Dear Jesuits and Apostolic Partners, I am pleased to announce the beginning of the newest Province ministry, the Kino Border Initiative in Ambos Nogales, serving communities on either side of the border in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales in Sonora, Mexico. This ministry has been in development for three years and is the culmination of a process of listening, dialog, and discernment regarding how the resources of our Province might best be put to use to serve and foster solidarity with those most directly affected by immigration and enforcement policies along the border. We are blessed in this endeavor by our collaborative partnerships with the Jesuit Refugee Service, USA, and the Jesuit Migration Service of the Mexican Province, each of which offers the experience and wisdom of their commitment to providing social, educational, and pastoral assistance to forced migrants throughout our world. Together with our partners in the Diocese of Tucson and in the Archdiocese of Hermosillo, and the religious women of the Missionaries of the Eucharist, the Kino Border Initiative will provide education, social assistance, research and advocacy where they are sorely needed. I am especially grateful to Sean Carroll, S.J., and Peter Neeley, S.J., who are founding members of the Kino Border Initiative and the Jesuit Community of Nogales. In January, they will be joined by Donald Bahlinger, S.J., of the New Orleans Province and Martin McIntosh, S.J., of the Mexican Province. Working closely with priests of the Dioceses of Tucson and Hermosillo, as well as the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, this team will continue to offer basic outreach and accompaniment to migrants who are deported from the US daily, with a specific mission to serve unaccompanied women, who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. They will also collaborate with parishes serving migrants on either side of the border to provide workshops on Catholic social teaching and the challenges of migration with the goal of building local capacity to meet the pastoral and social needs of their communities. The fruits of the Kino Border Initiative will be shared with the rest of the Province and beyond through opportunities to host immersion delegations as well as a scholar-in-residence program. While these programs will take a bit longer to develop, the hope is that the Kino Border Initiative will provide a vital point of contact between the concrete needs and challenges of the border and the wider network of Jesuit parishes, high schools, and universities that can become active advocates for a more just and humane approach to immigration and border policy. I would like to invite you to the formal launch of the Kino Border Initiative on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The events of the day will begin at 9 a.m. with a Spanish-language press conference at the Centro para Atencion a los Migrantes Deportado (CAMDEP), just over the border in Nogales, Sonora. At noon, Bishop Gerald Kicanas will be the primary celebrant of a bilingual Mass of Inauguration for the Initiative at Sacred Heart Parish in Nogales, Arizona, which will be followed by an English-language press conference and reception. The Inauguration Mass will be concelebrated by a representative of Archbishop Ulíses Macias of the Archdiocese of Hermosillo, Sonora; Thomas Smolich, S.J., President of the Jesuit Conference; Carlos Morfín, S.J., Provincial of the Mexican Province; Kenneth Gavin, S.J., National Director of JRS/USA; Vladimiro Valdez, S.J., Director of the Jesuit Migration Service, Mexico; and myself. Representatives of the US and Mexican Catholic Bishops Conferences, the Mother Superior of the Missionaries of the Eucharist, and many other local leaders will also participate in the liturgy. Please see the attached invitation for more information. To learn more about the Kino Border Initiative, I encourage you to visit the excellent website the Jesuit Refugee Service has prepared, which includes a narrated slideshow featuring images from the new ministry: http://jrsusa.org/we_do_programs_kino.php I am extremely grateful for the work of Mark Potter, Provincial Assistant for Social Ministry, who has been tireless in working with many others to shepherd this project from its inception. It is a wonderful way to start the Centennial celebration of the Province! In this octave of Christmas, let us give thanks to the Lord for calling us to stand with the least and with all as servants of Christ’s mission. May God bless us and guide us all in 2009! Gratefully in the Lord, John P. McGarry, S.J.
Provincial
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