Go And Bear Fruit For The Movement!

Written to the NFWM Board by: Fr. Hector Rodriguez, NFWM Board Representative from The Episcopal Church

I spent the third week of June with the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network (CMFN), which held a Lilly-funded national training session at Loyola University-Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies for thirty-two leaders in farm worker ministry from fifteen dioceses from around the country. I am indebted to Jesuit Father Tom Florek for inviting me. Tom regaled us all with welcome letters from Cardinal Cupich from Chicago and from high-ranking officials in the Vatican! Presenters included officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as well as veteran leaders and organizers of farm worker ministry.

My assignment was to give an overview of farm workers, as well as ministry to and with farm workers. You can imagine the difficulty of squeezing all of that into a morning session shared with presentations from both CMFN and USCCB. The presentation was well received and overwhelmingly participants shared that they had very little if any knowledge about what was presented. Though participants were deeply involved in their particular dioceses, they were relatively new to a regional and national panorama, so they were grateful that this history was a part of their training. (Editor’s note: Use NFWM’s ambassador kit to host your own presentation about the Farm Worker Movement.) 

I was moved by the love and commitment to their ministry on the part of these leaders, as well as the great diversity among them, including some who were still directly involved in farm work, such as a member of the Pure’pecha People from Northwestern Michoacan in Mexico working near Mecca, California, and a native of Paraguay working in vineyards near the Finger Lakes of New York. This week will serve as almost a re-start of the Catholic Migrant Farm Worker Network, under the leadership of Father Tom. Father Dick Notter, of course, a faithful board member of NFWM representing CMFN on a regular basis, and who participated in unscrolling CMFN’s history as one of its founders and first director, was present for the week.

You can be sure I encouraged these trainees as I encourage each of us to join forces everywhere and be the strong, united church witness our campesinos hope for and expect from us. I distributed Wendy’s manager letters to help us fill up our map of Wendy’s locations already visited! (Editor’s note: Please join Hector in visiting Wendy’s locations and encouraging your community to boycott Wendy’s until they join the Fair Food Program.)