For our final episode of Season 6, we are pleased to welcome Fr. Alejandro Olayo-Méndez, SJ, a Jesuit priest and Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Boston College. Alejandro’s expertise is in migration, refugees, and humanitarian interventions, especially along migration routes in Mexico. He has led small groups of Jesuits to follow the migrant route from Central America to the U.S. He shares some of the takeaways from that experience, including the challenges to traversing all of Mexico, the stories that migrants carry, and the deep spirituality of migrants. He also reflects ..read more

We are pleased to welcome Michael DeBruhl, the shelter director at Casa del Sagrado Corazón in El Paso, TX. Michael also worked as a Border Patrol agent for 25 years, so he brings a wealth of experience to the interview. He reflects on the dual desires of most Americans to both secure the border and provide welcome to migrants, and how those two desires do not have to be in direct opposition. He also comments on the current situation in El Paso, where the Texas Attorney General is launching an attack on Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit serving migrants and asylum seekers on the border ..read more

We are excited to welcome Amaya Valcárcel, International Advocacy Officer with Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) in Rome, who also works in the area of research and reflection in the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development at the Vatican. Amaya helps to broaden our perspective beyond the US-Mexico border to recognize the harsh reality of forced migration around the world. She echoes the words of Pope Francis calling for a culture of encounter as a remedy to the globalization of indifference that causes societies to build more policies of resistance rather than welcoming for refugees and ..read more

We are thrilled to welcome Rafael Cortes to this episode of the podcast. While he works professionally as a pilot, he spends his days off joining us for our migrant ministry. He tells the story of how he connected with the Jesuits and started by making sandwiches at their sides. He became involved with the Catholic community at the plaza in Reynosa, and now he helps lead a men’s prayer group at Casa del Migrante by sending them a nightly reflection every day. He also loves to play favorites, so he shares the story of Eric, a young boy from Honduras who stole his heart with a hug. Brian and Joe ..read more

For our first episode of Season 6, we are thrilled to welcome back to the podcast our former co-host, Louie Hotop, SJ, who is the Assistant Principal for Mission at Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver, CO. Louie is helping us launch the Lenten theme for this season by sharing the moving experience of celebrating Ash Wednesday in the camp in Matamoros last year. He reflects on the theme of repentance as we enter Lent, and shares stories of some of the people whom he continues to carry with him even as he has moved on from the border. Plus, he talks about the time he heard confessions while sitt ..read more

We are getting ready for Season 6 of The Jesuit Border Podcast! As we continue to learn about the migrant situation at the U.S.-Mexico border and the humanitarian response of the Catholic Church, we will continue to share stories and experiences with you, along with great interviews with people dedicated to the accompaniment and protection of migrants. This season will be specifically designed for Lent. We will cover Lenten themes like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Join us every Tuesday this Lent to reflect on the themes of the liturgical season in light of the migrant experience. The first ..read more

For our final episode of Season 5, we are thrilled to welcome Fr. Flavio Bravo, SJ, a Jesuit priest working with us at Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries. Flavio has been on the border since December of 2022, so he has a wealth of experiences to share from our ministry. He has a particularly strong link to the migrants we accompany since he himself came to the U.S. as a migrant, fleeing the violence in his home country of Nicaragua in the 1980’s and coming to the U.S. alone, as a teenager.  The image of how we carry one another comes up throughout the interview. Flavio reflects on how we ..read more

We are pleased to welcome Pastor Abraham Barberi, Pastor of Comunidad Esencia Urbana in Matamoros and Director of Ministerio Una Misión. Pastor Abraham shares how his ministry started in Matamoros by reaching out to youth and young adults through hip hop music. His story is filled with moments where he just said yes when needs arose, including a chance encounter with asylum seekers on the bridge and the unplanned opening of the Dulce Refugio shelter at his church. Brian and Joe share their own moments of saying yes. Brian tells the story of meeting Hajar, an Iranian migrant he met at the Human ..read more

We are delighted to welcome Christine Meyer, a parishioner at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City and a member of their Ignatian social justice committee. Christine came to visit Brownsville in January 2022 with other members of the parish, and the experiences of that visit transformed the group. She shares the ways that she has gotten involved locally in New York City with migrants arriving in the city and facing numerous obstacles as they get settled. As stories of migrants arriving in New York City have dominated the news recently, Christine offers insightful and moving refl ..read more

We are thrilled to welcome Annie Leone, who is a nurse midwife at the Holy Family Birth Center and a care provider at the clinic at the Humanitarian Respite Center (HRC) run by Catholic Charities. Annie gives a helpful background on midwifery (including how to pronounce that word!), and she describes the birthing center and its origin story. She also shares from her years of experience attending pregnant women at the clinic at the HRC, including the many accounts of partners getting separated by U.S. immigration and stories of the trauma and violence encountered at home and on the journey. Bri ..read more