SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey. Join us for conversations about our Catholic faith, and together, let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love. I'm Jay Agnish, and with me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop, how are you? I'm doing well, Jay. Yourself? Doing well, thanks. Feels like it's been a while. It actually has been a while, yeah. Um before Thanksgiving, I guess, right? Yeah, well, I got sick for a couple weeks there, and and uh yeah, I guess we were hoping to do an episode, but we're we're back, we're back here in the studio, and it's good to be back with you. This is, I guess this is our sort of our Christmas episode. Right, right. Next year we'll decorate. Yeah. So yeah, merry, early Merry Christmas to you, I guess. And we're technically in the I guess we're between the third and fourth week of Advent here. What's been going on? How are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Uh things are good. Uh Advent's a wonderful time of the year, uh, busy, but um we just had uh the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe last Thursday and Friday, which was wonderful, and uh Gaudete Sunday, uh this past Sunday, and now um we're recording on December 17th, where the page turns right every year and we get the eight-day uh preparation. Uh we'll have a couple of Simbanga B masses. Uh the Filipino community have their eight-day um uh preparation, um eight or nine um with mass each day. Uh so I had one last night um and at St. Joseph's Health, St. Joseph's Hospital in Patterson, they have a large Filipino uh community and their um staff and uh nurses and doctors, and they have a great group that organizes um Simbaga B Mass. So um, yeah, good things, good things. It's coming whether ready or not, right? Yes, that's here we go. Um but so far so good, thank God.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, and I saw you added a Christmas Day Mass to your schedule recently. And um All right, good. Well, why don't we um open up in in prayer and then we'll introduce our introduce our guests.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Um we're winding down um to the Jubilee year, hard to believe. I feel like we're just starting. And uh but um as Pope Francis brought us into um the Jubilee, um Pope Leo will lead us to the conclusion. So um we'll place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. As pilgrims of hope in this Jubilee of hope, together with the Church, in these days of Advent hope, waiting to celebrate the joy and peace of the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we'll pray together now the Jubilee prayer.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your Son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity kindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit waken us the blessed hope for the coming of the kingdom. May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the gospel, may all the seeds transform from within both unit of all gossipers into your expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, and with the powers of the people vanquished, your glory will shine eternally. May God's bread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you, our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise forever. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Our Lady, Mother of the Church, our Lady of Hope, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us, all holy men and women, pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

All right, so with us today is Sister Janice Jolen. Jolin, is that how you say that? Yes. Okay, who is a Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception unit coordinator for her community, and to her left, Sister Patrice Owens, who is a sister, uh sister of Christian charity. Um integrity of creation coordinator for the North American Province of the Sisters of Christian Charity. And our topic for today is immigration and social justice advocacy. So welcome both of you. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Thanks for being here. We've seen each other uh over the years now, and uh haven't had a whole lot of opportunity to uh maybe chat especially about some of your ministry um as women in consecrated life and part of your uh charism of your communities, and uh uh we'll be also happy to hear a little bit of your vocation story as a former vocation director. Uh it's always good to hear um the mystery and beauty really of God's call in our lives and uh and those who respond to that call. Um, but um uh certainly um it's been a challenging time for those who have come to us from other places and uh especially those who may be undocumented, and um uh I've shared before that being at the Bishop's Conference in November and hearing the bishops come together and really so strongly uh call concern about some of the ways that um unfortunately the administration is handling what their job that they have a right to protect borders, but um but we hope and pray that um it can be done with dignity and uh when the dignity of any sister or brother is not respected, we have to um try to raise our voices at times and uh and bring light um um where where where it's needed. And so we'll get get into some of that that conversation, but um maybe um you can just give us a little background where you come from, where you grew up, how you heard the call and responded to the call. Maybe uh Sister Janice, you want to lead us off?

