It is good news that the Migrant Ministry has found a new home at St. Bernardine’s old school in Forest Park. This passion filled project rose up two years ago out of the Catholic parishes of Oak Park. And significantly it has been actively supported by faith communities in Forest Park, River Forest and the West Side (and not to ignore the atheists and agnostics who have joined in this work).

So the news last fall that the ministry would need to leave its space at the former St. Edmund School on Oak Park Avenue was a worry. The Archdiocese of Chicago decided the school building needed to be sold as the costs of investing in the building were too steep.

This is a good resolution and brings new and vital purpose to St. Bernardine’s School. Six large classrooms have now been cleared for the ministry’s use.

We are in a complicated, unnecessarily complicated, moment regarding immigration in America. Here’s a slice of the local reality. Most of the migrants who found their way to Oak Park two years ago are from Venezuela. They fled the corrupt administration of Nicolas Maduro for the promise of America. Now America, under the Trump administration, has invaded Venezuela and brought Maduro to the states for trial. 

Donald Trump’s motives for this action are highly suspect and what happens now in Venezuela is unknowable. What is clear is that these good people deserve the support and the opportunity they are being offered through the Migrant Ministry. A ministry now in a location that should be open to them for as long as is necessary.

Barcelona to Maywood

It is a curious thing that the Proviso Township High Schools have never hosted a foreign exchange student. Until now.

Last fall Ivet Brugera Sanchez, 15, travelled from Barcelona to Maywood and enrolled at Proviso East. She is being hosted this school year by a Maywood family.

With some homesick jitters she has made a place for herself thanks to that family, the cross-country team and some Spanish-speaking fellow students. She is enjoying the city and the wide experiences she is having.

While it is a small thing, it also feels new and fresh that East has a foreign exchange student. In a district which sometimes feels beaten about the ears it is all positive that this young woman has come across the globe to our school. And from our reporting by Amaris Rodriguez, it sounds like all the paperwork and regs necessary to pull this off got a little harried at the end. 

Good for everyone who made this happen.