- October 14, 2020 Social Justice, Sister Stories
Ordinarily, Sister Rosario Bobadilla finds her days full and focused as she serves her dear neighbors in the St. Louis Hispanic community. A psychotherapist with Bilingual International Assistant Services (BIAS)/Casa de Salud, she serves more than three dozen clients who are among St. Louis’s newest immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and her own native Mexico.
Nothing is ordinary in 2020, as the global coronavirus pandemic wreaks physical, emotional and financial crises in most communities, especially those on the margins. Here in St. Louis, Sister Rosario is like the comadre (godmother) of a powerhouse of more established leaders in the Hispanic community that she calls into action when a special need arises. She has been with this strong and steady community of Hispanics who serve their neighbors in need since it began 18 years ago.
In 2002, Sister Rosario visited Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Hispanic parish in Ferguson, Missouri. She found herself connecting with a group of young married couples. In the nearly two decades since, she has seen the group mature, with the couples now grandparents and their children now college graduates.
Through the years, this group has gathered to celebrate baptisms, confirmations, birthdays and holidays. And members are there when families need help educating their children in the faith or face a financial setback. Fifteen leaders have emerged from among them, with each of them having contact with numerous families from throughout the area.
These leaders connect daily through text messages. One day’s messages in mid-July includes a posting of a verse from the day’s Gospel. One woman posts a photo of the vegetables she’s harvested from her garden that morning with the message, “Look how wonderful God is.” But their inspirational words and prayers are interspersed with notices about where to go for assistance when there is a need.
Need has been a frequent visitor during the pandemic of 2020. Sister Rosario’s group has gathered information about where people can turn for food, toiletries and baby items. “I cannot do this myself,” Sister Rosario says. “So I call Brenda [her point person] who calls the group to tell them, ‘We need to be together again.’”
Twice a month, Sister Rosario co-hosts Zoom meetings. One couple will start the meeting with prayer. Rosario then asks, “How are you doing? How is your mission?” The group will speak of their dreams and activities and share the news in the Hispanic community. She notes, “People will say, ‘I went to see so and so and found this.’”
When someone in their community is sick or hospitalized, the group organizes itself to bring food or to visit and pray with the one who is ill. This band of leaders also is known to open their homes to strangers, to visit people in the hospitals, even spending the night with them when they are from outside the area. During the first phase of the pandemic, members delivered food to those in need and identified what other needs there were. During this pandemic time, Sister Rosario says, “I call them ‘virtual missionaries.‘ Every communication is by internet.”
There is a respect for Sister Rosario’s role among the group’s leaders. “They tell me, ‘You are like the puppeteer. You are moving us,’” she shares. But she knows her work is about empowering people to take leadership for themselves. Through the years, she has offered training in leadership, in discernment, and in other current topics. “I tell them it is the mission of Jesus to serve. They tell me, ‘Thank you, Sister Rosario. You are His instrument.’”
Typically, this group of leaders does not distribute cash, preferring to help people help themselves find the resources they need. But these are extraordinary times. In July, Sister Rosario received a $56,400 grant from the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa, to assist the undocumented during the pandemic. Sister Mary Nolan, BVM, was looking for someone working with the Hispanics in St. Louis. She called her friend, Sister Regina Bartman, CSJ. The connection with Sister Rosario followed.
The leaders made home assessment visits to families and, in two days, the group had identified 49 undocumented families in need of help. Each family received $1,150. Twelve were given help with their rent.
Sister Rosario called on the Sisters of St. Joseph’s congregational leaders to help her cash the check, pay the rent and transfer the balance into gift cards. “I could not do it without their help,” she says, aware of how empowerment works both ways.
“We were very happy to play a small part,” says Sister Patty Johnson, Congregational Leadership Team member. “But the big story is the work that Rosario had done in preparing these leaders to provide community and networking for those in need.”
“This is part of our charism and spirituality as Sisters of St. Joseph, to love the neighbor and to bring the neighbor to God,” Sister Rosario says.
It’s a love that weathers ordinary and extraordinary times.
By Mary Flick, CSJ