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Sure. Um I'm a New Englander. I was born in Massachusetts, right? Right on the water.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Certain socks. Right, right. Certain baseball, yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

And um coming from New England, I'm uh French by by descent of Canada. My grandparents came from Canada, immigrants. Um and uh I was introduced to the Catholic faith, uh, which is very strong, has been very strong in the area where I came from. What was the place where you grew up? Um it was Bellingham, Massachusetts. Yeah, and I was really on the Rhode Island border, and it was filled with French or Canadians who had immigrated. So very strong Catholic communities were uh present in that area. And I was uh I went to education from for my education in Catholic school from elementary through high school, uh different groups of sisters. Um and after while I was in high school, I really felt a call that became stronger. But I want to say that my original call was when I was a small child in elementary school. And the sisters were talking about the mission babies and how that they were always collecting whatever money that we could give. And um that that stayed with me, mission babies.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

So you had such a strong support of missionaries in that time here in the United States, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Yeah, yes. And um so my primary call as a missionary sister came from that that young time in my life where I really felt I wanted to be among them and serve them. Later on, as um I was asked in the eighth grade, what do you want to be? And I said, a nurse or a nun. I wasn't sure. I liked the hat stuff, you know. And um it was at that time that I started really to think about uh, you know, what would I do? And so toward the end of high school, I was looking through this huge book of religious communities of women. And I was looking for a missionary group, but also a group dedicated to Mary. And so it is. I'm a missionary sister, the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. And it has it has been such a joy to have found this community and been a part of sisters who are so supportive of the same values that uh we uh want to live, which uh and to us uh we are Franciscans, so that spirituality of the Franciscan uh life uh really is uh primary in our in our journey to Christ.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

So you just had your feast day, huh? Is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception? Yes, we just did.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Yes, a wonderful feast day.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

How did your parents respond when you told them?

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Oh, well. My mom was sad. She always wanted a grandchild. Oh no. And actually she took me to the parish priest to try to convince me not to join a missionary group because she was so afraid. She says, I won't know where you're sleeping. But the parish priest was very good, and he says, Oh, Claire, who was her name? Oh Claire, God will take care of her, don't worry. And um so And God has, right? Yeah, for truth, yes, for truth. Uh God has taken care of me.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

And did you enter right after high school?

SPEAKER_03 9:40

One year I worked, my because my mom said, I want you to to experience more of life before you go in. So I said, Okay, mom. So I worked with her. We were waitresses in a Chinese American restaurant. Wow, well so that was my pre-religious experience.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

And then you ended up being a missionary where was it?

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Here uh our um our house of formation was right here in West Patterson. At the time it's now Woodland Park. So in uh 1963, this is where I came. Uh, but I didn't remain here all that long after initial formation when I first took vows, then I was sent um to a school. Um I remember my provincial saying, What do you want to do? And I said, Oh, I can wash dishes. She says, Oh no, no, if you're going to serve the people you need to be educated for it. So um she said, let me know what it is you want to study. And I thought, well, if I'm going to be a missionary, I already know how to do C C D because we were trained here. And I thought, I suppose being a nurse might be the most beneficial. So I studied nursing and I'm a nurse.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

And you served in Brazil?

SPEAKER_03 11:02

I yes, uh as a missionary. Only later, when I was in my forties, I went to Brazil where our community was originally founded, and we have many Brazilian sisters. So I was there eight and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_05 11:15

That's great.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

That's great. Yeah. It was a wonderful opportunity to enculturate in a whole different culture. Although I had been living in Texas along with the Mexican American for many years, uh from the 70s to oh almost 90. So um I love the Mexican culture. They they brought me to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

They have a great way of doing that. And uh sister Patrice.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

So I was born in Wilkes Barra, Pennsylvania. My um parent grandparents were um Welsh of Welsh descent, except for my one grandmother who was Irish. So uh they were miners and came from Wales to find work. So they were immigrants as well. And um we didn't stay there long because it wasn't a lot of work. So my father said we're moving to New Jersey. He was in the Marines, so he had he could get a GI bill at the time to get a mortgage for the house. So we um settled in Rockaway, New Jersey, where it was new development, and the parish, St. Cecilia's was new also, and the school was just being built. So uh it wasn't ready until I was in second grade. And um I had the Sisters of Christian charity, and actually they were in Wilkesbare as well because our first mother house was in Wilkesbara, St. Anne's Academy, and it feels like they followed me to New Jersey because they taught in the school there. So it's still there, right? Um we have sisters uh Kier Marie teaching there now. Sister Diane's working in the parish. Um, but um, yeah, so the sisters, you know, they were just um I don't know, I just was very much impressed and inspired by them. In particular, we had one sister, Sister Carmelita. She had us in fifth, she started a vocation club for the girls. And we would go to the convent, we would help the sisters clean and you know, just hang out with them, which was a way of getting to know them. And um then and we had we could go to Mendem for vocation days. At that time they were busloads of girls from all over from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey to our mother house um to get together for vocation days. And it was um yeah, a lot, a lot of girls at the time. So um came time for it was Sister Carmelita had me in seventh grade and I started she started talking to me about would you like to become a sister? I had read the book Bernie Becomes a Nun. I don't want it to be a Mary Knowles sister.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Bernie Becomes a Nun.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

