWFRP
OCTOBER 2014
Latest priest
assignments
The Valley Catholic
Effective Sept. 1
Rev. Daniel Herve Oyama,
appointed Temporary Priest in
Charge of San Pedro Mission in
San Pedro while continuing as
Chaplain at Valley Baptist Health
Systems and Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville
Effective Sept. 4
Very Rev. Oliver Angel, JCL, reelected Member of the Presbyteral
Council for the Mission Deanery
Rev. Jose Rene Angel, JCL,
elected Member of the Presbyteral
Council for the Pharr Deanery
Rev. Esteban Hernandez,
elected Member of the Presbyteral
Council for the Weslaco Deanery
Rev. Jose M. Villalon, Jr., elected
Member of the Presbyteral Council
for the San Benito Deanery
Rev. Joaquin Zermeño, elected
Member of the Presbyteral Council
for the Rio Grande City Deanery
Effective Sept. 5
Rev. Edouard Atangana, STL,
appointed Interim Director of the
Diaconate Formation Program, retaining all other assignments
Rev. Artemio Jacob, appointed
Temporary Parish Administrator
of Sacred Heart Parish in Escobares and its missions Our Lady
of Guadalupe in El Sauz and Santa
Rosa de Lima in Rosita
Effective Sept. 17
Rev. Arturo Cardenas, appointed Parochial Vicar of Christ the
King Parish in Brownsville
Effective Sept. 19
Rev. Cesar Uriel Partida, appointed Parochial Vicar of Saint
John the Baptist Parish in San
Juan and relieved of his responsibilities at Christ the King Parish in
Brownsville
OCTOBER 2014
DIOCESE 15
»Media
Resource
Center
Recommended by SISTER
MAUREEN CROSBY, SSD
Coordinator of the Media Resource
Center - Diocese of Brownsville
»Worth Watching
FORGIVENTHE
BLESSINGS
OF
CONFESSION
Format:DVD
Length:25 minutes
Audience: Children
Publisher: Herald Entertainment
The facts:The Blessings of Confession
This joyful presentation reminds old and
young alike about the great gift of God’s
forgiveness through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation!
SANCTITY
WITHIN
REACH
Format:DVD /Book
Length:90
Audience: High School / Adult
Publisher: Ignatius Press
The facts: He unpacks the life and
spirituality of tis avid mountain climber
and fun-loving Italian youth who dying
living behind an astounding legacy of
good works.
»From the
Medicine and ministry
Bookshelf
IDIOT
PSALMS –
NEW POEMS
Format: paperback
Length: 96 pp
Audience: Adults
Author: Scott Cairns
Publisher: Paraclete Press (2014)
The facts: Scott Cairns embarks upon a
pilgrimage not from one place to another,
but from the unknowing to unknowing.
Though theses poems push toward holy
wisdom, they must content themselves
with the refracted approximations of this
puzzling world”.
MANY ARE
CALLED
4 San Pedro Casino Nights
(San Pedro)
4-5 Re-Marriage Retreat
)DPLO\/LIH2I¿FH
The Valley Catholic
Lumen Christi,
ters have worked to develop human potential, strengthen family
bonds and help the residents of
Pueblo de Palmas obtain the basic
skills to succeed. The center contains classroom space for instruction and activities, a kitchen and
hall space for large assemblies, a
computer lab, a medical and dental clinic, and a pre-kindergarten
classroom.
The sisters have empowered
the residents of Pueblo de Palmas and built a true faith-based
community. The people served
by the center live at or below the
federal poverty level, relying on
irregular income, which the men
earn from day labor jobs in agriculture and construction. Most
of the women are mothers who
are learning English through the
center’s English as a Second Language classes. They are realizing
their full potential by means of
5
Format: paperback
Length: 82 pages
Audience: children age 8-14
Author: Gabrielle Gniewek
Art Work: Sean Lam
Publisher: Manga Hero; Second
edition (2012)
The facts: The palace is astir, preparing
for the long-awaited wedding of its beloved
Prince, who leaves the safety of the kingdom
borders to fetch his bride, now missing in exile
for 7 years… though whether the bride wants
WRUHWXUQWRWKHYHU\SODFHVKHÀHGIURPLVDQ
entirely different story. A past will be revealed,
a score will be settled, and a future will be
formed
All Day
All Day
All Day
6:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m.
