As a Catholic lay missionary organization, Our Lady’s Youth Center operates in three dioceses in our area: El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces, NM; and Juarez, Mexico. We have good relationships with all three bishops and invite them to come from time to time to see some of our ministries.
On March 1st, the bishop of Las Cruces, Bishop Peter Baldacchino, went to the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez to celebrate Mass and to see what happens there. He had been wanting to go across the border to see the ministry, and the day he chose happened to be the birthday of Fr. Rick Thomas, S.J., our founder. The bishop was delighted to hear that, as he has been reading the biography of Fr. Thomas and getting to know his life and legacy better. He said, “Today we celebrate the birthday of Father Rick Thomas. He started a very great work here. Why? Because he had the love of God in his heart.”
After Mass, we toured the bishop around. The children from our Montessori school had made posters for him and sang him a song. The bishop helped lay a few bricks on an addition that we are constructing, and he visited the women in the carpentry shop to see the new material they are making for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the Montessori-style catechism program we follow. The cooks in the kitchen prepared a wonderful lunch and everybody had a great day. Ramona, who coordinates the Lord’s Food Bank, said, “I can’t explain how beautiful and blessed this visit was for us.”
