The Columbans Stand in Solidarity with Annunciation House

The US Region of the Columbans stands in solidarity with Annunciation House, a faith-based Catholic organization in El Paso, living out the Gospel mandate to “Welcome the Stranger” for nearly 50 years. We roundly condemn the attacks by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that aim to close the Annunciation House, a sacred space of encounter where the poorest and most vulnerable of Jesus’ friends can find a warm welcome, a hot shower and a place at the table where a hearty meal is shared with joy in the midst of tears and laughter. 

We are proud to declare our support for the Annunciation House community of volunteers, guests and benefactors which received its very name from Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta, when she visited El Paso at the invitation of a young Ruben Garcia during the Bicentennial year of 1976 and told him: “Your mission is to Announce the Good News to the Poor at the Border”. 

Since it’s doors opened in 1978, under the tutelage of Mr. Garcia, hundreds of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have heard the Good News lived and preached by Ruben that, “Hospitality is not what we do; it’s who we are”.

We celebrate the authentic Patriotism of Annunciation House that lives out the beauty of our National spirit as inscribed in the lines of Emma Lazarus at the base of the Statue of Liberty: 

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”.

The Missionary Society of St. Columban is proud of our partnership with Annunciation House and we will continue to walk in solidarity with you and with all who welcome and defend the poor in migration. By God’s grace we will resist and overcome any and all attempts to weaken, distort or eliminate our Gospel response to “feed the hungry and welcome the stranger" (Matthew 25:35). For the God of the poor, nothing is Impossible. Amen.