Kevin's Corner 10-05-08
Written by Fr. Kevin McDonough
AN INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE AND SAINT PETER CLAVER: I was away from our parish from September 22 until October 3. It was a great trip, including time with an old friend and his family in New York and a wonderful week with my brother Pat and his family in Texas. I say that I was away from the parish, but the parish was never far from me. Permit me to tell you about one’s days travels, and their connection to what we are about in Claver.
A TRIP TO DEACON FRED’S ROOTS: My nephew Sean (taking a day off from fifth grade) and I made a pilgrimage to the part of Texas where Deacon Fred Johnson had his start. The Piney Woods of East Texas are about two hours from Sean’s home in Fort Worth, and we set out early last Wednesday for a day trip. Thinking of Deacon Fred as I drove, I suppose already had Claver on my mind. But I was not anticipating just how rich an experience we would have six miles southwest of Alto, Texas, on Highway 21. There, the beautiful Neches River valley told a quintessentially American story, resonant with Claver values and history.
THE CADDO INDIANS: Sean and I spent an hour and a half at one of Texas’ most important archeological sites. Caddoan Mounds State Historical Site protects the remains of an Indian town that flourished from 500 to 1100 AD (with prehistoric roots back as far as 10,000 BC). Three significant mounds – one a burial site and two for temples – have been excavated. They connect the Caddoans to the larger Mississippian network of Indian cultures whose distinctive mound-building marked the great river valley from the far South all the way to Saint Paul. Although the Caddo tribe still exists, it was already in decline when the Spanish arrived, suffered greatly from contact with Europeans, and eventually was exiled to western Oklahoma, where a small group now struggles to preserve its traditions and culture. Claver connection #1: American history is much more complex than the myth we learned as kids, that myth of noble Pilgrims standing on Plymouth Rock, Bible in hand, preparing to convert the savages. The more one knows of native and Black history, the more one sees how rich and turbulent this nation’s roots are.
MISION SAN FRANCISCO DE LOS TEJAS: There was another lesson in that valley. Although the Caddoan town that Sean and I visited had been in decline for several hundred years when the Spanish arrived, there was still a significant Indian population in the 1600s. And so Spanish-Mexican Franciscans went to that same valley in the 1690s and again a generation later to teach European agriculture and religion to the native people. They named the mission for their own founder, Francis of Assisi, but added a word that they hoped would prove prophetic. “Tejas” was their rendering of a Caddo word for “friends”. The mission was unsuccessful in making friends with the Indians, but the name stuck in the area. The U.S. state of Texas bears a Spanish form of an Indian name that speaks of a hope for universal friendship. Claver connection #2: many of our members are from families whose faith comes not from northern European immigration in the 19th or 20th centuries, but from the Caribbean and Gulf Coast experience of African, Indian, Spanish, and French interaction.
WEEPING MARY, TEXAS: There was yet a third Claver reminder in that valley. After leaving the Caddoan site, Sean and I turned onto a county road that would eventually connect us to a main highway back home. First, however, it led us past Weeping Mary Baptist Church and the small village (less than fifty inhabitants) that bears the same name. What an extraordinary title for a Baptist congregation! I wondered whether the Franciscans had left another linguistic trace in that valley – you can read more speculation about the name by looking up “Weeping Mary Texas” on the internet. But it was not the Catholic-Baptist name that caught my attention as much as the little town itself – isolated from main roads, tucked into easily flooded land between two creeks, still obviously profoundly poor (in economic terms, anyway). Founded more than 140 years ago, the village was a place where freed slaves could escape the oppressive East Texas racism and live independent lives by subsistence farming. Claver connection #3: for a moment, I felt I was among the grandparents of some of our parish families – perhaps Deacon Fred’s people, perhaps your own.
FROM A TEXAS RIVER VALLEY TO A MINNESOTA PARISH: A one-day tour far away renewed my imagination about our parish’s work. Surrounded by election-year sloganeering – civil and religious – we must continue challenging our American nation and our Catholic community to be more inclusive. We ask God to give us the same courage that caused our ancestors to persevere. And we trust the Lord of history to create one family from the many different, and often warring, tribes and nations of humanity. I enjoyed being away, and am glad to be back home!
THANK YOU, RELIGIOUS EDUCATORS AND SHELTER VOLUNTEERS: I am proud to note that, during my absence, two massive parish efforts got underway with minimal help from me. We are well-launched into our Project Home hospitality – thank you volunteers and leaders. And we had our first weekend of religious education classes last Sunday. It is not to late to get your children signed up, nor is it too late to volunteer to help pass on the faith to our young people. Stop over in the School building between Sunday morning Masses or give us a call at the parish office for more information.
HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION: Fr. McDonough reported back to school on Friday afternoon, announcing that his top goal for the next three months is to turn around the economic picture of the parish’s outreach work. The irony of our current financial challenges is that they come as result of the school doing the work it was re-started to do – we are providing an excellent education to young people, many of whom come from economically-challenged circumstances. Pray that the funds will follow.
We received a check this week for $6,000 from the Catholic Community Foundation. Thanks, donors!