Walking with Pope Leo during Easter, Episode 5

The Inseparable Bond Podcast: “Standing Together”

With Fr. Ron Will, CPPS

“We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor.”

—“I Have Love You,” the apostolic letter of Pope Leo XIV

In Episode 4, Fr. Ron talks with Joan Barrett from St. Patrick Parish in Kansas City, Missouri. We call the episode: “Standing Together.”

Watch the video to hear the full interview. Here are excerpts from Episode 4.

Fr. Ron Will: In his letter Dilexi Te (I Have Loved You), Pope Leo XIV sets forth a bold agenda for the Church’s action in the world. Leo reminds us that God loves all of us, but something like a mother who may have several children and then one of them gets seriously sick, or one of them has special needs, her love, her time, her energy goes in a special way to that. God loves all of us, but God’s heart goes out to the poor in a special way. God hears the cry of the poor. And now God responds to that cry through you and me. We are members of the body of Christ. So Christ acts through his members. Pope Leo reminds us that to be Catholic means to love the poor.

Now, to be honest, I’ve been Catholic all my life, but I did not realize until I read this letter how strongly our church has taught over the centuries that we must go out of our way to love the poor. It is definitely part of our Catholic teaching. This is not a new teaching by Pope Leo. Love for the poor is not an option. It is an expectation by our God.

During this Easter season, I wish to pray with you for the coming of the Holy Spirit to inspire and energize us the love those whom God loves in a special way.

In this series, we are meeting individuals who are trying to take that command of God seriously and apply it to their own personal lives and in their parish lives. We will learn ideas about how we ourselves might do something similar in our own circles of influence. Today, I am visiting with Joan Barrett from St. Patrick Parish in Kansas City, Missouri. Welcome, Joan. Thank you for taking some time to share with us today.

Joan Barrett: Thank you, Fr. Ron. I am excited to be a part of this.

Fr. Ron Will: Joan, you read Pope Leo’s apostolic letter along with several of us during the season of Lent. And you shared with me that the letter nudged you to refocus your time and energy. You are already busy, but you wonder if that is the most meaningful busy. So maybe you could start by sharing your internal struggle to find ways to actually love the poor.

Joan Barrett: Yes, I’d be glad to share with you a couple of things that that have crossed my mind. I’ve been retired from an organization where I was a program manager, a very busy program manager, for about five years. I remember as I was getting ready to retire, I had this moment where I said, I’m not going to jump into anything. I’m going to very carefully curate my time, my free time. And of course, that didn’t happen the way I had expected. I jumped into a number of organizations that mean a lot to me. But do they have a lot of long-term meaning to others?

I mean, they are organizations that that I enjoy being a part of, but I’m not sure that I am serving others in that work. And I was so glad to hear you say, Father Ron, that as a lifelong Catholic and a member of the clergy for 50 years, that you had to be reminded that serving the poor is not just a request. It’s an absolute command that we serve the poor. When my husband and I saw the list of classes that that the Precious Blood Center was offering during Lent, we jumped on that whole idea of Pope Leo’s apostolic letter where he spoke very specifically about serving the poor.

Through that course, through the readings and through some addendum readings, I’ve really been nudged to divest myself a little bit of some of the busyness of organizations that I’ve been involved with over the past five years. And make time to help in organizations that serve the needy, that serve the poor, that serve the vulnerable.

Fr. Ron Will: You felt some kind of a nudge to refocus the use of your time. There are so many saints over the years who dedicated their selves to the poor. Some of them heroic, but a lot of them in simple ways. We don’t have to look for giant efforts or heroic efforts, but look for simple ways to love. What did you find that you feel drawn to?

Joan Barrett: Thank you for couching it in those terms. I remember very distinctly one of the discussions we had in our class about not needing to solve all the problems of the world, or not waiting to find that one opportunity where you can make a huge impact in the world because each of us, in our own little way, can make an impact.

One organization that I found is called the Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, AIRR. It’s an immigrant led organization, and their focus is keeping families together and ending the current humanitarian crisis in the immigrant community. They’re committed to empowering the immigrant community and providing them with their own tools so that they can better protect themselves and their families. That really spoke to me. They believe that all people, no matter where they were born, deserve a chance to, to be safe and to have dignified lives.

I wasn’t quite sure where I fit into that, but the idea of serving the immigrant community really spoke to me [and I found] one of their probably smaller less known programs, that’s called the Court Watchers Program, It’s an opportunity to quietly watch federal immigration court proceedings. The watcher takes notes about the actions that are taken during any individual proceeding. They also provide a presence for the immigrants, which are referred to as respondents.

They provide a presence for the respondents as they walk through the court proceedings. It’s also a sign to the judges in the Federal Immigration Court in Kansas City. But it’s a clear sign to them that they’re being held accountable. Not in an adversarial way, but just in a calm, reflective kind of way. Individuals who serve as court watchers literally are quiet observers.

We don’t talk to the respondents. We are just there for them, observing and providing a presence that hopefully creates some measure of calm for them, some measure of security for them.

I have gone through a two-hour training. I have not yet had an opportunity to actually go into court yet, but I, that speaks to me.

[Joan next tells about finding a “rosary rally for immigrants” held in a downtown Kansas City park near the immigration court. About 120 people gather on the third Wednesday of the month to pray the rosary in support of immigrants. The rallies are organized by the Office of Life & Justice of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Archbishop Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, Kansas, and Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City, Missouri, have joined the rallies.]

Joan Barrett: About 120 people prayed the rosary together in front of the court. It was very meaningful. It was an opportunity to pray for our immigrant population. It was an opportunity to stand in solidarity. People had signs and a gentleman stood in an empty parking space on Grand Avenue with a large crucifix. I thought it was very meaningful.

Fr. Ron Will: I’m glad that you’re moving with the nudges of the Holy Spirit, and I’ll be interested to see where these nudges continue to unfold in your life.

Some Background

This series grew out of a study group Fr. Ron led during Lent reading Leo’s apostolic letter. Inspired by discussion during these study sessions, Fr. Ron wanted to have deeper conversations on themes and ideas the group brought up.

Pope Leo’s letter is itself a response to Pope Francis’ last encyclical letter, “Dilexit Nos” (I Have Loved You), which was a moving mystical mediation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and God’s immeasurable, inexhaustible love of all creation, especially the least among us.

During this Easter Season, let’s pray together for the coming of the Holy Spirit to inspire and energize us to love those whom God loves.

Listen in every Tuesday during the Easter Season, leading up to the celebration of Pentecost.

All of the videos in this series can be found here: The Inseparable Bond Podcast

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[Fr. Ron Will, a Precious Blood priest and spiritual director, is a graduate of Catholic Theological Union and Creighton University’s School of Christian Spirituality. He has a special interest in helping form intentional disciples of Jesus, encouraging others to go spiritually deep-sea diving to explore a deeper relationship with God, and walking with people as they dive into the ocean of God’s mystery experiencing God rather than simply dipping one’s toe into the water.]

We encouraged you to read the apostolic letter. You can download a copy for free from the Vatican’s website or buy a copy at your favorite bookstore.

Learn more about “Dilexi Te” (I Have Loved You)

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