That was the name of the book, yes. And um she said, Well, what about the Sisters of Christian Charity? And I said, Well, it's a possibility, I guess. So she gave me Mother Pauline's life, uh, Impelled by Love, and I read that, and yes, I was smitten. Um, and so she uh talked to my parents. My mother said, Absolutely not. I'm the oldest of six, so I'm major babysitter.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 14:21

So in fact, my youngest brother wasn't even born yet, so but um my father uh he won that battle and said let her go. And we had the wonderful pastor, Monsignor Hayes. Did you know him?

SPEAKER_02 14:32

I've heard the name. Yes, he was Chris Hayes, I think, was um Dennis.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Dennis Hayes.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Okay, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

He was wonderful because my parents uh they wanted me to go to the aspirancy in Mendom. At that time we had a high school and it was a boarding school, but you had a pay board and uh tuition, and my parents had we we didn't have a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Six children, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

So Monsignor offered to pay my tuition and for the for the board, and he was just so good. Um so that was uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

And there was a high school on the grounds.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

Yes, it's called a Makalada High School. And uh when I entered there were freshmen in my class, there were 13. No, I'm sorry, 19. And altogether in four years there were 50 of us. And um that we still there are six of us left in the group, and we've just known each other since we're 14. We've bonded together, we have good friends for um a long time. So I entered and you'd go home in the summer and get a job and kind of try to date in the summers, but um I would go back then in the fall and um and then you make a decision after high school, and I decided to stay and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

And you got sent to the mission territory of the Bronx, isn't it? I did, yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

Well, first I was um uh I was in Pennsylvania for a couple years in New Jersey. I was in Florent Park, uh Holy Family. Um Monsignor Kupke was pastor at the time.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

And then I went to uh well, I taught in the Bronx for three years. Actually, when we were novices, the teachers went out on strike and they called the troops in from the motherhouse. So we went and we were scabs. We went into the classrooms to teach and um yeah, to keep the kids, you know, there were like 800 kids at the time. And how many in the classroom? There were 40 in the classroom. Yeah. I have some funny stories.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Places that were bigger than funny stories.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

But anyway, we were just 21 years old and they said go in and teach. We're like, okay. But um then I went back in 82 to teach fourth grade and I fell in love with the kids. I was smitten then. I just loved the kids. And working with the immigrant families there was just um was a wonderful opportunity for me because Rockaway we had didn't have much diversity at all, but there, you know, I just it was um a wonderful experience and I became enriched by the diversity there. So then they asked me to Sister Marie Sumter, did you know her? She was provincial. I don't think so. She had been my eighth grade teacher. So she asked if I would uh be a principal because she was leaving the Bronx at the time. And I said, What?

SPEAKER_05 17:15

I'm a teacher.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

So what we did, we went, a couple of us had a study in the summer. We went I went to Villanova with Leo, yeah. Um and we got our degree, our master's in administration, became principals at the same time we were principals, so we would go for six summers to get our degree, yes, exactly. And then we'd go back to it was yeah, it was good because you took what you learned and tried to apply it. Yeah. I thought that doesn't work. But um, so I went to um my first assignment was in Pennsylvania for two years, and then I went to New New Jersey, Hackest Town Matutchin Diocese, and then to Florent Park. And then I went in 2000, I took Sister Joan Daniels' place in the Bronx. Now those shoes were big shoes to fill. She had been there for eight years. Um and that was just a great time because so many of us there were just trying to help the families, keep the school going, keep the enrollment up. You know, we started development uh uh development uh offices where we could help to raise money. And um we had good good teachers, good people there to help keep the schools going.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So I mean we have to talk about the Yankees, right? So you 18 years you were 10 blocks from the stadium. And you had what says you had your photo with Bernie Williams. I did.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

Joe Girardi. Um this is the best story. When um Derek Cheater hit 3,000 that year, I forget.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I think David Price and the Temp Temple Paris. What year was that?