7 p.m.
All Day
6 p.m.
6:30 p.m.
Mass for children with special
needs and their families
(Holy Family, Brownville)
5 Sacred Heart Jamaica
(Hidalgo)
10-12 Holy Family Kermes
(Brownsville)
14 Professional Day
2I¿FHRI&DWHFKHVLV
The Valley Catholic
Bishop Daniel E. Flores receives the gifts from Sister Therese Ann Ridge, a
chaplain at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg and Sister Maria Elena
5H\HVDFKDSODLQDW6DQ-XDQ1XUVLQJ+RPHLQWKLVÀOHSKRWR
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
“Most of the patients who have
broached this issue weren’t even
terminal.
“The truth is that we are not
islands. How physicians respond
to the patient’s request has a profound effect, not only on a patient’s choices, but also on their
view of themselves and their inherent worth.”
Dr. Toffler continued, “When
a patient says, ‘I want to die’; it
may simply mean, ‘I feel useless.’
When a patient says, ‘I don’t want
to be a burden’; it may really be a
question, ‘Am I a burden?’ When
a patient says, ‘I’ve lived a long life
already’; they may really be saying,
‘I’m tired. I’m afraid I can’t keep
going.’ And, finally, when a patient
says, ‘I might as well be dead’; they
may really be saying, ‘No one cares
about me.’”
The White Mass is generally
held on or around the feast of St.
Luke (Oct. 18), the patron of physicians.
The event is free to attend,
but kindly RSVP so organizers
may plan accordingly. To RSVP,
call Gloria Morales in the Office
of Health Ministry at (956) 7845007.
the Women’s Wellness Program
and leadership training.
“God has done amazing
things in and through us, that’s all
I can say,” Sister Jocson said. “At
the beginning, we saw that people
were afraid of one another. They
didn’t know their neighbors. They
didn’t go out of their houses.
“Now with all the programs,
they know their neighbors, they
are concerned for one another,
they help one another. It’s very
inspiring to hear, after all these efforts, something has happened to
them. They have changed. They
look at their neighborhood and
their neighbors differently.”
In 2009, the sisters took yet
another step to form community
– they secured donations, found a
plot of land, and supervised construction of a brand new church,
which was dedicated in2 0 1 3
and is home to the newest parish in the Diocese of Brownsville.
Today, in an area that was once
a drug- smuggling highway, St.
Anne Church gleams as a symbol
of hope and possibility.
“The work of the sisters on
the border shows why women religious are the ‘unsung heroes’ of
the Catholic Church,” said Catholic Extension Vice President of
Mission Joe Boland. “They represent hope to the people of the Rio
Grande Valley, particularly the
women and children, who face
daily battles with extreme poverty.The sisters are living out what
Pope Francis has called all of us to
do – to go out into the streets and
serve. We hope that by honoring
them they might inspire others to
do the same.”
Catholic Extension is a national organization dedicated to
supporting and strengthening the
Catholic Church in the poorest
regions of the United States.
As the 2014 recipients of the
Lumen Christi Award, the sisters
will receive a grant of $25,000 in
support of their ministry; in addition, the Diocese of Brownsville,
which nominated the sisters, also
will receive a grant of $25,000.
Bishop Emeritus Raymundo J. Peña’s Calendar
October 1-3
October 6-10
October 11-13
October 17
October 18
October 22
October 24-26
October 29
October 30
October
4 Incarnate Word Academy Fall
Festival (Brownsville)
White Mass for
health professionals
set for Oct. 23
McALLEN — Bishop Daniel
E. Flores will celebrate the 11th
annual White Mass for health
care professionals at 6:30 p.m. on
Thursday, Oct. 23 at Our Lady
of Perpetual Help Church, 2209
Kendlewood Ave., in McAllen.
All health care professionals of
all faiths are invited to attend.
Named for the white garments
traditionally worn by medical professionals, the White Mass provides healthcare professionals an
opportunity to unite as a medical
community and to reaffirm their
vocation as a healing ministry of
Christ Jesus.
