St. Theresa Parish in San Benito recently was the site of a remarkable event. At the age of 89, Bertha Martín Gonzalez of Harlingen was baptized there on Oct. 6.“To me it was a beautiful thing,” she says of the experience. “I feel like I was born again – the most beautiful feeling anyone can have!”“She was so happy because she had been wanting to be baptized for a long, long time,” her niece, Olivia Reyes, said.

“It got me closer to God,” Gonzalez said. “Now I get up in the morning and he’s the first person I think of in my heart!”

Gonzalez recalls her long life as a series of triumphs over adversity.

She had a difficult childhood, she said, describing herself as the “black sheep of the family” – ironic because of her Spanish ancestry, green eyes and light skin. That and other circumstances made her an outsider in her own circle.

Undeterred, she grew to adulthood and led a full life, working, marrying and raising her children. And although she was never baptized, she said, she attended Mass regularly and faithfully with her longtime husband, Gilbert Gonzalez, at Immaculate Conception Church in Harlingen. She only regretted that she could not receive the sacraments.

“I always called myself Catholic,” she said. “Everything was fine except for that.”
Reyes recounted her aunt’s dilemma.

“What happened was that she would go to church,” Reyes said. “But because she wasn’t baptized and had no sacraments, she said she always sat in the back of the church.

“Not that she wasn’t well received – everybody was friendly and all that – but she felt like she wasn’t part of the Church.”

As the decades passed and her age advanced, there came a point where Gonzalez had to stop going to church. 

“She had health issues,” Reyes said. “This and that and (her) knees and other problems. And then my uncle got sick.”

At the time he passed away, the two had been married for 50 years.
Reyes, a catechist at St. Theresa Parish, eventually became instrumental in resolving her aunt’s situation. “It just happened that everything fell into place,” she said.

“What happened was, about five or six years ago we were at a party,” Reyes said. “The family got together, and we were talking about this and about that, and I was telling her about my CCD classes and what I was teaching. 

“And she turned and told me, ‘Mi’jita, I have not been baptized.’ And I said, ‘What?! I didn’t know that.’ ”

“I said, ‘We can do it right away.’ She said, ‘No, I’m not ready right now. But I do want to.’ ”Still more time went by, until another reminder of life’s uncertainty came to pass.

Proyecto Desarrollo Humano in western Hidalgo County is an apt name for the ongoing effort that has become a model of community service and peripheral ministry during its 20 years. Desarrollar is a Spanish verb that means “to develop,” but with subtle connotations of making progress, improvement and growth. So Proyecto Desarrollo Humano really means a project to make people’s lives better.

Marking its 20th anniversary Oct. 26 with a special Mass at nearby St. Anne Catholic Church in Penitas, the parochial vicar there, Father Melchor N. Villero, M.J., told those gathered, “Gracias a Dios, hemos podido hacer algo.” (Thanks be to God, we’ve been able to do something.)

“En el momento cuando comenzamos y iniciamos todo esto, tanto sacrificio, tanto lucha, tanta entrega en compromiso,” he said. “Solo podemos agradecer a Dios por las cosas maravillas que ha hecho … Gracias a Dios.” (When we began all this – so much sacrifice, so much struggle, so much dedication in commitment. We can only thank God for the marvelous things that have been done.)

But Father Villero admonished that the mission’s work must go on. 

“Hermanos y hermanas, on this occasion we are challenged with the question: How will we continue? How will tomorrow be?” he said. “It is not just what you believe that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. …  sino como respondemos con puro corazón y con acciones concretas.”
Catholic Extension Society, the national organization whose stated mission is working “in solidarity with people to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America,” was instrumental in providing support for Proyecto Desarrollo Humano at its outset. Father Jack Wall, president of Catholic Extension, visited from Chicago for the anniversary celebration. 

“The very, very first place I went to as president was right here,” Father Wall said. “I came here 18 years ago when I was just beginning, and so was the Proyecto. And the colonia here was very isolated, very separated and apart.

“Through the years, over and over again, what I’ve come to see is the presence of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord on you and all that you are doing.”

How Proyecto Desarrollo Humano began

In 2004, nuns of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ventured west from their station in Brownsville looking for new opportunities and places to serve in the Rio Grande Valley. 

Western Hidalgo County is a sprawling expanse whose rural character has been transformed in the modern era by a steady growth of population. The sisters soon identified a particular area several miles north of Peñitas which seemed to lack services in general. As a likely spot to start their ministry, they settled on an isolated neighborhood there named for its landmark tall palm trees.