SPEAKER_04 18:48

Do you remember?

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Uh good question. Yeah, yeah. Early 2010s, I'd say.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

But I challenged my kids in the school to read 3,000 books, see if you could match his hits.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Excellent.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

And they surpassed it. Great. So the kids from grades three and up who read the most books, they got to go on the field before the game, and guess who came out to shake their hands?

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Derek. Derek Jeter.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

He shook their hands and congratulated them, so I got to stand next to Derek.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Um I believe his mom went to Pope John.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

Did she really? Oh, I didn't know that. How about it? I met him one time in Manhattan, too, across in the street. He said to the pastor's father Bruce at the time, I think that's Derek Jeter coming across the street. And he goes, Who? Father Bruce. Yeah, Leo and Dasky.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Now Bishop of Providence. Yes, yes, yeah. What a great guy.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

Yeah, yes. He was pastor in the Bronx. He said, Who? Because he wasn't a baseball fan. I said, Derek Jeter, you don't know Derek Jeter. So he's coming across, and I'm coming from this side, and I put out my hand. I said, Are you Derek Jeter? He said, Yes. We shook hands. So it was a moment in time.

unknown 19:59

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Manhattan, New York story, right? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 20:02

A moment in time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Well, and he's got connections to West Milford as well in the area. All right, so let's let's move away from the Yankees and the Bronx.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

So uh as uh uh granddaughters of immigrants, right? Um as a son of immigrants, um, you know, I I I think I gained appreciation from my parents getting to know the Hispanic-Latino immigrant community, especially recent immigrant communities in um in Corona, Queens and in Brooklyn and Sunset Park. Um, but um you each kind of referred to it um uh serving in uh an immigrant community, um a Mexican community that will bring their love for our Lady of Guadalupe and and uh some of the other customs and traditions that you get to know. Um maybe just talk a little bit about um your first um getting to know an immigrant community for was it in was it in Texas where you first really got to know?

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Yes, I would say Texas was the first immigrant community that I had lived among. Uh and that was um as soon as I uh graduated from nursing school, so seven 1970 I went out there. Uh and it was very peaceful. There uh they were first, second generation, sometimes third generations now of of Mexican uh people. And uh always what I experienced though, um, well, out of that whole culture, such a respect for people and an acknowledgement of people. Courtesy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. And you know what, whenever a meeting started, they might be late, but they always came in and they had to greet each other. Everyone's yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Buenos tardes.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

And as a as a an Anglo American her But let's get to work. So I had to learn that it wasn't all about work. It really was about the relationship that was formed. Yes, yes. And they were humble, you know, they uh they just lived very humbly and had no great expectations out of out of life except to uh have a family and to uh have a good family, you know, a family that had good relationships.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

And a strong faith and a love for the Blessed Mother, right? Oh, definitely. Strong faith.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

How about yourself, Sister Patrice? What was it like getting to know uh an inner city immigrant community? Um maybe not having that experience growing up yourself, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:44

I mean um yeah. It was enriching, as I mentioned. I got to learn so much about other cultures, but there's different Hispanic cultures there, and they were from South America, from the islands, from Mexico, just uh uh how they could get along with each other that and and respecting the differences. And I think I learned a lot about diversity and um how important it is in enriching myself and and and and others, uh, you know, the children in school too, that they could learn from each other. Um and their devotion and their deep faith. Um they had Our Lady of Alta Grazia.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

January 21st, right?

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Yeah, and in church they always would they would show that honor and that respect for Mary by the flowers and and back, I mean, you know, Our Lady of Guadalupe, they're just full of roses and balloons. So they just had deep faith and um trust in Mary that she was gonna help them through. They struggled, you know, so much, but they also had they believed in education. They wanted their children, first of all, to be safe, because the area um is not the safest area. So one of the motivations to come to the school was for safety. They knew their kids would be loved and cared for and get a good education. So they valued education and wanted their children to be able to get out of the cycle of poverty there. Um but it it was, yeah, I learned a lot and it was just a valuable experience for me to get to know them.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

And um, Sister Janice, I think did you serve, did you say Salvadorian community from Salvador, right? In uh in the mid-80s, who were literally coming from terrible war um uh where Archbishop Romero was killed in um uh terrible violence, right?