A reception and conference
will be held at the parish hall after the Mass. Dr. William Toffler,
co-founder of the Physicians for
Compassionate Care, will deliver
the keynote address. Physicians
for Compassionate Care advocates
against assisted suicide, safeguarding life until its natural end.
Dr. Toffler hails from Oregon,
where voters approved assisted
suicide 11 years ago.
“Since assisted suicide has become an option, I have had at least
a dozen patients discuss this option with me in my practice,” Dr.
Toffler said in a blog post for the
» Calendar of Events
Assumption Alumni Homecoming
Retreat
Vacation
Confessions at Evins
Mass at Holy Family
Serra Club Priest Appreciation Banquet at Country Club
Bronc Awakening 21 at Camp Loma de Vida
Evins Ministry
Red Mass at Immaculate Conception Cathedral
On going:
8 a.m. Mass Monday - Saturday at St. Joseph Chapel of Perpetual Adoration, 727 Bowie St., Alamo
3 p.m. Mass at St. Joseph Chapel of Perpetual Adoration,
727 Bowie St., Alamo
7 p.m. Holy Hour Weekly every Thursday at 727 Bowie
St., Alamo
1st: Vocations to the Consecrated Life (active and
contemplative) and for the Sisters and Brothers in our
diocese and the success of their mission
25 YouthBLAST
(Youth Minsitry)
25-26 St. Joseph the Worker
Festival (San Carlos)
27 Theology Class
2I¿FHRI&DWHFKHVLV
28 Clase de Teologia
2I¿FHRI&DWHFKHVLV
November
1
All Saints Day
2
All Souls Day
2
Daylight Savings Time
Ends
2
Mass for children with special
needs and their families
(Holy Family, Brownville)
Advisory Team
(Catechesis)
6
7-9 Catholic Engaged Encounter
)DPLO\/LIH2I¿FH
13 Professional Day
(Catechesis)
15 Walking by Faith Pilgrimage
(Youth Minsitry)
15 St Theresa Festival
(Faysville)
17 Theology Class
2I¿FHRI&DWHFKHVLV
18 Clase de Teologia
2I¿FHRI&DWHFKHVLV
21-23 RCYC Oklahoma
(Youth Ministry)
22 Convalidation Conference
)DPLO\/LIH2I¿FH
15-16 Retiro PreMatrionial
)DPLO\/LIH2I¿FH
27 Happy Thanksgiving
'LRFHVDQ2I¿FHV&ORVHG
28 Thanksgiving Holiday
'LRFHVDQ2I¿FHV&ORVHG
30 First Sunday of
Advent
San Antonio
Edinburg
Grulla
McAllen
Edinburg
Edinburg
Brownsville
2nd: Vocations to the Permanent Diaconate the deacons
(permanent and transitional) of the diocese and their
families
3rd : Vocation to Married Life: for the welfare and
sanctification of all the families in the diocese and for
building up the Kingdom in our domestic churches
4th: Vocations to the priesthood and the priests of the
diocese for the success of their ministry
5th: Vocations to the Pro-Life Intentions
Please submit your schedule to be published
in The Valley Catholic by the first Friday of
each month by email at [email protected]
or fax: (956) 784-5082.
16
DIOCESE
OCTOBER 2014
Our Catholic Family
Sister Maria Elena Maldonado, RSM
August 17, 1929 - September 13, 2014
Valley native served
the community for
more than 60 years
The Valley Catholic
Sister Maria Elena Maldonado
of the Sisters of Mercy died on Sept.
13 in St. Louis. She was 85.
Sister Maldonado was born
on Aug. 17, 1929 in Mercedes to
Raymundo Maldonado and Juana
Garces. She entered the Sisters of
Mercy community in 1948, serving
as a religious sister for 66 years. All
but four of those years were served
in the Rio Grande Valley, said Sister
Denise Sausville of the Sisters of
Mercy.
“She never felt at home serving
anywhere else,” Sister Sausville said.
