In the 1970’s, the late Fr. Ricardo Seidel traveled throughout the Diocese of Richmond celebrating Mass and Sacraments amongst the many migrant farm workers and their families. By 1983, the diocesan Office of Migrant Ministry was established.
From the start, the ministry focused on access to pastoral care and social services. There has also always been a need for advocacy on behalf of farm workers, working for protections from abuse or exploitation. It has always been a ministry that attempts to accompany migrant farm workers, individually or collectively, and to stand in solidarity with them, recognizing them as our brother and sisters in Christ, respecting their God given dignity and affirming the rights.
Today, migrant farm laborers work along with local, seasonal farm workers to harvest the hand-picked crops. There are some 5,000 farm workers and family members who sojourn within three small rural parishes, St. Charles (Cape Charles), St. Peter the Apostle (Onley) and St. Andrew the Apostle (Chincoteague Island). There are about than 2,500 others that come to the rural area of three churches on the South Side, Good Shepherd (South Hill), St. Catherine of Sienna (Clarksville) and Sacred Heart (Danville). There are probably another 2,700 migrant farm workers and their families spread out throughout the remaining 100 rural parishes of the diocese.
We are blessed to make their acquaintance. We are especially blessed by the fruits of their labor, that is to say, the actual fruits and vegetables which they harvest with their hands and the close to forty pound buckets of tomatoes which they repeatedly fill in under four minutes and carry on their shoulders, working ten, twelve or even fourteen hours a day in ninety degree weather. There is no overtime pay, no sick leave, no paid vacation, no health insurance and no pension plan. There are days and weeks when there is little or no work and therefore no income. Most do not have their own vehicles and are dependent on willingness others to go to the market, the laundry mat, a clinic or church. When the national minimum wage recently increased by 0.70 cents per hour, they had their weekly rent of a bed in a communal living situation increase by $20 per week.
This year the Catholic Diocese of Richmond has provided summer outreach workers, hiring bi-lingual seminarians to live and minister in five of the parishes with largest migrant farm worker populations.
Many parishes have gotten involved by collecting donated clothing, toiletries, Rosaries, Bibles, food, grocery gift cards, Christmas gifts and more for sharing with the farm workers. Others have supported the Office of Migrant Ministry with financial support which provides emergency assistance (housing, transportation, medicine, funerals, etc) to individuals and families in need. Others have organized volunteers to visit with the farm workers in their camps in the evenings and even celebrate Mass and a “Fiesta” meal together. Still other parishes have sent their youth for a “mini-immersion” experience, gleaning crops to give to a soup kitchen or food bank and interacting with migrant farm workers to raise awareness of the lives of the migrant farm workers who are such an integral part of our food delivery system.
The parishes actively participating in Migrant Farm Worker Ministry include more than the volunteers from the parishes already mentioned. From Virginia Beach there is Holy Family, St Gregory the Great, Fort Story, Star of the Sea, Ascension and St. Nicholas. From Newport News there is Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Jerome. From the Roanoke area there is Our Lady of Nazareth and neighboring parishes. From Portsmouth and Chesapeake there is St. Therese, St. Paul, St. Mary, Resurrection and Holy Angels. There is also Sacred Heart from Norfolk, St. Joan of Arc from Yorktown and St. Gabriel from Richmond and St. Bede from Williamsburg. We are “ Welcoming the Stranger” in our diocese.
Jim Albright
Regional Coordinator for the Eastern Vicariate
No comments:
Post a Comment