Interviews with a Few Special Priests ( #3 )

He Gives Hope, Healing , and New Life

To Young Refugees from 12 Nations

"I heard something that moved my heart so deeply that I could not longer live my life  the  way I had been living it."

By Robert R. Schwarz

                                    How often do [migrants fleeing despair] fail to find
                                    understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find
                                    solidarity. And their cry rises up to God!

                                     ( Pope Francis)

This is the  third  in a series of interviews with  Catholic priests  interviewed during the nine-year run of the  blog Exodus Trekkers. A new post will appear  every two weeks or so. You can read the  100 other Exodus Trekkers posts on this web site,  now  being read  in 12 countries .

          This  report is about  a priest leaving a high administrative post in education to dedicate his life to giving asylum  to   18-year-old refugee youths. They are among the thousand  of other teenagers who continue to  flee from various countries and illegally  cross our borders to escape violence and extreme poverty.  Many are then arrested and  confined  in federal detention centers until they get court hearing, which can be  two years later. This priest  is Fr. Corey Brost , director of the Viator House of Hospitality in Arlington Heights, Illinois. 

       

     Five years ago Fr. Corey Brost joined a small church group for a hike down an ancient migrant trail in an  Arizona desert . A few yards away was Mexico . The land from horizon to horizon was scorched and barren and obviously life-threatening  for  any wayward hiker . The nearest  town was likely least 30 miles away.

          " Thousands of  bodies have been found in this  desert in the past ten or more years , "  the group leader told Fr. Corey. He then stopped and pulled from his pocket a Spanish Bible , much of which had decomposed. He handed it to  Fr. Corey and said, "It probably was lost here by a badly disabled migrant  who was reading it  as he sensed his nearness to America. "

                   In paging through the Bible, Fr. Corey , who speaks and reads Spanish,  noticed some scribbled  words  on the page of  Psalm 141.  The  opening verse seemed to leaped out to the priest: Lord, rush to me! Hear my voice when I call to you !   

            " As I held that  Bible, " Fr. Corey would tell me during our interview years later,  "I thought about the person who was carrying  it . What was going on in his life back home ? What had compelled him to take life in his hands like this ? And what  in this psalm had given that person so much comfort or strength crossing this desert ? …I couldn't put that Bible down .   Something  moved my heart so deeply that I knew I could no longer live my life the way I had been living it. "

          That heart-felt moment lived in   Fr. Corey  until June 2015, when it sparked a life-changing decision.  In front of a large audience one night  in the St. James school library in Arlington Heights , Fr.  He passionately recalled details of that decision.   His emotions seldom subsided during  the next hour :    "What kept  coming back to my  mind for after that border hike was like a voice saying those words  from that psalm, Hear my voice when I call to you , " he told his audience.

" I started to hear another voice in my heart: Corey,  in this world millions of people are now calling out to Me . They're calling out to Me in every language and they're calling out to  Me as Christians, and Muslims, and Hindus and  Sikhs . Corey, who will rush to them in My name  ….

           Then, as if he himself  was now that weakened refugee  struggling to cross over to America,  Fr. Corey  spoke as if actually praying: "  Lord , rush to me. I have no one else,  I am fleeing in great despair, I am fleeing for my life,  I don’t know if even I am going to survive the next day. Rush to me. I put my faith in you."

             The room turned  silent. 

                      " Do Not Oppress the Stranger in Your Midst "

         

     The priest continued: " There are 65 million people in this world today  who are displaced by war or poverty, more even than World I or II, possibly . God is still speaking to us.  trying to guide us where He needs us …When I came back  to  St. Viator High School as its president,  where in essence I was pastor for   1,000 young people, I wondered how could I stand up in front of them and say the number one priority  is not  your ATC score, it's not  where you're going to college, it’s not  whether you got the lead in  the play or the starring  role—those are all good things— but the number one priority is to listen for the call of God. Where you find happiness, where you find true meaning is where you  let that call lead you step by step to somewhere else, particularly into the lives  of people who are suffering.  How can I not say that to a thousand kids at Mass  ?. ..

