Service at Caridad de Corazon

          A week at the border: It may sound dramatic, and it truly must be for those traveling north away from violence and poverty. But for this nun from Kentucky, it has mostly been a week of providing shelter on a daily basis for 3 to 30 people, that is, a week of cooking dinner and breakfast, washing dishes, washing bed clothes, making beds, cleaning and trying to be friendly in halting Spanish. That’s what it seems like on the surface.

          But Caridad de Corazon (Charity of the Heart) is so much more. Sister Ursula Herrera, O.S.B. has been here at Eagle Pass, Texas for about 20 years, first initiating a clinic for the under served people here and more recently being the primary source for services that provide whatever is needed by the individuals who come here, from shoe strings to money for attorneys.  

Sr. Ursula and Sr. Luz

          I understand that Eagle Pass is now one of only a few points where Border Patrol officers are processing asylum applicants. All of our guests have come to us after passing through ICE registration. Most of our guests have young children, a few have infants. One of our guests was pregnant when she arrived, gave birth 2 months ago and returned here to live Caridad de Corazon until yesterday when she was able to straighten out her paperwork and get on her way again. Another family is trying to work out a difficult issue with the father of the 2 children incarcerated and in danger of deportation home to a situation which will certainly mean death.  The mother has no papers to permit her to work to support her family. Sr. Ursula is helping them sort this all out.

Srs. Ursula and Teresa Ann Wolf

           When Sr. Ursula is not performing heroic feats of social work here in the U.S. she is delivering donations to agencies in Piedras Negras, just across the border and I have been blessed to accompany her. Here are photos of Sr. Ursula and Sr. Luz, Mexican Community of the Sorrowful Mother, at the girls’ orphanage, Casa Hogar de Nazaret (left) and of Srs. Ursula and Teresa Ann Wolf, O.S.B (right) . a volunteer from Watertown S.D. at the Soup Kitchen hosted by the Jewish community which feeds children after school because there is no lunch provided there. We were delivering donated supplies including school uniforms to both locations.
          For me, it is beautiful to experience the cooperation and compassion of the various religious and civic groups in responding to the humanitarian crisis that is here. God is surely here.
                    Sr. Dorothy Schuette, OSB