We were in Detroit Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week. On Wednesday we were in Warren, visiting T and J and their family of eight. We helped them move to Warren a little more than a year ago, but have not been able to make many visits out there. The mother thinks she wants to go back to school to become an LPN. Her work hours as a nursing assistant have been very irregular. Friday we wre at the mill at opening time, but happily no one showed up, even though in the past it has been open the Friday after Thanksgiving. Later in the morning we met with Fernando Perales, from Bishop Flores’s office. He is going to set up meetings between Guadalupe Partners and pastors of parishes from the south-west side.
Since it had been closed Friday, I expected the mill to be busy Saturday, but that was not the case. Just before opening time, there were three cars in thelot. The driver of one got out and walked around to the passenger side of the car. That’s where I began to speak to him and, to my surprise, he walked over to the sidewalk and began a conversation with me. The story was that he is Muslim, but she is Chaldean Catholic–which, as I understand it, is a forbidden relationship within both cultures. While I talked to him, she sat in the passenger seat, looking very frightened. Alicia, standing over by the corner of the lot, held up an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She immediately relaxed, smiled, and motioned Alicia over. Alicia got into the car and carried on a conversation with the couple for another 20 minutes. I then suggested that they all go to a restaurant, which they did. Two other partners, Patrick and Kristine, went along. They sat at the restaurant for about an hour. When I later joined them, they certainly seemed a different couple–smiling, relaxed. It is not going to be easy, though. Each is isolated by his or her community. He said that he “hates” Chaldeans. He even told a story of a Chaldean family that executed a young girl pregnant outside of wedlock. (I very much distrust the story, but I cannot tell him that.) She, privately, said that she loves Jesus, does not love Mohammed. My fear is that if we are too prominent in the situation, by the mere fact that we are Christian, he will become suspicious and resentful.
