S4E1: “Accompaniment” with Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, TX

The Jesuit Border Podcast

For our first episode of Season 4, we are humbled to welcome Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, TX. Dating back to his time in formation for the priesthood, Archbishop Gustavo has a history of working with migrants, beginning in agricultural communities in California in the 1980s and extending to the ministry of the Archdiocese of San Antonio that cares for migrants today. He had to face two consecutive tragedies in late spring 2021, between the school shooting in Uvalde and the case of 53 migrants dying from heat exhaustion in the back of a trailer. In both cases, Archbishop Gustavo responded by meeting people where they were at: mourners outside the school, and survivors in their hospital rooms.

In this episode, we also offer our own humble reflections on the ministry of accompaniment amid the ever-changing realities along the border. That includes our visits with anxious families in a newly formed encampment in Matamoros, and time spent sitting with a pregnant woman from Haiti as she tries to navigate the newly launched “CBP One” app to schedule appointments at border ports of entry. Does anyone know how to say “password” in Haitian Creole??