By Therese Fink Meyerhoff | Province UCS (USA Central and Southern)
[From “Jesuits 2025 - The Society of Jesus in the world”]

The pastoral and sacramental service provided by Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries along the U.S.-Mexico border provides a space of relief and care for people who have endured difficult experiences on their journey toward hope.

Saint Oscar Romero is never far from the thoughts of Flavio Bravo. Flavio is a Jesuit priest who serves on the United States-Mexico border, helping to meet the sacramental and pastoral needs of migrants who have gathered there. Many have travelled long distances through dangerous territories controlled by drug cartels who prey on the defenceless. They have fled conditions so unbearable that their only option was an unknown future in another country, only to arrive at the border to find they must wait, and wait, and wait to enter. They live in shelters or in makeshift camps with other migrants. They wait, and they try to retain hope in deplorable conditions.

Flavio Bravo is one of three Jesuits in Brownsville, Texas, one of the poorest areas of the United States. Along with Fr Brian Strassburger, and Scholastic Joseph Nolla, he is part of a new initiative called Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, named for Nuestra Señora del Camino – Our Lady of the Way. Each day, Flavio recalls Archbishop Romero’s words about being a shepherd to a suffering people.

“Whenever we go to the shelters or to the migrant camps, I pray the Psalm: The Lord is my Shepherd”, Fr Bravo says. “It is not my agenda that I follow. The journey is marked by the people we walk with. They tell us stories of darkness. We try to bring green pastures and healing.”

Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries began with the missioning of three Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern Province to the Diocese of Brownsville in June 2021. This was a different kind of assignment, especially for the newly ordained priests Brian Strassburger and Louis Hotop. They were not assigned to a Jesuit apostolate. Instead, they received a broader mission directly from Bishop Daniel Flores: to read the reality of the migrant situation and respond to it.

The reality they encountered was a migrant community in great need. In addition to squalid living conditions, there was a nearly complete absence of pastoral and sacramental care. They recognized that, as Jesuits, this was what they were called to provide. So, they started visiting shelters and camps on both sides of the border to celebrate Mass, offer the sacraments, listen to people’s stories and recognize their humanity.

“I have now been blessed to accompany so many migrants”, Brian Strassburger said. “I’ve listened to stories of pain and fear and loss, and I bring the people home in my heart and share them with God in my prayer. They will remain with me throughout the rest of my life. Like Claudia, who ran a kitchen while staying in a migrant camp in Reynosa, and now sends me photos from her home in St. Louis, Missouri, when she makes an elaborate meal from her home country of Honduras. Or Ashley, a twelve-year-old girl who was the altar server at our Masses at her shelter, whose mom sends me photos of her learning the violin at her elementary school in Wisconsin.”

Mass is simple in a migrant camp or shelter, with an altar cloth draped over a folding table. People sit in folding chairs or stand. There is no escape from the extreme temperatures in summer or winter, and yet migrants continue to come. They find a respite from their haunted past and unstable present; they find a font of fresh water to renew the hope that keeps them going.

“I have been amazed to see that there is no climate that will stop people from emerging from their tents and celebrating the Eucharist together”, Fr Strassburger said. “I witness time and again how the faith of migrants is a source of hope and strength during a dangerous journey and an uncertain wait – the strength to endure, and the hope that they will one day reach a destination of safety.”

The Jesuits of Del Camino also provide humanitarian aid, supported by donations made through their Jesuit Province and a wish list on Amazon.com. And they share the stories of the people they meet through The Jesuit Border Podcast, which tries to humanize the migrant experience and showcase some of the work being done by immigrant advocates on the border and throughout the United States.

Many migrants bear physical and emotional scars that attest to the trauma and violence they have endured. But what the Jesuits of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries see transcends this pain.

“Every time we walk into a migrant shelter, we see the face of Christ”, Fr Brian says.