Sparta Parish Helps Migrant Community

When 19-year old Isabela* left Mexico for America, she left behind an infant daughter, Anna*, who was too young to make the journey. Following her long-term boyfriend in search of a job and a better life, she traveled first to Morris County, New Jersey, and then ultimately Sparta.

By the time she had saved up enough money to bring her daughter over, Anna didn’t want to come – she didn’t really remember her mom.

Isabela’s story echoes with many other migrants. Aldo Monge, who now owns both grocery store Jake’s and the restaurant Salsa, came to New Jersey from Mexico because he was hired to work here. He had to leave behind wife Jacqueline and daughter Michelle to make the trip. It took four years before he had saved enough to bring them over.

In fact, for the past ten years, Sussex County has found itself home to a steadily growing immigrant community struggling to integrate into life in northwestern NJ. Sussex County officials are often overwhelmed and, lacking Spanish-speaking employees, unable to cope with many of the migrants’ needs, says Director of the Office of Public Health Nursing, Ellen Phelps.

Several Sparta residents have come together to help the immigrants through the Migrant Ministry at the Blessed Kateri Parish. Blessed Kateri’s program is one of the principal outreach groups serving the migrant population of the Sparta-Andover-Newton area.

Blessed Kateri offers several services to migrants, and one of its principal achievements was establishing a network of approximately 25 doctors to care for the immigrants. “We were trying to address social justice as well as human dignity issues, and those never go away,” explains Pam Madzy, Coordinator for the Ministry at Blessed Kateri. Madzy, a Sparta resident whose experience as a medical technologist helped her develop the network, works with her husband Ed to oversee the Blessed Kateri program.

“Last year we made and assisted over 500 appointments,” says Madzy.

Madzy, along with several other volunteers, also instituted a bilingual hotline that migrants can call for assistance. Libia Eichler, Nohemi Noseli, Kevin Wright, Nieves Martin, and Javier Ramirez operate the hotline and also often provide translation services. “You have to listen to what they say,” comments Eichler. “Many times their pain is not so much physical as of the heart.”

Eichler speaks from experience. She came to America from Peru after she met and married her husband, an American traveling on business there. “I think I was very brave,” she says.

The immigrants are often young adults, homesick and missing family. Some are mothers like Isabela, who either had to leave children behind or are forced to raise young ones in a new country without the support of their own parents. “Sometimes you can’t even talk to a woman without her crying. It’s just heartwrenching,” Madzy confesses.

To help the young mothers with children, Blessed Kateri established a young mother’s club – which Isabela attends when she can - so that the women could meet and support each other. The Sparta parish also holds a Spanish Mass the first and fourth Monday of every month, and Sussex County Community College provides free English classes there in the spring.

Blessed Kateri often coordinates with El Refugio, a Newton-based outreach center, Newton Memorial Hospital, and Sussex County offices to better assist the migrant population. “I want the already established community to know we are ok, we aren’t a threat. Whatever these people do, it’s to work for their family,” insists Lelia Gomez, the director of El Refugio.

“We don’t close our doors to anybody, but we end up working more with Hispanics,” says the current Ministry Director, Brother John Skrodinsky. Most migrants come from Guatemala, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina, although Ellen Phelps says that there is a small Chinese population as well.

Madzy is proud of her parish’s accomplishments. “Blessed Kateri is a very open community…it’s a very, very welcoming community. They reach out to a lot of different needs, so it’s the perfect place for this ministry.”

In 1998, members of the Patterson Diocese founded the Migrant Ministry to serve the needs of the newly emerging immigrant community in the Morris-Sussex County area. Shortly thereafter, Blessed Kateri became one of the centers of the Ministry. (Since the Ministry is a diocese-wide program, several individual parishes within the diocese operate as centers.)

“The idea then was just to help, to be a welcoming committee. To open the doors to them, and help them form a community of their own,” explains Brother John.

*Names have been changed.