SPEAKER_03 24:35

Um, that's true. In the mid-80s, um my community uh opened a mission in the Brownsville Diocese, right on the border of Mexico. And um so we did experience firsthand people crossing the border and needing uh everything. They were uh for the most part seeking to either come into the United States and find a way to stay here or on their way to Canada on both things. But um yes, uh the reasons why they came were so much fear of what had happened there.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Trauma, right? Many had experienced would have experienced trauma. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yes. And some uh later on were coming from uh Nicaragua as well.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Uh just going through a tough time at the moment for the church.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Yes, I know how that has changed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah, and um yeah, I guess you're you're kind of getting into what I was wanted to ask is you know, what first attracted you to both to social justice, advocacy, it sounds like your living experience.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

But um maybe anything along those lines of um when when you kind of realize like wow, this is something I'm really attracted to and I can help and use what I'm learning through the gospel to help you know, apply that to the Yeah, I think for me in the Bronx, we had an opportunity um to belong to a group Father Bruce introduced me to uh South Bronx Churches, and it was an advocacy group of all the churches in the area that would get together and talk about what are the needs, what are the needs of the people, besides, you know, we were in education, but what are the needs in the from the parish perspective to help these the people in in this area and so and that would have been ecumenical, not only Catholic right now. Yeah, we saw Montshoja's ecumenical, we had different faiths involved. And so we I went to a training in Chicago, a 10-day training where you just you learned how to empower the people because that was the basis of it. The people, yes, they need us, but they need to learn to advocate also for themselves. So it it was not we're gonna do this for you, it was we're gonna help you learn to advocate. And so we did. We did a couple initiatives when I was there. Um safety, as I said, was an issue. So we went to the local police and we said we need more police presence in our neighborhood. These children this train was just two blocks away from the school and they traveled from the train to the school. We wanted a safe corridor because there was a lot of drug dealing and a lot of some violence in in our community there. So we went to the police and we said this is what we need, this is what the community needs. And so we learned how to speak and help the people speak because we always took the people who were uh interested in advocating with us, and we said this is what a collective voice sounds like to get what you need. And so we were able to get better police presence because of the advocacy we did. Another initiative was the the need for special education services. So we did a whole thing on trying to get um the attention of the Department of Education and get more services because our own children and the children in the public schools was a good uh initiative that we were in together to try to get better services and it improved, but you have to keep doing it, you have to keep going back and you have to keep asking, and you have to keep it's not just the prayer, we say that yeah, prayer education, but also advocacy is important if you want systemic change. And that's you know, you can the service opportunities are there to give and to help, but you also want to get the people to understand that they can make systemic change and and here's a way to do it collectively.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

I've said before and others have said that um I I don't think uh well I've said I don't think that's a coincidence that um the last our two last two holy fathers, um Pope Leonow and Pope Francis came out of the Salem, the Church of Latin America, right? And that experience of um really synodality has been happening in s Latin and South America for for for decades, right? Uh and and the church as that um organizing force and um but also trying to um live the gospel um and uh not only feed the hungry but ask why are people hungry, right? And uh and how can we and and and seeing the dignity of every person, not just that it's someone I give, you know, who's in need, then we give to them, but but each individual um, you know, as Pope Francis so often said, you know, has a place at the table, has a voice, um, and and and our our our our human dignity and our certainly our baptismal dignity as disciples. And but as the church we want to, and as you were just saying, sister, that um uh though there's we we meet natural leaders, right? And whether it be moms or single moms sometimes or parents or others in the community, young people that you just see there's something in them. Um, but if they need to the support and encouragement to say you can be speak for yourself and be a leader. Um I I in this whole recent experience, I uh I I'm thinking that uh it won't be too long um before we have a Mexican-American president, I think. That some of the young uh people uh uh who are here who uh uh and are really living the American dream. I mean the education and uh public schools uh that in many places do uh a good job and um and um you know it's uh being uh seeing in a parish uh kids that um are from uh immigrant families that um but they get an education, their parents encourage them to have that education. They go to maybe community college, but um there are there are some wonderful leaders I think that have been formed in the immigrant community that um um uh we'll see. But uh you heard it first. Uh Sister Janice uh and and so the church, yes, um, but also um a religious congregation, right? And a and a charism. Yes. Um and and and so part of the missionary sisters um would be um not only uh bringing the gospel but trying to um walk the journey with people who to put the gospel in into practice, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:39