Fr. Corey Brost on grounds of Viator Hospitality House

 

  Then Fr. Corey reminded his audience of God's commandment, Do not oppress the stranger in your midst which, he said,was the most often  repeated commandment in the Old Testament.                 

            An audience member stood and asked, "How can we help?" 

           "Pray ," was the priest's reply.  " God will guide you. God is calling us to migrate into the lives of these immigrants  as they migrate into ours. "

          Fr. Corey concluded with "so I went to my  order [  province center ] and said,  'My term is up at the end of this year.  I feel called to move into the lives of refugees and immigrants. ' "           The Viatorian  leadership said they were proud of him and would give him financial and communal  support.

      " I left not knowing  exactly what I would be  doing . All I knew was  there was a  huge need; there were  11 million undocumented folks living in our nation."  Showing on a screen  that page from the Spanish Bible, Fr. Corey said, " I look at  this prayer everyday   and try to remember my own journey . What is my life worth if I can't hear this voice of God  . I want what Jesus promised, and that's life to the fullest.  Working with these youths [ at the Viator House  of Hospitality ] has enriched my life beyond all measure. "

                             Fr. Corey's Varied Background  

            Fr. Corey , today nearing age 60, co-founded his  Viator House of Hospitality with another priest . ( Viator is the French word  for  traveler. ) Previously he had practiced law as a caseworker for a Chicago social service agency and authored  the three-book  set, " Gospel Connections for Teens " . He is also  co-founder of the  Children of Abraham Coalition , a non-profit organization that trains Muslim,  Christian, and Jewish adult and youth leaders to advocate for interfaith peace; among the countries from which they have fled include Ghana , Guinea, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Niger, Somalia and  El Salvador.  

           He has helped train 100 volunteers to mentor these young refugees men  adapt to the  American culture. In their group home at St. Viator, they learn  English, cooking, gardening, and  stress management. They are also given clothing, physical conditioning, social outings, and  " spiritual accompaniment  "—without proselytizing, Fr. Corey pointed out.  "My goal is to help them practice their faith."Each youth," he explained, " has made a perilous journey [ from their country ]   fraught with desperation, pain , threats on  their life, and the equally traumatizing and never ending delays of legality never made clear."

          Fr. Corey introduced me to  youth Erik . He was an undocumented refugee from El Salvador whom the priest and St. Viator see as one of   "those accounted of little importance" , For a half-hour Erik  related , in painful details,   his exodus from El Salvador . with hopes that life in America would not be threatened as was his father's life by gangs in El Salvador . It was a threat, Erik said, commonly ignored by slothful police . The youth Erick told of his several days  of  traveling while enduring  hunger , poverty , and a sense of utter alienation from this world. But then he also told of  the  amazing, unexpected   grace of God that enabled St. Viator to get him released from  an immigration retention center  to their asylum in Arlington Heights.  

           

The Legal Plight of Young Refugees

           

       

Telling his story to a library audience

   Fr. Corey continued to described  the needs,  abuses, and  myths of  refugees. " In a recent year,  60,000 people under age 18 entered America without documentation ,seeking protection and asylum.  They have fled violence and despair .  Some have had parents killed, they've seen their peers  killed. They want chance of new life ."   He mentioned that his own grandmother was forced to leave Ireland at age 16 due to the  harsh British rule of her country.

           " Because they are minors when they get here , they are transferred into  custody of the U.S. Dept. of  Health  and Human Services , the priest said. " They can go to court and argue that they should not be deported to their  country because their lives would be endangered there . But waiting for a court hearing could take two or more years , unless a family takes them in. When  they  turn 18, immigration  authorities put them in shackles and take them to adult detention centers.   And there they will sit, six months or more.  