At that time the colonia named Pueblo de Palmas was little more than a grid of muddy streets and a few house trailers scattered here and there among mostly empty lots.
In an effort to meet the residents, the late Sister Tellie Lape and Sister Fatima Santiago would set out and go house to house through the mud, where they were often confronted by snarling dogs, locked gates and suspicion. The people in the trailers, often recent immigrants from Mexico, were wary and not easy to reach, but the sisters persisted.

Seeking a permanent presence, the sisters also arranged to meet the subdivision’s developer, Gary Frisby, to explain their mission. Providence brought them an ally in Frisby and his wife Dawna, who promptly agreed to donate a valuable corner lot on which the Missionary Sisters could set up shop. That lot became the site for a small building that would become the mission’s nucleus.

The sisters reported their progress to the late Bishop Raymundo J. Peña, whose approval and blessing crowned the beginnings of Proyecto Desarrollo Humano. Soon the effort gathered support from Catholic Extension and others.

The future of PDH

During its two decades, PDH, as it is often called by its workers and volunteers, has put up more buildings and infrastructure on its original site, which serves as the headquarters for a cornucopia of services. These include a medical and dental clinic, counseling, a computer lab, a community garden, a sewing and craft center and even a charitable thrift store and Zumba classes. Some 2,500 local families benefit.

And in spring of 2024, PDH opened a second site a few miles away at the old San Juan Diego mission church building at Mile 7 Road and Poinsetta Drive in Colonia El Flaco. Bishop Daniel E. Flores granted rent-free use of the former mission, even as the community grows nearby around the new San Juan Diego mission church on Western Road.
The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary continue their long service at PDH, including  Sister Fatima Santiago, the executive director; Sister Mary Dasari; Sister Emily Jocsun; and Sister Carolyn Kosub. 

In his homily Oct. 26, Father Villero looked to the future, as western Hidalgo County continues to grow. “We are celebrating the 20th anniversary. For the 25th? Nothing is sure in the world,” he said. “We can only be grateful, we can only celebrate, for the day that God has given us.”

Then he repeated his call to serve.

“The ability of social action is not merely to improve the conditions of society. It’s not merely to feed the hungry, not merely to relieve human suffering … if these were all, they would be important surely,” he said. “But this is not all. A basic consideration has to be the removal of all that prevents God from coming into the life of individuals, of families, of communities, and of the Church. 

“Whatever there is that blocks this calls for action.”

“Jesus nos recuerda, aquí no vamos a quedarnos. Vamos a bajar. Vamos a estar con  las personas, la gente, especialmente donde hay más necesidad. Donde están los perdidos, los últimos, los insignificantes que siguen multiplicando en nuestro ambiente. (Jesus reminds us, we’re not going to just stand here. We’re going to get with, we’re going to be with the people, especially those where there is the most need, where live the lost, the last, the overlooked, who continue to grow in numbers in our midst.)
Father Wall cited a Gospel passage about two disciples talking, and its relevance to Proyecto.

“One of them said, ‘I have found the Messiah. I found the Christ.’ The other disciple said, ‘Where is he from?’ “From Nazareth, in Galilee.’ Nathanael, one of the disciples, said to his friend Philip, ‘What good can come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ ”  

“Come here and experience what happens when the divine becomes flesh. What good can come of this colonia? Come and see – it is beautiful,” Father Wall said. “What a joy, what an honor, what a privilege it is to come to someplace where you sense the presence of the spirit of God, and see it embodied, incarnate, in the flesh, in you and your families and all that you are doing.”  