Yes, our particular charism, each congregation of sisters has a charism. Ours uh was I and well not let me say the church ha kind of caused us to identify our charisms in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

Coming out of the Second Vatican Council, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:55

And so we did a charism study to that, right? So ours, uh we identified and and live try to live this out, is to be a contemplative, compassionate presence to all, especially the most in need. Uh however that is done, because we're we uh as educated sisters, we uh have an education in various ways of ministry, um whether it's health care, social care, education, et cetera. Um that is high.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

And beautiful um starting with prayer, right? Because contemplative first, right? Yes, oh definitely. And again, I think that's a a privilege um of of praying with those who are uh uh you know maybe walking a difficult journey, but uh they have that such strong faith and when they experience it in community.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

And so contemplative, compassionate presence where and I must say, if I can add, we both our communities belong to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States. And I tell you, they are very uh centered on helping religious to um to recognize the social justice as a way of our presence in the United States, the such needed presence. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

And Pope Leo has reaffirmed that with uh Deluxe K. Right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Uh and even how he gives a little history of uh different religious women and men and religious communities over the the the centuries really that um have um uh uh put into practice that um Matthew 25 and our call to the the social gospel.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Sister Janice, can you tell us a little bit about the refugee resettlement work that you're involved with?

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Sure. Um in uh 2013 in the diocese there was a a group that was uh known as the Passaic County Um Family Promise. Uh it was begun as a charitable organization, it was interfaith, and it was begun to uh provide housing for women and children that were that were having no place to live because they were evicted from their apartments or whatever due to lack of uh finances. So this organization, uh as I said, comprised of interreligious communities, organizations, would house for one week at a time the families. Then sometimes there were five, six families altogether. Uh and so the parish would house the family, provide food, provide a space for them to have cots where they would have sleeping uh arrangements, and the children would remain housed and um educated in their same school system. So I I don't know how they organized the whole thing for buses to come and pick up the kids and et cetera. So this went on for several years until about 2016, and for some reason either there was no more need or there was just a different emphasis. What came into being was uh um, yeah, as a North Jersey Interfaith Cares. NJIC as NJIC, yeah, which is what it uh uh the initials for us. We took on the same uh charitable uh nonprofit status, but changed the mission to work with uh refugees. And the way it began was there was uh at that time a large number of Syrian refugees coming over, fleeing civil war. Uh and so it was an interfaith group still, and our purpose was really to help them socialize a little more with the American culture, so we held uh social events, picnics and um other uh fun kind of events as well as gift-giving events for Christmas for the children. Uh, but we didn't provide housing, they uh would find their own uh arrangements and uh we didn't really have a close connection with the government at that time. Later on, uh actually in 2021, NJIC had to um change its focus more, continuing to work with the immigrant population, those that were um here on asylum status, uh which means that they could qualify for green cards after a year of being here. And our role as NJIC um members or organizations was also to provide to work with with Church World Service. You know, it's a government-funded agency, and they had their limitations of how many uh families they could help resettle, so they really depended on uh groups like ours to to shepherd families, individual families. So we first began in uh 2021, took on a family that was from Syria, um, a family of a father, mother, and two children, and uh settled them in Passaic uh and worked with them for a year. Our intention was always for independence so that we would help them first find services for ESL, English, uh help the children get in school, uh find a job for the j for the father or mother if she wanted to work. Um and and really just be attentive to their interculturation, uh their health needs, their uh social needs. Uh families, especially from Syria, are n very rarely Catholic that we get. They're Muslim. Uh and so we'd introduce them to the Muslim, to the Iman, you know, and uh whether or not they would continue in uh attending mosque services was up to them. We had no no right to force any religion on them. So um that was the first family we had, our second family, and they became independent within the year, very and now they have an additional child uh and it's doing well. The second family was from Venezuela, another a couple with two other children, and uh they are also independent. We found the man had a job, learned English. The children, the little boy is in accelerated um classes, he's so smart, and the little girl is such an artist. It is incredible the future of her future in art. Um and then so now we're working with another Syrian family. The dad came a couple of years ago, and uh last January the rest of the family came who are five children. Well, one of them is not really a child, she's in her twenties and had been married, but her husband didn't accompany her here and she was pregnant. Now has a child, uh, thank God healthily. And um the other uh kids are like uh teenagers and uh there's a young uh boy who's just eighteen. We helped him get into Passaic County uh college for the ESL and uh we're very hopeful that he will now find himself part of our society as he can manage the English better. The girls are in schools um and um we're trying to find a job for the mother. Um this family was quite in need because the father, although he'd been here a couple of years, he works at a gas station pumping gas. So you can imagine trying to feed a family of that nature. So we've uh stepped in and uh and helped quite a bit as a group to get these people on the grow, you know, their feet on the ground uh to assist.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

