Father Clavijo spreading the word about Catholic Relief Services

By Tanya Connor

“We drove … and drove through this dusty, dry ground for two-and-one-half hours.”
Vegetation was limited to cactuses and a few bushes. Suddenly, a bit of green appeared, then a “majestic oasis.”

That’s evangelization – by Catholic Relief Services – according to Father Manuel A. Clavijo, associate pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford. And he wants to share it with the diocese.

Father Clavijo is a speaker for CRS, the humanitarian agency of the Catholic Church in the United States which responds to needs around the world. The domestic agency, serving Americans in need, is Catholic Charities. Both are under the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“We should be proud of … CRS,” Father Clavijo said; 94 percent of contributions go to its development and emergency relief programs.

From Feb. 18-27 he visited some of those programs on his first trip with the agency’s Global Fellows program. After a few days of education about CRS at its Baltimore headquarters, he and a few other people went with the program coordinator to Ethiopia, where an oasis made them jump for joy.

The Global Fellows program “is designed for priests, deacons and seminarians to spread the good news of Catholic Relief Services, mainly to our Catholic population,” he said. “We go and see first-hand the projects that Catholic Relief Services carries [out] and we come and tell the people.

“I go around the country and I speak. My hope is to go around the diocese. I want to make this diocese a … diocese where most of our people … know that the Church in America, through Catholic Relief Services, is bringing the Gospel to people around the world. We are bringing solidarity in response to a globalized world that is making the rich richer and the poor poorer.”

Father Clavijo said he heard about Global Fellows from seminary classmates after becoming a priest.

“I looked into it,” he said. “I thought it was a great idea. I was looking for something like that. For me, Catholic Relief Services, on behalf of the USCCB, embraces what the Gospel is all about.”

Does CRS evangelize?

“The most beautiful evangelization we can ever do,” Father Clavijo responded, is “to see in the other person the image of Christ.” CRS brings Christ to others and is touched by Christ in them, he said.

“We don’t carry the Bible and preach,” he said. “There is something more powerful than our words. It’s our actions, actions that are born from our conviction that we are called to be one, that we are one family in a very small world.”

At the oasis in the Mekelle area, he found an Ethiopian Orthodox priest being one with his neighbors, leading the 80 families which benefit from CRS’ Integrated Water Management Program, he said. The Global Fellows asked the priest what message he wanted them to take back to the United States. “‘Thank you,’ he replied. ‘You are giving the opportunity to these 80 families to hope for a better future,’” Father Clavijo said.

Thanks to CRS, the priest said, he was able to build a home in a place where one of his children can attend school. “‘Please let us know … if we are not using your resources in the best way,’” Father Clavijo said the priest asked the Global Fellows.

This project, which corralled a river before it dried up in the dry season, is one way CRS gets people water, Father Clavijo said. CRS also helps them drill for water, make use of natural springs, and irrigate plantations so they can harvest three crops per year instead of one.

Rainy seasons are getting shorter because of climate change, caused primarily by industrialized nations, he said, but felt primarily by developing nations.

The Catholic Church, through CRS, is helping 10 million Ethiopians per year. It is second only to the Ethiopian government in the scope of its outreach, Father Clavijo said. But one percent or less of the population is Catholic, he said. Beneficiaries include the Orthodox and Muslims.

“It is a great sign of solidarity and hope to believe it’s possible to work together,” he said.

Only two Americans and more than 100 Ethiopians work for CRS there, he said; hiring locals can help make them self-sufficient. However, drought and famine slow development work, as food distribution and emergency response take precedence.
Father Clavijo said his group saw a Savings and Internal Lending Communities project, through which CRS provides training in business and agricultural skills, helping farmers improve varieties of seeds and sell goods at a just price. In turn, the farmers give loans to other farmers.

CRS also educates people about AIDS, in line with Catholic teaching, Father Clavijo said. Missionaries of Charity care for those already sick, at an orphanage and a home for the dying and destitute which houses 900 people, he said. CRS provides food and money for these places, which his group visited. Now, Father Clavijo said, he wants invitations to speak around the diocese, where he is the only member of Global Fellows. He said he is to make a presentation at the presbyteral assembly, a gathering of priests, in May.