This year marks the 400th anniversary of St. Vincent de Paul’s commitment to spirituality and service among the poor. Vincent’s questions for reflection on life remain just as relevant today: What inspired me? What surprised me? What challenged me? What moved me deeply?
On April 1, nearly 150 people gathered at St. Ignatius Loyola Church for the annual Denver Vincentian Family Day of Reflection to consider those questions in light of this year’s theme: “Welcoming the Stranger—Moving Beyond Fear.”
Those gathered, who ranged in age from retirees to teens, considered personal reflections from three Denverites who found themselves treated like strangers: a Muslim refugee from Afghanistan, a formerly incarcerated lesbian, and a young African American man brutalized by police.
Khalid was a dentist in Afghanistan when he volunteered as a translator for the U.S. and Afghan armies. Because he was colluding with what was considered an “occupying force” in his native country, growing safety concerns led him to uproot his young family and emigrate to the United States in 2013.
Once in the U.S., Khalid and his family found they had “no family or friends to ask how to start new lives,” he said. How and where was he to get a job? Find food? The African Community Center helped his family get green cards as permanent residents, but making a life in the U.S. was another story. “Not being able to practice my profession and being treated like a stranger were the biggest challenges for me,” Khalid said.
He first worked as a security guard and then as a dental assistant. Now he drives for Uber. He said it is very difficult to find meaningful work—especially work that pays a living wage for him and his family. Khalid worries for his two daughters. “I don’t see a bright future for my kids either over there or in the U.S.,” he said. “I am living here in the U.S., but my heart and soul are over there.”
Next Barb spoke about the labels she wears as both a woman who identifies herself as a lesbian and as a felon. She’d been profiled all her life for her sexual orientation, she said, but it was her past criminal conviction that brought her shame.
“They can’t ask my sexual preference on a job application, but they sure can ask if I’m a convicted felon,” she said, tearing up. Because of her record, she could not enroll in community college and was turned away from jobs. Finally, Barb found welcome at the Denver School of Massage Therapy, where she trained and now teaches as a massage therapist.
“I cannot tell you how much it empowers someone to be welcomed,” she said. Then she added, “We’re called beyond welcoming and we’re certainly not called to just tolerate—we’re called to embrace.”
After lunch catered by SAME Café, a black man in his late 20s spoke of his disastrous 2009 encounter with Denver police officers. Alex Landau screened “Traffic Stop,” an Emmy award-winning animated short about the late-night illegal left turn that left him needing 45 stitches in his face alone. He said that as a black man who had been adopted as a baby into a white family, his arrest and beating was the first time he ever felt profiled. Ultimately all charges against Alex were dropped and Denver police settled the subsequent lawsuit for nearly $800,000. He has since channeled his realization that he almost became “just another dead black male” into advocacy through the Denver Justice Project and the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.
The day’s attendees sat in discussion groups of 8-10 in the basement of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish to share what in each talk personally impacted them. Columbian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen Father Gullermo Campuzano, known as Father Memo, had been scheduled to fly in to lead the event, but he was detained by and searched three times before boarding his plane in New York. He attributed part of this to his thick foreign accent and failure to bring his passport, though he did not need one to fly within the U.S. He missed his flight, but Fr. Memo’s reflections of that experience were read to the group he had been meant to lead. In concert with the day’s theme, he said he felt compassion for all those who are subject to similar searches and detentions.
The Day of Reflection was organized and sponsored by Vincentian Priests and Brothers, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Center for Spirituality at Work, Colorado Vincentian Volunteers, and Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth and Associates.
Tags: 400th Anniversary, Colorado, Welcoming the stranger