          "These young refugees have been  traumatized along the journey and now they are traumatized again .  Women  are even more traumatized ,  often by sexually abuse . Viator House is an exit ramp from that . And then at the hour he becomes 18 ,  he is let  out of government  custody and goes to live at St.  Viator . He is now  free to develop into the person God hoped he would be. "

            As for myths about refugees, Fr. Corey  reported (in 2017 ) that  immigrants pay the same taxes as every American  and that  studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes that naturally born citizens  and  that immigrant  take jobs no one else will take. [ National Geographic magazine in its   August, 2019 issue  reported that 68.5 million people had been forcibly displaced by  the end of 2017. ]

         

          Nowadays, this former president of the St. Viator High School, is thanking God that  the 25 young men from 12 nations  he is currently shepherding were greeted not by armed jail guards but  staff of the Viator  House of Hospitality .

 End of Interview

Now read about prayers outside  the doors of

a detention Center" and marriage problems

faced by  a refugee couple .

   I The Detention Center

                 I love America .  I feel like this is my country. 
                         But if   I had known what would have happen 
    to me, I never  would have come.  
( Francisco M. )





                                               

Midge Sheehan (smiling ) and other St. James members comfort

a refugee in detention at the Kino border in Nogales, Mexico, not

too far from where Fr. Corey w as given that Spanish Bible. 

                                         

      On a chilly April morning that  year, Deacon Pierce Sheehan, his wife Midge, and I took a 45-minute drive from our Arlington Heights, Illinois homes  to the  Broadview Immigration Detention Center outside Chicago . There we joined  a 7:15  prayer vigil group of  35 people at the  steps of a dismal looking building  with its parking lot guarded by  a barbwire gate . We held hands with clergy, nuns ,an  attorney and  family members of  detained  immigrants inside  awaiting for a court hearing  and likely deportation to Mexico. We  prayed  in English and Spanish . The attorney , Royal Berg, prayed that President Trump and Congress  "would pass compassionate immigration reform." 
         Then  the group prayed the Rosary and , after each decade, sang the  hymnal refrain , Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.    The Pierce's have been visiting Broadview for 16 months , motivated after  their church trip to the border town of Nogales, Arizona where they were   "touched"  by the shocking  needs of Mexican families and refugees .    

       

            The group, founded by two nuns several  years ago , included people of different  denominations, including those of the  Jewish faith. They had been  meeting like  this outside each   Friday; family visits to  loved being confined here  had been discontinued recently to eliminate emotional scenes which have attracted the media, according to Deacon Sheehan. Visits to the more than hundred Broadview detainees  now made to a  detention center in Kankakee, Illinois , nearly 60 miles away. 

                      

            That morning , I spoke to  Francisco M.,  who was awaiting an August  court appearance for  illegal entry into the United States.  Francisco , now 37 and  married with a three-year-old son ,  owns a heating and cooling business on Chicago's   West Side which employs 19 American citizens, all Latinos. He wife used to  manage a bank branch.     In preparing to own and manage his business , he learned English and  attended seminars and classes at   Truman College to learn about heating and cooling.

          With the misguided help of a " coyote "  ( often an unscrupulous Mexican guide  who profits from "helping"   his fellow countrymen illegally cross the border to the United States, ) , he entered this country in 1999 . Francisco related  to me  that his  coyote promised him that Francisco could simply  gain legal  entry by telling immigration border   guards  he was an American citizen. It worked… until in June 2016 ,  when he was ticketed for driving with an expired license; police informed  the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (ICE ) of this violation. Eight days later ICE agents  entered his office, questioned several of his employees, and then handcuffed   Francisco . They took him to the detention center in McHenry County  and confined in a cell for seven weeks. His wife at time at the time was six months pregnant . Francisco was  scheduled to appear in a Chicago court on  August 16 that year to face the  alleged crime of illegal entry .

          Francisco's  case has since been continued repeatedly until September 20, 2019.  Until then, St. Louis is the only destination  outside Illinois he  is allowed to visit.  T he three-year delay has been   stressful , he says. He will be defended by Royal Berg.

