Maryknoll
Father Dick Baker and I met Simon, a Sudanese refugee, on a dusty street in
Gambella, Ethiopia.  The tall Nuer Catholic was one of the hundreds of displaced
Sudanese Baker has been serving in a refugee camp here.  Dressed in short pants
and a flour sack shirt, Simon joyfully told us the good news that he and 14
others had been accepted by U.S. officials as political refugees and would be
leaving for New York the next day.  The following day we went to the airport,
and the refugees, all Sudanese Catholics fleeing persecution in their homeland,
surrounded Baker.  He gave each of them a small cross and prayed with them.  I
was deeply moved seeing the solemn, devout faces of young and old.  The
missionary then gave them certificates of baptism and marriage to present to
their parish priests in America.  We can only hope that they will be served and
valued, for they are God’s own, and, I must add, God bless America for opening
its arms to our tired and oppressed brothers and sisters.