UPDATE ON THE BETHANY HOUSE / EL PASO INITIATIVE

“…  the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.” Pope Francis
 
The Affiliate team who first conceived of the Bethany House Initiative met on February
 28th to discuss the future of that initiative. Below is a summary of the meeting and the
conclusions that followed.

  • Where are we now? – since the inauguration of the Trump Administration, the number of migrants coming into the Annunciation House shelters has fallen off dramatically. Only one or two special-needs shelters have remained open. Given this reality, until further notice, Annunciation House is no longer taking short-term volunteers. Apart from three Affiliate volunteers who worked with Las Americas, since we opened this initiative in September 2024, all other Affiliate volunteers have worked with Annunciation House.

    1. Alternative Volunteer Opportunities – in light of the situation with Annunciation House, we discussed other volunteer possibilities in El Paso. Some of those included the El Paso Diocese, the local Catholic elementary school, and shelters in Juarez. However, short-term volunteering (2 weeks – 1 month) made those possibilities unrealistic. Moreover, as fewer migrants are entering Mexico, the number of migrants coming to shelters in Juarez has also dropped substantially.

  • The Future of Bethany House – all who have stayed in Bethany House have spoken very favorably of the house and its convenient location. In addition to Affiliates and Lay Missioners, other Maryknollers and several outside Maryknoll, including Church figures and those involved in migrant justice, have stayed (or are projected to stay) in Bethany House. In just a little over half a year, Bethany House has already become a welcome place for those involved in migrant justice.

However, the primary rationale by the Bethany Houe/El Paso team (formerly ANMI) for opening that house was to have a suitable place for a collaborative intentional community of Maryknollers and, perhaps, others. Whereas there have been a few small initial instances of collaborative community, the vision of a collaborative community has not been realized.  The numbers of Affiliates who have volunteered there have not matched the projection the team anticipated from the early enthusiasm for this initiative when we first began the discussion over two years ago. Additionally, there is no evidence that the numbers will pick up. Perhaps things would have been different if we were able to open Bethany House a year earlier.

CONCLUSIONS

  1. Given the present and projected situation with Annunciation House; and secondly, given the relatively small number of Affiliates and others who have stayed at Bethany House, both the hope of volunteering with migrants and the that of living in an intentional collaborative community does not appear to be realistic. Therefore, barring something unpredictable, we will not renew the lease for Bethany House when it expires July 31st.

  2. While disappointed that this initiative [to accompany migrants, to live in community, and to take actions that will have the Affiliate movement in the mix and more visible (something out of the box)], this initiative was deemed worthwhile by all of us at the meeting. There have been many positive outcomes in the short time this initiative has been in place. Some examples:

    1. Some Affiliates have had the opportunity to accompany migrants and   experientially have a better sense of the migration issue through being with the migrants and coming to know their personal stories.

    2. The Bethany Forum, that has had an enthusiastic response and will continue. It came out of this initiative

    3. The Maryknoll Affiliates are better known and appreciated by the Church(es) and other organizations in El Paso

      1. All can continue to be in solidarity with immigrants through the Bethany Forums. The next one is on March 19 at 7pm Et - 4pm PT.                                                                                     https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83383778605?pwd=PGiFCaLQfmhkSwn9uOwzEoHeJGSi3O.1

        Meeting ID: 833 8377 8605

        Passcode: 684857

  3. As mentioned above, Bethany House has been used for Maryknoll-wide gatherings of those in El Paso. It has been used by MKLM for retreats, meetings, and training. It has been (is still) used by two Franciscan volunteers ministering in El Paso. It will be used by Hope Border Institute for Bishops coming to a meeting there in May.

 Additionally, if Affiliates are to remain vital and engaged, we on the team feel that the Movement will need to continue to search out possibilities for actions that address real need, engage and inspire Affiliates and make us more visible.

Robert ShortComment