Three months ago, I stepped down from a job that I enjoyed and retired after 44 years in full-time church ministry: 36 years as a lay ecclesial minister and 8 years as a deacon. This decision, made after prayerful discernment supported by participation in a 32-week experience of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, was prompted in part by my wife’s need to retire from her work in healthcare due to a workplace injury. We had both expected to continue working full-time for a few more years, but life took an unexpected turn. It didn’t have all the drama of Abraham and Sarah’s call in Genesis 12, but in its own way, we felt that we were being called to figuratively “go forth…to a land that I will show you.”
Recognizing that this would be a significant transition and wanting to be somewhat thoughtful about this next chapter in our lives, we decided to take a page from the pattern of our academic colleagues and take a “sabbatical.” For the equivalent of a semester, we would go somewhere and immerse ourselves in something that was different than what we had been doing in our professional careers and that allowed us to explore another facet of our Catholic faith. But where? Six years earlier, through our friendship with the Religious of the Assumption Sisters in Worcester, Massachusetts, we had spent a week in Chaparral, New Mexico, observing the Sisters’ ministry with the largely immigrant community in that unincorporated colonia. That visit inspired me to establish an annual week-long service-immersion trip to Chaparral and nearby El Paso, Texas with students and faculty from Assumption University where I was the Director of Campus Ministry. During these annual trips, we visited with the Sisters in Chaparral and with the Augustinians of the Assumption (the sponsoring religious community of Assumption University) in El Paso, both of whom were involved in offering temporary shelter to migrants who had recently arrived in the United States to begin the process of seeking asylum. Knowing that most of the temporary shelters had closed by early 2025 due to changes in U.S. immigration policy, my wife and I consulted with the Sisters who assured us that ministry with migrants had indeed changed, but nonetheless continued in different ways. With an invitation from the Sisters to stay in their Casa Maria Eugenia volunteer house, my wife and I slowly made our way from Worcester to Chaparral where we have just completed two months of a three-month stay. When we left, we really didn’t know what to expect, but we trusted that God was calling us to “go forth…to a land that I will show you.”
What God has shown us, through the many invitations offered by the Sisters, is a diverse and dedicated community of caregivers who have resiliently adapted their activities in order to support migrants in a very different and constantly evolving landscape of U.S. immigration policy. As recently as a couple of years ago, these people were primarily focused on offering hospitality to recently arrived asylum seekers through a system of 20 temporary shelters coordinated by Annunciation House, a pioneer and prophetic voice in care for migrants in the El Paso area since its founding in 1978. While steadfast in their belief that the changes in U.S. immigration policy in 2025 are contrary to both the biblical message about migrants and Catholic social teaching, this community of caregivers has channeled its disappointment, anger and discouragement into positive efforts to support migrants in this new environment. These efforts include a group of immigration lawyers and pastoral ministers (including members of the Chaparral Religious of the Assumption community) who every weekday sit with migrants in the immigration courthouse before and after their hearings, offering legal advice and pastoral support to those who are going through the court process and to their families. It includes a group of people trained in the basics of immigration court proceedings who every weekday sit in the immigration courtroom and take notes on the proceedings. It includes pastoral leaders who visit and pray with people who have been detained, and others who participate in a weekly ecumenical prayer outside of the immigration courthouse. These efforts also include a monthly Mass in a nearby desert area where the bodies of deceased migrants have been found, and food and rent assistance to the families of people who have been detained. They include a monthly interfaith prayer hosted by the Catholic cathedral in El Paso to celebrate our common biblical faith in the dignity of all people and to nurture our call to “treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you…(and) love the alien as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34), and an annual Mass at the U.S. Mexico border co-sponsored by the dioceses of El Paso, Las Cruces and Juarez where, this past Saturday, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso reminded those gathered that “no border can rob us of the brotherhood and sisterhood that we share” (11/1/25).
As impressed and inspired as my wife and I have been by the myriad ways in which people of different faiths collaborate in the greater El Paso area to support migrants, we have also learned much from the peaceful and biblically inspired way in which these caregivers approach their efforts. Disagreement over immigration policy does not stand in their way of treating those who work in the immigration court system and law enforcement with respect and kindness and of approaching them as brothers and sisters created in the image and likeness of God. Similarly, agreement with the grievances about the current immigration policy does not stand in their way of gently reminding visiting protestors that screaming at law enforcement officials who are carrying out a detention order often makes the situation worse for those who are being detained. During our “sabbatical,” my wife and I were proud to join the Religious of the Assumption Sisters in the “No Kings” rally in El Paso, and we also learned how to transcend what might have been our initial response to certain situations and respond instead in a way that was more grounded in the Gospel and that sought the greater good of the migrants who were at the center of the situation.
Thanks to the hospitality of the Religious of the Assumption Sisters in Chaparral, we prepare to return to Worcester in another month with a greater appreciation for the Church’s care for migrants in this particularly challenging political environment in the U.S. and with new insights into how to channel discouragement about current policy into positive new efforts. And thanks be to God who invited us to “go forth…to a land that I will show you.”
Deacon Paul Covino
November 4, 2025 (updated version November 5, 2025)
Deacon Paul Covino was ordained in the Diocese of Worcester in 2017. The primary focus of his 44 years in full-time ministry was liturgy and campus ministry. His wife Anne was a certified nurse-midwife. They have four grown sons and two grandchildren.