            Francisco  is angry. "They treat you like a criminal and I'm not a criminal. I've  been here since I was 17. I'm paying taxes, I don't steal anything.  I work hard, "  he said. It pleased him to recall  how  he once was instrumental in helping Chicago  police arrest a gang member who fatally shot two youths in front of his business by giving police a security video of the shooting.

            " I love America, " he said. "I feel like this is my country. " But if I had known what could have happened to me here, I never would have come. I'm disappointed. I thought this was the country of dreams and opportunities. I tell my friends in Mexico not to come unless they come legally. " He claims he's never done anything bad in his life. "But to I .C.E. I'm a virus. 
         He is working six days a week with his business which, he says ,is "running smoothly,  doing  cooking most of the his family's meals, thanks   to  his former  skills as a chef  in Mexico, a attends a church in Cicero . His parents  raised their son on the family's farm in Mexico and have obtained visas and now and then visit  him here. 

II  The Strain of Marriage for Two Refugees

                                    It is clear that after  all this [ persecution and torture ]  , I can

                                    never build a normal decent life in Egypt…I've become a

                                    religious pariah…My cell phone, my Facebook account and

                                    that of my best friends are monitored …My father belongs   

                                    to an extreme Islamic movement. ( A signed declaration of

                                     Ammon   A. ,  a  Christian , prior to his fleeing  to Lebanon

                                     and then to the  Chicago area. ) 

                                   

            In February of 2017,  I received this note  from a friend ,  a Lutheran minister—now a Christian convert—who had immigrated legally from Lebanon where he once served as a combat soldier in the Islamic militia: Ammon [ not his real name ]  needs a Catholic place for a personal retreat. Any ideas ?  

            I gathered  a few of the 67 statements which Ammon had  submitted in his "Declaration" given to immigration officials when he had fled to Lebanon after years of severe persecution there and in his native Egypt:

§  My father…is from a militant Islamic background like the rest of my family who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood  and the Salafist jihad call. 

§  When I was thirteen years old, I was sexually assaulted by the imam of the mosque.

§  I had no information about other non-Islamic religions….until the moment…a Christian began to ask me about the reason for my permanent sadness…At that time  I met also a priest who spoke to me.

§  Christian thoughts appealed to me, so full of love and compassion and God's acceptance of all people, even if they are sinners.

§  When my father started to know this about me, he began to  torture me …they kept me locked up in a cage for dogs.

§  [ note: this is  Ammon's final statement, which  he submitted to the Lebanese authorities after years of persecution and the spiritual warfare which had brought him to the edge of despair and a serious thought of becoming an atheist ]  It is clear that after all this, I can never build a normal decent life in Egypt; I can no longer continue my school  studies. Many of my best friends dare not contact me as if I've become a  religious pariah. Also, I just never dare to walk the streets… afraid of  being kidnapped again. I know my cell phone, my Facebook account and that of my best friends are monitored, not only by the state security police but also by extreme Islamic movement which my father belongs to.

Being Overwhelmed by Everyday Living

            My minister friend didn't tell me why Ammon  wanted to attend a retreat but  did suggest I contact John Sidarous ,  a Coptic Christian who could speak  the Egyptian language of Ammon , whose English was limited. He spoke to Ammon, whom I later telephoned .

            Ammon  and I met for lunch . With tears, he  told me that his marriage, for various reasons, was falling apart and that his wife wanted a divorce. "I want love," he said ." He also told me that soon after he and his wife had emigrated from Lebanon,  she began to " show signs of wanting more independence."  He had no idea of what he done to alienate himself from her and indicated that he had given up reconciling with her.   Ammon  was working for a  manufacturer for $10.07 an hour and was pressed for living expense money. He had totaled his car in an accident  when  steering wheel froze; his insurance company  refused to pay for anything, Ammon said.