New Jersey interfaith cares. Cares. Right, great, great. Yeah. So the work continues, the spirit uh we try to l have that discernment right to see where we can respond to where the Lord is asking us to serve. And uh uh and are you heading back to the Mission Land in the Bronx?

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Yes, I am. Monday, it's Monday, I'm back there. Looking forward to that. There's a lot of work to do. In fact, the convent is right next door to the Mexican coalition. Okay. It's the old convent. We're next door to it now. Um and they do a lot of work, not just with Mexican immigrants, but anyone who comes to their doors. So we help them, we provide, we've from here, from New Jersey, we're providing food for them as well as uh clothes. And um I I um took a training through New Sanctuary, um, which is a um group that will train you to accompany them to court. So I'll be doing some of that work where you can help them navigate the system that is so cumbersome and so difficult for them to just be with them. Um I have to shadow someone who's already doing the work so I can learn a little bit more how to do it, but um looking forward to doing some of that so needed. Um we had just a story about um our janitor was picked up by ICE at Immaculate and the school, and so the whole community rallied. He was from um Um Guatemala and had come here, you know, because escaping the gangs and and the drugs there. And he was on his way out of court to with paperwork that he was trying to fill out. And ICE picked him up and he went to detention and we rallied. We got a lawyer and legal aid for him, and we got his bond in with one two days, two days, we had $9,000 collected for his bond to get him out, which we did, and back into the school. Yeah, we had a big big party to welcome him back to the school. But that experience just showed me how difficult it is to get your papers, your immigration uh work done.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Right, right, right. So many of the undocumented have been trying for years and years and years to find a way to have legal status, and many of them have been taken advantage of by some lawyers, unfortunately, and paid a lot of money and been disappointed. Um but but many are close, you know, and they're um and unfortunately now there's that fear of going. So that's great that you'll be accompanying. I know some bishops and other places have um and pr and priests have uh have have accompanied people uh to immigration court as well. So um we we try to walk the journey together, and certainly um as in these last days of Aven looking to Christmas, um um we look at the Holy Family and and they uh they face fears and and had to leave their home and uh um and uh receive the welcome of uh whoever the uh the offered the stable there, right? Um and uh and so um we try to offer that welcome as well as as the church and um and so um um we really thank you for not only coming on today but for your your ministry and um I don't know if Jay had uh Yeah, I just before we uh wind down, I I you know immigration and social justice, obviously pretty controversial, lightning rod type uh issues.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Uh social justice in particular, sometimes it sounds like it's a dirty word or something, but I I mean can we talk maybe about uh scripture that might inspire you in in your work and your calling in this area, um, maybe role models in this area. Um Matthew 25. As just an everyday Catholic, like what can you tell me about social justice?

SPEAKER_04 43:57

Matthew 25, right? That's right. You do it to me.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

You did it for me, right? Absolutely. I was hungry, you gave me to eat, I was thirsty, you gave me a drink personally.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Unfortunately, people make it a political thing. It's not political, it's the gospel. I always say that. This is gospel, and they hear social justice, they think, you know, I don't know, communism or something. That's right. This is w helping people get what they need. You hear the word justice so many times in scripture, just lately.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Right.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

Um in the in uh the readings and all through Advent.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Right, right, the prophets.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

Yeah, it's it's helping people get a keep their dignity. It's Catholic social teaching. Um but some some of that has been, I don't know, um, forgotten about or Politicize, or there's not enough focus on Catholic social training.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

How can we learn more? Who do we turn to?

