Literary / Arts
“A Poor Priest for the Poor”
Gerald Archibald, Ph.D., Edmonton
Volume 33 Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: September 30, 2019
When I was asked to do a review of this book, I jumped at it. Why? Firstly, not because I knew Father Rick Thomas, because I did not. The title grabbed me. I believe the Roman Catholic Church is in desperate need of models of people who have lived exemplary lives in this modern world of ours. We, in short, as a Catholic community, need to be inspired by great men and women, saintly men and women, after hearing and experiencing so many scandals within the church.
We have been living through one of the most tumultuous times of the history in the church which has left many discouraged and disheartened. So, reading about a man who appeared to devote his life to the poor was, in and by itself, a welcomed and refreshing task.
When I was asked to do a review of this book, I jumped at it. Why? Firstly, not because I knew Father Rick Thomas, because I did not. The title grabbed me. I believe the Roman Catholic Church is in desperate need of models of people who have lived exemplary lives in this modern world of ours. We, in short, as a Catholic community, need to be inspired by great men and women, saintly men and women, after hearing and experiencing so many scandals within the church.
We have been living through one of the most tumultuous times of the history in the church which has left many discouraged and disheartened. So, reading about a man who appeared to devote his life to the poor was, in and by itself, a welcomed and refreshing task.
Secondly, many of us have come to see priests, brothers, and sisters belonging to various religious orders, as living middle class lives. Even though religious orders and congregations require their members to take vows of poverty, it sometimes appears that they are not living such lives. Certainly, these religious members do not live lives of luxury, but they likely do not live lives of poverty either. Often vows of poverty have come to mean vows of common property. So, having a chance to read this book made me ask myself ‘Is there a member of a religious community who lived his vow of poverty seriously, and who committed himself in thought, word, and deed to the very poor?’
To put it simply, I relished reading every page of this biography. It was captivating and it was written in a straightforward and clear manner. One of the first things Richard Dunstan, the author, described in the preface of the book was the similarity of two Jesuits: Pope Francis and Father Rick Thomas.
Both are/were extraordinary in their lives of simplicity, their love of the Lord, their love of the poor, and their deep pastoral roots. Some kind of comparison! At one point quoted in the introduction, Father Thomas said, “You can’t preach the good news and be the bad news.” He lived a life dedicated to “God's favourite children” (author) and being a devoted member of “a poor Church for the poor” (Pope Francis).
Father Rick Thomas lived an extraordinary life for 78 years, having died in El Paso in 2006. I won’t go into the details of the book and unintentionally give away too much of this extraordinary man's life and how he lived it. I will, however, describe several themes in this biography.
During his formation years in the Jesuit seminary, Father Thomas had to teach two years of high school. His order asked him to teach Latin, a subject he found very difficult, as well as two other subjects he also found difficult. He soon found out that teaching was not his calling.
Leaving the seminary as a young ordained priest, he was sent to a parish in New Orleans. It was there he began encountering the poor, and he found his vocation “within a vocation” … the love of the poor and service to them. But this encounter led him to his more permanent home: El Paso situated on the Rio Grand, and Juarez, a city in Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grand from El Paso.
The Jesuits had built up a dynamic centre in El Paso called Our Lady’s Youth Centre (OLYC) which offered an extensive array of social programs in the City. When Father Thomas was transferred there as the head of agency, he finally found his true home. Here was a centre dedicated to the poor of El Paso.
Among the many programs and services offered at this Centre was a credit union, employment agency, a food bank, various youth programs, summer camps, citizenship programs, counselling, and many others. After some time in his new role, he settled into a routine of walking through the poor slums close to OLYC. He wanted to get a real insight into the lives of the poor in El Paso. He would regularly stop and talk with residents of these neighbourhoods. As his Spanish improved, he would offer to say Mass in a home, or the back of a truck.
When he felt he knew OLYC, he wanted to bring more spirituality into the various programs. Soon there were prayer groups, daily Mass, and bible studies. He did not feel the ‘programs’ of the agency were truly effective without a pervasive spiritual presence. Soon there were many prayer and bible study groups going as well as daily Mass.
One of the characteristics of Father Rick was his restlessness to keep doing more for the real poor. He had been hearing of the garbage dump of Juarez for some time, the city in Mexico across from El Paso. The dump was home to over 1,000 people. He simply announced one day the OLYC must offer a service to these 'garbage dwellers’ and picked Christmas day to bring four carloads of staff and volunteers and trunk loads of food. The book describes in almost incredible fashion what happened that day: how they were practically rebuffed when they arrived at the dump and how the OLYC group gradually gained a bit of the trust of the residents living there. The book describes how the food they brought somehow fed all the people living in the dump with more leftover for them to take to their pitiful homes for the next day. There was even food leftover to distribute to the foodbanks in the area.
This outreach to the Juarez dump led to a grocery store being erected from various items found in the garbage. This very basic store was stocked with groceries, and then through ingenious means, the grocery items were made affordable to the residents. A small chapel made up of suspended burlap was also built for Mass. Gaining more and more trust, Father Rick heard confessions in his vehicle. These experiences were miraculous in nature but were almost expected as commonplace in Father Rick’s mind if genuine prayer was involved.
Other sections of the book describe the summer camp that existed and expanded under Father Rick’s vision. It continued to expand as the numbers of kids and volunteers continued to grow. The book describes this amazing journey in detail including how more land was somehow obtained, how the maintenance building and swimming pool came about, how people from different parts of the world heard about the Lord’s work going on at the 'ranch' and how they volunteered to help out with the various programs and activities involved with the youth of the area.
Much more could be written here describing the deep faith of Father Rick Murphy, and his absolute trust that miraculous things could happen with the power of prayer and bible study. His commitment to the very poor was total. At first, he stayed at the Jesuit Sacred Heart Parish, and walked to OLYC to do his work and inspire his staff and volunteers. But it was not long when he felt he was not in total solidarity with the poor. He came to believe he must live like the poor as well.
So, he moved out of Sacred Heart to live full time in Centre, erecting an army cot to serve as his bed which was situated in his tiny office. He also made sure he would never drive a car with air conditioning, or if it was unavoidably equipped as part of the vehicle, he would never turn it on. He encouraged others associated with OLYC to do the same.
This book, however, is not only about Father Rick’s commitment and love of the poor. It is also how he lived with everything that happened around him, including his tumultuous relationship with the United Way, the ups and downs of keeping staff and volunteers to adhere to his vision, his disappointments, and his successes which he handled very humbly and thankfully. It gives the reader insight into his personality and struggles. Father Rick was indeed very holy, but like all saints, was a human being.
I truly recommend this book. It inspired me to an incredible extent, and I am positive it will inspire all those who read it. I obtained my copy from Amazon.
Gerald Archibald, PhD (archibaldjerry@gmail.com)
A Poor Priest for the Poor, The Life of Father Rick Thomas SJ by Richard Dunstan
The Lord’s Ranch Press, Vado, NM
pps. 364
ISBN: 978-0-9821170-4-0
Gerald Archibald, Ph.D., Edmonton