          After lunch, he invited me to his modest apartment and  introduced me to his  wife, a modest and attractive woman.  She talked candidly about her marriage, while Ammon  remained silent . The three of   us held hands and prayed for several blessings, especially for their marriage. 

Confession to a Former Army  Chaplain

            I sent this following email to Fr. Matt Foley, a former U.S. Army chaplain who had serve three tours in Afghanistan and now was pastor of St. James church in Arlington Heights, Illinois: I have a special request for help for a Catholic Christian who has fled Egypt, then from Lebanon  to escape   years of life-threatening persecution. He knows of no priest in the metropolitan area who speaks his native Arabic. He is married but the marriage is  nearing a  divorce. He is employed at minimum wage but barely able to pay next month's rent.  He would like you to hear his confession .  

            A week later my wife and I took Ammon  to McDonald's for supper and then went to our church and introduced him to Fr. Matt , who heard his confession. Though I have no idea of what Ammond  had to confess, and observing his humble  behavior and reading that  "declaration" given to immigration officials, I doubt if he was guilty of any serious  crime or  had committed any acts of terrorism. John Sidarous told  me that  members of Islamic families are sometimes even killed for converting to another religious belief.  "They become social pariahs .  All these refugees are overwhelmed when they arrive here and need all the help they can get, especially with just day-to-day living. " 

           [ Note: an article in the May 13-14 edition of the Chicago Tribune reported that the percentage of Christians of the  total population in Egypt was 18.7 per cent in 1910 and is projected to dip   to 8.5 percent in 2025; for Lebanon, the Christian percentage was 77.5 per cent in 1910 and  likely be 30.4 per cent in 2025.]  

           Ammond wants to improve his fluency in English and perhaps work as a chef some day (specializing in fish dishes), as he  once  did in Lebanon. He had been meeting  weekly for  breakfast at the College of Du Page where he was  interacting  English-speaking students.

          In August  of 2019 I telephoned John Sidarous for an  update of  Ammon . " Well, " John began,  "I am pleased to  say that Ammon and his wife  went through  some  counseling and church support  and have reconciled  their problems . A baby girl was born to them  last spring.   That brought them together.  "  They live  in the same  condo , " he added,  and the manufacturing company which had laid off Ammon  has called him back to work as a forklift operator at a   bit more than  $ 10.50 an hour. "But they are still struggling    financially," he added.   Neither has made a return  visit to their home country  of Egypt. They have basically become outcasts even to their parents.  "

                   A personal note from this reporter… One has to ask how strong is that need to leave one's country,  to  desperately try to escape  war, starvation, and disaster?   Paul Salopek , who writes as a Fellow for the National Geographic magazine and is currently, actually   walking around  the world (  so far, 21,000 miles ! )  gives this answer : " How strong is the push  to leave ? To abandon what you love ? To walk into the unknown with all you possessions stuffed into a pocket? It is more powerful that fear of death. "

            As  a teenager, my mother's father was forced to flee Russia to avoid  being drafted into the Czar's army , an event which  his father correctly predicted   took the lives of his five other sons . My  grandfather arrived penniless in Baltimore ; my Polish immigrant grandfather and his family of eight weathered the Great Depression by feeding the  family off the counters of the small  Bucktown grocery store he owned  in Chicago. I  wish I could sit with them today and learn  about their refugee spirit. But ,  I can partially  imagine what  dreams these grandfathers   held fast to. I do believe  what greatly helped them was their fortitude and  a firm steadfastness of  faith in God as they lived day-to-day ,  often aided, I'm sure ,  by the simple kindness of strangers like you  and me. 

The End

Next, on Sept. 15:

Reaad  about a priest

from a small village 

in Tanzania , Africa ,who

after being ordained in 

Chicago , strove to learn 

from other people so he 

could help them form  

good relationships with 

other people in America.

      All comments are welcome.

rrschwarz7@wowway.com

© 2019 Robert R. Schwarz