Sisters leaving El Paso with gratitude for local community

By Mary Ann Herman-Bogle, Rio Grande Catholic

Daughter of Charity Sister Julio Cutter and Sister Liliane Alam of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are leaving the Diocese of El Paso with a note of gratitude to the local Catholic community.

"My nine years in El Paso enriched me with friendships and the experience of a multi-cultural, bilingual, binational reality that prepares me for the future of the church and world," said Sister Cutter. "I assume a new ministry with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul as part of a leadership team in St. Louis, Mo."

In the words of Sister Alam: "Thank you for opening your hearts and home to me. This vibrant community of El Paso and the Great State of Texas will never leave my memory, nor will the people I cherish who live there."

Sister Cutter said she arrived on the border after six years in Guatemala as a missionary with indegenous families who had been driven from their homes and coopeeratives by 30 years of violence perpetrated by the government and military of Guatemala.

"The families spent 12 - 14 years in refugee camps in Mexico before negotiating to return, with international support, to their land," she said. "I learned from these families that people of faith who are organized and united are capable to rebuilding their lives and communities. They insisted on rising again."

Sister Cutter said her Guatemala experience " motivated my work at El Paso's San Juan Diego Parish in the development of lay leaders and small church communities. In order to be part of the work of justice and challenging unjust systems, I dedicated time and energy to my own development as a leader with EPISO. With the support of the pastor and a group of key leaders, the parish continued to act in the public life of El Paso to work together with other parishes, schools, and colonias to better the quality of life for families."

She said the parish's activities continue as leaders educate themselves and act on issues of economic development, education, colonia infrastructure, access to health care, immigrtion, and job training for living wage jobs.

"I believe EPISO's organizing and leadership development are keys to the resurrection of God's people," she said.

Kevin Courtney, lead organizer with EPISO, said, "While in El Paso Sister Julie worded passionately to bring water and services to the colonias, to train parish youth and adults to lead immigration and education academies, and to develop new parish leaders. She was best known for her sense of humor, good cheer and corny jokes. She'll be greatly missed all over town."

Sister Alam has been directing the work at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center for the past six years.

"It has been my privilege to direct the very important work being done at Las Americas," she said. "The progress made is the result of a collaborative effort. At Las Americas, we have been able to expand our task and implement plans that have given hope to immigrants lost in a system that had forgotten them, battered immigrant women who knew nothing of a law that would protect them and minos being robbed of a childhood each day they sat in detention. I am proud of the word we have done."

Sister Alam will be visiting her ailing 85-year-old mother in Lebanon for two months before returning fto El Paso in October to spend some time at Las Americas and attend the Border Heroes Award Dinner.

"From there I head back to New York City for a ministry in human rights at an international level," she said.

She encouraged El Pasoans" to support the newly appointed Las Americas Executive Director Raymond E. Rojas in all his efforts to continue the vital work done there."

Rojas is a native El Pasoan and long-time labor and immigrant advocate. He recentrly founded the non-profit Kansas City Worker Justice Project where he served as director until June 1.

Las Americas Accredited Rrepresentative, Betsy Allen-Rodriguez, described Sister Alam as ".. a very dedicated and spirited advocate for immigrants' rights and human rights with special concern for women and children."

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