by PAUL BINZ
The burnt remnant of “The MiraculousChrist,” that once adorned the original Shrine of Nuestra Señora de San Juan del Valle, owes its survival to a local family that has long been a pillar of the shrine community. The eldest daughter of the late José Juan and Maria de Jesus Rodriguez recently recounted the story of the cross, and how her family’s fortunes and blessings became intimately connected to their work at the old shrine.
“I remember the cross,” Maria G. Palacios said, recalling her former church.  “They had a little cloth around it. And then they had all the little miracles pinned to the little cloth.” 
When people would pray for something, and their prayers were answered, they would put a pin on the cloth, she said. Similar devotions can be found in the Miracle Room of today’s basilica.
“If it was your foot, they had little feet. Or little legs, or little hands, or depending on what part of the body that was healed,” Palacios said. “So it was a very miraculous cross.” 
The large crucifix was created by the late Spanish sculptor Julio Beobide. The family’s patriarch, Juan Rodriguez, was a familiar figure at the shrine in October 1970 at the time of the plane crash and fire, Palacios said. 
“Don Juan” Rodriguez, as he was known, had worked for a local farmer who decided to sell out, Palacios said. So when the large young family suddenly faced an uncertain future, the generosity of their church’s rector changed their fortunes.
Rodriguez went to see Father José Azpiazu, who had founded the shrine in the late 1940s, and explained the family’s predicament. Father Azpiazu loaned him money to buy the farm, and then offered him work at the shrine so he could pay off the debt.
“Father Joe gave my dad a job,” Palacios said. “He would sing. He was the sacristan. And he did a lot of other different kinds of jobs – whatever needed to be fixed.”
Later, the older children in the family and their mother also found work at the shrine, which was the largest church in the Rio Grande Valley at the time and boasted a grade school, cafeteria and large rectory. “Father José was very kind to our family,” Palacios said.
Plane crash Oct. 23, 1970
So on the fateful day in 1970 when suicidal pilot Frank Alexander dove his plane into the shrine, four members of the Rodriguez family were on the grounds. Palacios recounted the moments after the plane crashed.
“My mom was working in the cafeteria. Two of my brothers were at school and at lunch in the cafeteria. My dad said when it happened, he ran to get my mom.”
Her father encountered his wife scrambling to save valuables in the cafeteria.
“My mom had purses hanging down like this, and she had the cash register in her hands. And she’s running, and saying, ‘They just took off, and they left their purses!’ ” Palacios said. 
Rodriguez got his wife to drop the encumbrances so the two could flee.
Palacios and her sister Carmen were at Austin Junior High, where they could see the smoke rising from the fire.
“We were so scared because my parents and my brothers were over there. Not until my dad came to pick us up did we find out they were OK,” she said. 
Unlike the ruined church and damaged cafeteria, the cash register and students’ purses survived unscathed.
Saving the artifact
Cleanup of the gutted church began almost immediately after the disaster. Dozens of people who had attended the shrine showed up to help. The haste and carelessness of the cleanup prompted many to pick up small items as relics of the church they had revered.
“My dad said the bulldozers came and nothing was separated – nothing. And they just started putting everything in the trucks,” Palacios said. “So he was able to go in and get pieces. 
“That’s why he saved the cross. He took it to our house and put it in the garage. It was his garage, and nobody went in there.” The charred piece resided undisturbed in Rodriguez’s man-cave for the next four decades until shortly after he passed away in 2011.
“So we didn’t even know about it until my sister was cleaning up,” Palacios said. “I said, ‘That’s got to be the cross.’ That’s why I took it.”
Palacios guarded what remains of “The Miraculous Christ” in her own home until recently, when she seemed to get a message. 
“A feeling that I needed to take him back came over me about a year ago,” Palacios said. “He was telling me, ‘I need to go back. I need to go back.’ ” 
Palacios’ memories of her parents offer a clue as to why her father clung to the artifact.
“Very loyal Catholics,” she said. “Like my dad – all of a sudden, he would just start crying. I would ask him why, and he would say, ‘I feel the pain that Jesus went through when he died on the cross.’ They were very devoted Catholics, both of them.” 
The Rodriguez family has proven to be a classic American success story. 
Both of her parents were born in Mexico and eventually naturalized. Her father, Palacios said, “was so proud when he became a U.S. citizen. He wouldn’t let go of the certificate!” 
“God is with us all the time, and he takes care of us,” Palacios said. “In my family, out of nine kids, only two did not finish college. One of my sisters who did not finish the university, she has a doctor and a lawyer in her family. She helped her daughters go through. 
“My brother has a son and a daughter. And his son and his daughter-in-law both work for NASA. My nephew is in charge of monitoring temperature and conditions inside the space station.
“My sister Carmen told my mom that she wanted to join the Navy. Girls did not join the Navy in 1975. She said, ‘I’m going to do it, because I want to travel.’ She put 20 years in the Navy, and then she worked for American Airlines. She retired from both.”
One of the brothers is a deacon, Graciano Rodriguez at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Mercedes. And Palacios herself is a retired schoolteacher. Among her activities today is making beautiful rosaries by hand and then handing them out. “We have been blessed!” she says.

