Sr. Ana Gonzalez shares her experience in Mexico as a novice

Back row, from left, Sr. Margaret Uche, Brother Michael Joseph Groak, Student Brother Nick Reynolds, Sr. Ana  Gonzalez, Candidate Ellen Coates. Front row, from left, Candidate Phuong Vu, Sr. Cathy Arnold, Fr. Gonzalo Bernabe Ituarte Verduzco, OP, Sr. June Fitzgerald, and Martha Elena Welsh Herrera and Pablo Romo Cedano of Casa Xitla.

I was not really sure what to expect when I was told that I, along with other members of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, would be attending an immersion experience in Mexico. I can tell you, however, that each of us - Sr. Margaret Uche, Candidates Ellen Coates and Phuong Vu, and Ministry of Formation Team Members Sr. Cathy Arnold and Sr. June Fitzgerald, were profoundly touched by the experience, and will be ever grateful for this opportunity.

The program, appropriately named “Inside Mexico,” is a seven-week “immersion experience” that combined classroom instruction in language, Mexican history and culture, and social justice issues, with excursions into the countryside that brought these topics to life.

The goal of the Inside Mexico program is to provide a comprehensive look at Mexico and the Central American immigrant reality – essential for those of us who will work with immigrants in the United States. The justice-centered program helped each of us to shake our pre-conceived notions of Mexican and Latino immigrants, and to become more compassionate ministers of Christ’s Gospel to the growing Latino community in the United States Catholic Church.

The program exceeded our expectations by providing world-class instruction in language, history, and culture as well as experts in migrant rights and justice, community engagement and activism, companioning family members of the disappeared, and much more.

As Mexico’s only non-profit center dedicated to peace, human rights, the arts, spirituality, and environmental sustainability, Casa Xitla was the ideal site for this program. My Sisters and I were able to reflect contemplatively in this beautiful setting.

Nearly 35% of our American Catholic Church are Latino or of Latino descent. The presentations I experienced in Mexico opened my eyes and heart to the needs of this community, and I believe will make us more loving and more effective ministers to all who come to our country and to our Catholic Church.