For the seventh time, Fr. Corey Brost, CSV, accompanied a group of young people as they retraced the steps of migrants trying to cross the desert. He calls it a pilgrimage, as together they reflect on the role faith plays in “welcoming the stranger.”
Fr. Corey Brost, CSV
Twice a year, for the last five years, he has led groups to the border between Arizona and Mexico. They begin their trek at the Saint Xavier Mission in Tuscon, which is the oldest church in Arizona, described as the “white dove of the desert.”
“This is what we do as Viatorians,” Fr. Corey says, “educate young people about pressing issues in our faith, and advocate for those on the margins and the forgotten, which in our society today are the immigrants.”
During their visit, they met with border patrol guards and Good Samaritan guides, as well as celebrated Mass together and prayed at the border for victims who have lost their lives. One of their final acts was to bless water jugs that would be put out for migrants in the desert.
Dear Friends, today starts the 7th semi-annual #pilgrimagenogales, where young adults join me on a four day immersion into the crisis at our border. Follow us. Learn with us and keep us in your prayers. And prayer's how we started at 300-hundred-year-old https://t.co/g1R5FrdsXk pic.twitter.com/HZn7DhGVC0
— Corey Brost, C.S.V. (@brostcsv) January 3, 2020
A morning of prayer & remembrance as #pilgrimagenogales hikes migrant trials where shrines mark the deaths of people seeking safety in our nation, including a teen. Thx Peter, Ricardo of https://t.co/bRWIw2So3D 4 leading us & your regular hikes to leave water 4 #thirsty migrants. pic.twitter.com/wnSOGDEXXp
— Corey Brost, C.S.V. (@brostcsv) January 5, 2020
An afternoon in Nogales, MX, reflecting on border wall art telling the migrant story, ending with Mass in the shadow of a wall and its barbed wire that separate dreams of hope and safety from our nation. #pilgrimagenogales pic.twitter.com/iqszYVq3Rm
— Corey Brost, C.S.V. (@brostcsv) January 5, 2020
#pilgrimagenogales blesses water for https://t.co/EdUNQHY5Jj to leave along AZ desert trails where, God willing, desperate migrants seeking safety in our nation will find relief. How many of the thousands forced to wait by US policy amidst danger in Mexico will take that risk? pic.twitter.com/XSX8Ezns1Z
— Corey Brost, C.S.V. (@brostcsv) January 6, 2020