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Well, there's leaderships and there's so many. Uh Dorothy Day comes to my mind, she was my hero. She did so much opening Catholic worker houses to anyone that came to the door in New York. It was a place for home, a place for just to be welcomed into hosp houses of hospitality. She's one of my heroes.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Yes. What touched my heart uh in reality was the the death of the four women in El Salvador. And of course Bishop Romero. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

One of them from Rockaway, uh New York, St. Francis de Sales Parish and uh who had a connection to uh former auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, Bishop Ford.

SPEAKER_04 45:34

Okay, well Eda Ford, I knew I knew her nephew because he started Christopher in Harlem. Oh, is that right? Christo Ray, New York, Bill Ford, yeah. He started the school there for um uh for high school.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

And for those who might not know, it was four American women who were working as missionaries in El Salvador and were killed during that terrible time, right?

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Yes, three of them were uh religious sisters and one was a lay person. And they had been warned and yet they chose to stay. And um in their staying they suffered what many people have suffered who stay among the violent.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Yeah, caring for the victims of the and those. But they inspired you and they inspired many others, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:19

They sure do, I'm sure today still. They live in our hearts and in our actions.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

My own foundress, Mother Pauline, she was she founded the community in Germany for blind children because they were the marginalized of the day. They weren't they weren't thought to be they they could be educated, and so she started schools for the blind there. She was very much into social justice for the poor, the blind, and any though. Her mother taught her that. It came from her mother's heart, I think that she um would go out in the streets with basket to give out food to those who needed it. And uh it just yeah, it's she's also my inspiration.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

And I'll add one from my community too, uh, who was canonized in 2019. Her name is uh Sister Dulce of the Poor, is the title that was given to her. She's Brazilian, and uh she just a simple uh uh small person of stature, but wow, what a heart of of st of I was gonna say stone, stone to confront all of the people. Like Mother Cabrini, like Mother Cabrini, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

That movie was amazing. You saw that? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Okay. So thank you for joining us and for your insight and wisdom and and inspiration. Um I guess we're gonna wind down.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Right. And uh we can put up uh, I'm sure on your Sister Christian charity and uh Missionary Sisters of American Conception. If people want to go to your website, they can find out a lot about the community and uh and about the work on behalf of the gospel and social justice as well.

SPEAKER_04 47:51

Yeah, and it's not just about immigration, but creation care.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

Our environment, yes. Oh my goodness. Pope Francis really.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

We need to do more with that. The church needs to do more.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

So, Jake pick uh justice, peace, and integrity, right, right. Which is part of the Sisters of Christian charity. And which you're gonna have more time to work on now that uh you're back in the website. Thank you very much, sister. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 48:22

It was great being here. Pleasure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Jay's gonna take us out, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Well, Bishop, anything else you want to add?

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Uh at this point, uh mostly uh prayers that everyone would have a wonderful uh Christmas. We pray for peace. Um the sadness of um violence and Brown University and um and Australia. And um so let us pray for peace, especially at at Christmas, that uh the Prince of Peace who was born in that stable would um give us the peace that only he can give, and that our world would know um that peace, and that please God, in our lives and our hearts, our families, that um we would know that peace and be able to be instruments of peace um in a world that really needs it.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, thank you all. Thanks, Bishop, and thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Oh, go ahead. Uh the closing mass for the Jubilee, the Sunday after Christmas. Sunday, June 28th, 3 in the afternoon at the cathedral. Uh we'll put it up, but uh uh hopefully, sister, you can be there and uh hopefully many will join us to close out the Jubilee of Hope.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

We'll see you there. All right. Well, thanks for joining us. Please subscribe, comment, leave a positive rating. Get to know us better by following Bishop Kevin's Instagram and beyond the beacon on social media. Read the Bishop's weekly column on beaconnj.org. Get in touch if you have a question for the bishop or a podcast topic idea, and discover our other podcasts. See you next time.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. Merry Christmas. Thank you, sisters.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

Thank you. Thank you.