In an article published in the latest issue of "Today’s Marist" magazine, Fr. John Bolduc, s.m., a Marist priest who taught at Notre Dame High School in the '60s and '70s, talks about the special place in the heart of Christ for refugees and immigrants. Bolduc currently ministers to a very diverse population at St. Patrick’s Parish in the Roxbury section of Boston.
A Marist in a bouquet of cultures
by John Bolduc, SM
Jesús Enrique Labor Suarez is a cheerful little boy. “I’m four years old,” he says. He has one dimple. He leads his little sister, who is bigger than he is, into church, getting hugs and high fives from everyone along the way.
His grandmother, Helen, looks about forty years old, and comes from Puerto Rico. His great-grandmother was for many years the backbone of the Spanish community at St. Patrick’s Church. Helen is as cheerful as her grandson. But she suffers from sickle-cell disease. What suffering she bears! Without one single ounce of self-pity, she passed fifteen weeks at Boston Medical; she’s returned again with an infection.
Bolduc currently ministers to a very diverse population at St. Patrick's Parish in the Roxbury section of Boston.
The larger body of the parish comes from Cape Verde, a series of islands off the coast of Senegal, formerly a Portuguese colony. They speak Portuguese Creole. Four Franciscan religious sisters from Cape Verde serve them. Perhaps 900 celebrate on the weekend.
So St. Patrick’s is an immigrant community. It is similar to San Felipe de Jesús Parish in Brownsville, Texas, or Our Lady of the Assumption in Atlanta (give a shout out to Marist School for its service to the Dreamers) – the Church is blessed with immigrants who are filled with a special kind of life.
Now, can we generalize?
Immigrants exhibit a love of family, love of community, and love of religion. Everybody can claim as much, or should; but immigrants have an energy to fuel this human quality – to survive. Immigrants are hardworking and industrious – mechanics during the day, taxi drivers at night and on weekends working toward their GED. Or, cleaning bed pans during the day, being a hair dresser at night and nursing an elderly neighbor on the weekend. They pick apples and cabbages in rural areas.
Language makes a precious bond, religion, too, as an instrument of community support and bonding. Traffic stops in Roxbury on the feast of Saint Lawrence – August 10. In popular devotion, hundreds from his namesake parish in Cape Verde carry his statue through streets. If you ever drove in Boston, imagine what that means! We roast a pig on Nuestra Señora de la Providencia (Our Lady of Divine Providence) – patroness of Puerto Rico.
St. Patrick sits at the intersection of five streets. Spanish music — sometimes Portuguese Creole — fills the air, even in the winter. Bodegas and restaurants serve arroz con habichuelas (rice & kidney beans) or arroz y frijoles (beans) in other parts of the Latin world.
We are all the same; but we are different — products of culture, language and of history. Immigrants bring along qualities of personality and temperament with their luggage. Some are subdued, others loud. Some are reserved, others more forward. Certain nutrients seem to grow certain individual traits. Other generalizations: the folks from Cape Verde seem very reverent, the Spanish community at St. Patrick seems very warm (yes, Cape Verdeans are warm as well). In the garden that is the Church, we love her great variety. Maybe this is the incarnation of the Trinity.
Young people of immigrant communities live the tensions of young people everywhere — with a special twist. They live with one foot in a boat and the other on dry land. They love deeply their family, are proud of where the come from, while they struggle to fit in – in a world their older generation simply cannot understand. Can we accompany them in their bravery?
Fr. John Bolduc, s.m., at right, is with two seminarians, Farasico and Ganiuci, in the Republic of Fiji, where he served a number of years ago.
There is a special place in the heart of Christ for refugees and immigrants. He is at home, for sure, in other places: with those who struggle to educate the young, with parents trying to do their best, with those who suffer in the hospital or nursing home. He is at home, yes, with those many we put in prison. He is at home with refugees and immigrants, documented and undocumented. If we want to find Him, look there.
Mary is there, too.
Jesús Suarez is the gentle, happy, brilliant little boy with one dimple. What will he grow to be? Will he have the chance to go to Harvard? Will he become a doctor and seek a cure for sickle cell? Will he become a mechanic – his little hands putting things together and taking them apart? He is a little boy, loved and filled with love; happy like you would not believe. We can see in the little smiling face of Jesús, the answer to Aaron’s blessing: “May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord smile on us. May the Lord look down on us full in the face, and give us peace.”
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.