“The Valley was where she wanted
to be. As a Valley native and a
Red Mass,
One of seven children born to
Mexican immigrant parents, Justice Guzman was born in Chicago
and raised in Houston. She was appointed to Place 9 of the Supreme
Court of Texas on October 8, 2009,
by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Before
her appointment, Justice Guzman
Mexican-American, she was able to
relate to the community better than
the rest of us. The people loved her
very much. Many of them called
her, ‘Madre,’ because she was like a
spiritual mother to them.”
Sister Maldonado dedicated
her life to the field of education,
as administrator, teacher and in
religious education. She spent
her first years as a religious sister
serving schools in Missouri and
Arkansas.
In the Valley, Sister Maldonado
served in the schools/parishes
of Immaculate Heart of Mary
(Harlingen); Our Lady of
Guadalupe (Mission); Sacred
Heart
(Edinburg,
McAllen
and
Mercedes);
Immaculate
Conception (Rio Grande City);
Our Lady of Mercy (Mercedes) and
St. Pius X (Weslaco).
Sister Maldonado taught
thousands of students throughout
served as an Associate Justice on the
Houston-based Texas Fourteenth
Court of Appeals, having been appointed in 2001 by Gov. Perry. She
also served as a trial court judge on
the 309th Family District Court after her appointment by then-Gov.
George W. Bush, according to her
official website.
Catholic Charities of the Rio
Grande Valley, which works to
eliminate spiritual and material
poverty, offers many services to
her ministry and remembered
every one of them, Sister Sausville
said. Many of them kept in touch
with her over the years, inviting her
to their special events and out for
meals.
A large contingent of her
former students attended her
Rosary service and funeral.
“I never went anywhere
with Sister Elena that people
weren’t coming up to her,” Sister
Sausville said. “All over the Valley,
people knew her. She used every
opportunity to evangelize people.”
In her retirement, Sister Elena
was in ministry in Weslaco and
La Feria guiding Bible study
groups. She also visited the sick
and homebound and ministered
to youth in the juvenile justice
system. She served on the Board of
Directors of ARISE – South Tower,
a community based ministry cosponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.
“She had a very full retirement,”
Sister Sausville said. “She couldn’t
visualize herself not doing any kind
of ministry.”
Sister Maldonado was preceded
in death by her parents, her brother,
Raymundo and a sister, Ninfa
Escamilla.
She is survived by her sisters
Petra Flynn of Weslaco and
Elpidia Enriquez of Michigan and
numerous nieces and nephews.
A Memorial Mass was held on
Sept. 15 at. St. Catherine’s Residence
Chapel in St. Louis with the Sisters
of Mercy community. A visitation
and Rosary service was held Sept.
16 at St. Pius X Church in Weslaco.
Bishop Daniel E. Flores celebrated
a Mass of Christian Burial Sept. 17
at Our Lady of Mercy Church in
Mercedes, which burial following
at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic
Cemetery in Mercedes.
Please consider making a
donation in Sister Maldonado’s
memory to: Sisters of Mercy, 101
Mercy Drive, Belmont, NC 28012,
ARISE, P.O. Box 778, Alamo, TX
78516 or Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catholic School, 611 Dunlap,
Mission, TX 78572.
the community including disaster
relief, rental and utility assistance,
food programs, jail ministry, funeral assistance, immigration services
and counseling.
In addition to these programs,
Sister Pimentel and Catholic Charities have undertaken the operation of a respite center for Central
American refugees at Sacred Heart
Parish in McAllen. Thousands of
individuals have been assisted since
the center opened in June.
Father Martinez founded Cristo Rey High School in 2009. The
son of Brownsville mayor Tony
Martinez, he earned a bachelor’s
degree in political science from
Boston College, a law degree from
the University of Texas at Austin
and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Harvard.
Less than 24 hours after graduating from Harvard, he headed to
Houston to establish Cristo Rey
High School. Father Martinez was
diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach
cancer in March and is undergoing
treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The Red Mass is a long-standing
tradition in the Catholic Church,
dating back to the 13th century.
For tickets or sponsorship information in Cameron County,
call Monica Gonzalez at (956) 6401327 or Analisa Figuero at (956)
621-0550; in Hidalgo County, call
Esther Cantu at (956) 318-2470.
Sister Maria Elena Maldonado, RSM

View - Catholic Diocese of Brownsville

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