By BRENDA RIOJAS & PAULA LENT 

"God brought me to this moment,” said Joshua Velasquez, one of the Perpetual Pilgrims who is walking 65 days on the San Juan Diego Route, one of the four routes to Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. 

When Velasquez, a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Edinburg, first learned about the pilgrimage, he was drawn to learn more. But he never imagined he would be able to participate. 

From falling in love with the idea of pilgrimage to seeing it materialize, Velasquez said he is grateful for the opportunity and for God’s graces throughout the process. “I recognized I wanted to do this but felt it impossible to be able to walk with Jesus for two months, but through the course of events, a lot of coincidences that only God could put in place, made it possible,” he said.

Velasquez is one of 10 Perpetual Pilgrims walking on the San Juan Diego Route. “It is a privilege and an honor to be from the starting diocese. I received so much of my faith formation here, and the love I have for the Lord is from serving in this diocese at my parish, St. Joseph.” 

Velasquez, who is in his sophomore year studying architecture and theology at the University of Notre Dame, is a graduate of Juan Diego Academy in Mission. At the university he serves at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and sings with the Notre Dame Folk Choir.

In an interview with Today’s Catholic, the newspaper of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Velasquez said, “Juan Diego was one of the most humble saints,” adding that as a pilgrim on the Juan Diego Route, “it will be a really humbling thing to facilitate the encounter between Christ and those who will walk with us.” 

During his days walking the first leg of the San Juan Diego Route in the Diocese of Brownsville, Velasquez spoke of his love for the Eucharist and the joy of walking (despite the 100-plus degree weather). “The Eucharist is love incarnate, right here, present for us right now. Not only here but in every church in the world and most importantly in our hearts when we receive him.”

Velasquez said the pilgrimage is tiring in a lot of ways, but also a beautiful opportunity to recognize that it is the Lord leading the way. 

As noted in his online bio, “In this time of Eucharistic Revival, Joshua hopes to bring his love for Christ from Brownsville to Indianapolis, and that those who encounter our Lord on pilgrimage might come to know God’s love for them.”

Father Greg Labus, pastor at St. Joseph Church in Edinburg, said the community is thrilled that Velasquez was selected to be a perpetual pilgrim. The parish helped raise funds to cover his expenses on the journey. 

“He is representing not only our parish, but he is representing the Diocese of Brownsville. It is a great sign and witness to the larger Church that our youth love the Lord in the Eucharist, and they want to publicly profess their faith in him,” he said.

Father Labus added that the parish is praying for his vocation. “Joshua is an intelligent young man and many of us are praying that there is a vocation to the priesthood there, and that he may hear God calling him and follow that call to be a priest.” 

__________

Excerpt from Today’s Catholic in story by Paula Lent:

As a Perpetual Pilgrim, Velasquez looks forward to bringing our Eucharistic Lord into places he may not otherwise be seen.

“Christ in the Eucharist is the revelation of God to mankind,” Velasquez said. “Our Eucharistic Lord comes every day in thousands of places at the altar through the hands of the priest. By doing this pilgrimage, walking the streets, I really hope that this encounter that is often confined to churches and chapels enters the streets and enters into the everyday experiences of people walking with us and of those we pass by in their homes or places of work. 

“I want to bring Christ to places where he wouldn’t otherwise be seen, and I hope that those encounters with Christ on the street will spark something in people and ignite a revival in their hearts that brings them to the faith.”

Velasquez hopes the pilgrimage will spark something in his own heart as well. Having fallen in love with truth through his intellect, Velasquez’s love from the mind is developing into a love from the heart, as he has been continuing to encounter the Lord through Mass and Eucharistic adoration. This pilgrimage seems like the right next step to help further his faith, and for that he’s grateful.

“God is very good at timing things,” he said. 

He hopes the pilgrimage will help him “to develop a relationship of trust with Our Lord and to be really open to however he wants to use me as one of his many instruments. I really want the love of God … to be set on fire in a way that others can see the depths of how much God loves them as well. To grow in that relationship that’s been growing for quite a while, and also be a sign to that relationship such that others are drawn to him as well.”

He asks for prayers that people have a very deep encounter in their hearts with Christ by seeing him walking the streets.

“That solidarity of prayer all over the country – and the world, even – is what’s really going to make this pilgrimage effective. Pray for us as we help facilitate that encounter, and pray for the encounter to be really felt wherever Our Lord goes – and we follow.”  0