A Radio Show on Three Ways to Share the Journey

[Pope Francis] has brought it to our attention and asked us to literally Share in the Journey, Now, we have to find out what that means, and all the ways we are called to do it...  Each of you is in a position to very vividly show us, explain and illustrate how all the people listening, all the people of the Catholic faith, of  any faith, can participate in this. -Mary Woods, host of the Archbishop's Hour on Catholic Radio

The theme of the Archbishop's Hour on Catholic Radio (Archdiocese of Santa Fe) on Tuesday, November 14, was the Share the Journey campaign, a global effort launched by Pope Francis to bring attention to the plight of immigrants and refugees everywhere. "War, exploitation, poverty, natural disasters or the desire for a fairer, better life, are causing people to leave their homes," says Caritas, the global counterpart to Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. "It’s one of the greatest challenges of our time."

"As a result, our world faces not a migration crisis, but a crisis  of global solidarity," Caritas said in a statement on its own Share the Journey site urging the faithful in every country to take part in the campaign. "Be part of a worldwide campaign to reach out to migrants, change perceptions, open hearts and minds."

In the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, the campaign is moving forward on many fronts with the strong support of Archbishop John Wester. Three special guests spoke about their roles in the campaign on the Archbishop's Hour on Catholic Radio on November 14.

Kathy Freeze, Fr. Rafael Garcia, S.J.

Encounter
Kathy Freeze, faith community outreach coordinator at Catholic Charities of Central New Mexico, spoke about her agency's work with refugees and immigrants and the outreach efforts of Catholic Charities to engage the community in the campaign.

"I like the idea of encounter," she said, describing the efforts to encourage people of different parishes to take to engage with immigrants and refugees in our community. "We can tear up the walls of indifference that we have built up," she noted. 

Advocacy
Anne Avellone, director of the Office of Social Justice and Respect Life at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, spoke about advocacy. She and Rocio Gonzales, director of Hispanic Ministry at the Archdiocese, traveled to Washington with counterparts from around the country to meet with Congress on two crucial issues related to the Share the Journey campaign.

One issue addressed the need to preserve funding for foreign aid in the upcoming federal budget, which is essential for the U.S. do its part to respond to the global refugee and immigrant crisis. "It is crucial to respond to the needs of people on the move, many of whom are desperately poor and displaced."

On the domestic front, Avellone and Gonzales met with staff from Sen. Tom Udall and Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham  about promoting the rights of immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. "We know our immigrants in our community. We know these men and women.  They might be cowoerkers, they might be parishioners, they're certainly neighbors," said Avellone.  "They make a huge contribution to our community."

Debbie Golden, Fr. Graham Golden

Art 
Rev. Graham Golden, O Praem, director of the Office of Christian Discipleship and Religious Vocation for the Norbertine Community at Santa Maria de la Vid Abbey in Albuquerque, discussed the art exhibition that the Norbertine Community is hosting at the Abbey. The exhibit, which features works from 46 artists, was launched with a gallery opening on November 3, that was attended by more than 300 people. The exhibit will close on Dec. 16, with a traditional posada (a reenactment of Mary and Joseph's difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of a warm place to stay the night).

Father Golden, who played a key role in curating the exhibit, noted that the art on display includes both works of immigrants and refugees and pieces from any person in the community who is on some sort of journey. "We felt that the arts were a  good opening to be able to allow for people to safely take risks to step into the world of someone else, to try find where there was some point of intersection between their own lives and their own journey and the very literal journey of immigrants and refugees," he said.

These are only snippets of the very insightful comments from the three guests.  For a more in-depth account of their discussions and comments, listen to the show via This Link  (Fast forward past the preliminary information to Minute 23 to hear the interviews. My thanks to host Mary Woods for supplying the link to the audio).