August 2010

Sister Nancy spent her last three days as the Coordinator of Criminal Justice for the Diocese of El Paso participating in the three-day Out4Life Conference in San Antonio, Texas. This conference dealt with ways to slash repeat offending in the state. Representatives from many faith-based organizations were joined by authorities from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who together agreed that walking with our brothers and sisters as they leave the correctional institutions is our responsibility and a Gospel response to Jesus when he said, "If you did it to one of these least, you did it to me." Although Sister Nancy is no longer the coordinator of this ministry, she will continue to help on certain committees while dedicating more time to other aspects of the Casa Alexia project.

The Colonias are unicorporated areas of land that lack any formal infrastructure and are located out in the desert regions surrounding the city of El Paso. Needless to say , it is often the children who are affected most by these conditions, being deprived in many ways, including educationally.

In trying to meet these needs, the Sisters of Casa Alexia decided to begin small libraries, each of which is housed in a local family's home so that the children's access to these books is easy. Recently, Saint Patrick's parish in Saint Charles, Illinois under the intiative of Sisters Mary Boyd and Joelyn Hayes, collected and donated over 1,200 gently used and new books for these libraries. The parish community was overjoyed to be able to help with this project which is helping to establish a relationship between the children in each state. If you are interested in helping with our mission, please see our Wish List.