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Greetings,
This is the inaugural edition of a regular feature simply called "Doing Good." The goal of this new endeavor is to highlight members who embody the mission and purpose of CALL by evangelizing in real and concrete ways. Periodically we will write about a CALL member or members in order to share their story, their work and their ministry.
The stories that we run in "Doing Good" will be archived on our website at http://www.call-usa.org so that they will continue to be available.
I hope that you enjoy reading about CALL members doing good things.
God is Good!
Robert B. Aguirre
President/CEO
"We are better together than separate"
Austin CALL Chapter members Marilyn and Jose Garcia are unique in many ways. Justice Raul Gonzalez, Austin Chapter President, offers this description: "Jose and Marilyn exemplify what it means to be a Catholic. They sacrifice to the bone to serve others without seeking anything in return. Dora and I admire their zeal, commitment, and fidelity to the Church."
Married for 43 years, with three children and eight grandchildren, Jose and Marilyn have an interesting story to tell. He was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba. She hailed from Greeneville, Tennessee. They met in high school in Greeneville, became sweethearts, and went to college together at the University of Tennessee where he majored in engineering and she majored in business. He completed his masters at the University of Kentucky and had a career with IBM. Marilyn was a stay-at-home Mom when the children were young, and then later worked full time at two Universities and for an attorney.
But there is much more to their story. At age 12, Jose was brought to the United States under the "Pedro Pan" (Peter Pan) program that was a collaboration between the Archdiocese of Miami and the U.S. government. The program transferred 14,000 children from Cuba to the U.S. These children came alone and without their families. (For a history of the Pedro Pan program go to:
http://www.pedropan.org/category/history.)
Life alone in Miami was challenging for young Jose until he had a chance meeting with a lady named Beulah Fink. Recognizing the young boy's situation, and being a woman of deep Catholic faith, she took him into her home and helped the young teen wade through the immigration application process that, after two years, brought his family to the U.S. Recounting the story with a crack in his voice Jose stated, "The Lord knew I needed an angel at the time, and He sent Beulah to be mine."
Jumping ahead to today, Marilyn and Jose are retired but are anything but idle. They are members of the Austin chapter of CALL and they have just ended a three-year term as part of the North American Secretarial Ecclesial Team of Worldwide Marriage Encounter. Their charge included 15 countries providing marriage enrichments to married couples in four languages. Once on the subject, the conversation becomes a rapid-fire event gaining a rate faster than the pen can move with Jose starting sentences while Marilyn is finishing them. Finally, taking a breath, Jose will seize an introspective moment and, with a smile, softly say, "We enjoy talking about the ministries we are involved in because they mean so much to us."
When asked if they thought Worldwide Marriage Encounter was making a difference, they both proudly referred to a survey of 1,200 recent participants of the program that concluded that as a result of attending an encounter weekend 74% reported they had become more involved in the Church. (For more information on Worldwide Marriage Encounter go to:
http://www.wwme.org.)
Turning the conversation to CALL, Marilyn and Jose are quick to express their desire to get more involved, now that their Marriage Encounter duties are lessened. Thinking out loud, they express their willingness to work with the chapter members and their president, Justice Raul Gonzalez, to determine what their next project of evangelization is going to be. Jose wonders, "What is it we want to do? What actions do we need to undertake?" Marilyn quickly chimes in, "We need to galvanize into a specific initiative that we can all rally around as our call to evangelization and to improve the lives of Hispanics in a concrete way. Hispanics have an increasing voice and influence in our Church and country....," and Jose finishes her sentence, "...and bishops are trying to reach out to Hispanics who are underrepresented in Church leadership."
When asked how they see CALL's mission and purpose serving Hispanics and the Church, Jose is quick to respond. "We need to get Hispanic leadership organized and to raise it up to be recognized. This is the role of CALL. Hispanics also need to reach out to each other within the context of our Church and our faith...," with Marilyn quickly finishing his sentence, "because we are better together than separate!"
Marilyn and Jose Garcia, of Austin, Texas, embody CALL's mission and purpose to grow in faith through prayer, education, service and leadership.
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