The Jesuit Border Podcast

The Jesuit Post
  • 4.9 (53)
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Updated Weekly

Brian Strassburger, SJ, and Joe Nolla, SJ, are two Jesuits based in the diocese of Brownsville, TX, and working in the Rio Grande Valley along the U.S.-Mexico Border. This podcast will share on-the-ground stories and interviews that highlight the tremendous response to the migrant situation from a Catholic perspective.

  1. BONUS EPISODE: “Despedida” - Saying Farewell to co-host Joe Nolla, SJ

    May 26 ·  Bonus

    BONUS EPISODE: “Despedida” - Saying Farewell to co-host Joe Nolla, SJ

    In this bonus episode, we are saying farewell to Joe Nolla, SJ, the co-host of The Jesuit Border Podcast for the last three years. In June, Joe is heading off to theology studies in Paris, France, to continue with his formation as a Jesuit in preparation for his ordination to the priesthood. In this episode, we bring on Eric Clayton, deputy director for communications at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States and long-time editor of the podcast. Eric turns the questions on us, first by asking for some updates about what has happened on the border since Season 10 wrapped up in early April. Then he turns to Joe to get his reflections on his experience working on the U.S.-Mexico border for the last three years.  Joe talks about the graces he has experienced, the way this ministry has shaped his formation, and the surprises he has encountered along the way. Both Brian and Joe share a range of stories, from accompanying people at rock bottom, to diaper leaks, and what it means “to be a gentleman” when you are served tuna salad. Of course, the episode wouldn’t be complete without Joe answering the question he poses to all our guests. So give the episode a listen to finally hear Joe’s own image of heaven.We send off Joe with all our love and prayers. He has been a gift to our ministry and to our community. As he ends every podcast, we now say to him: “que Dios te bendiga.” May God continue to bless him in his life and vocation.

    52 min
  2. S10E7: “The Death of Asylum” with Jonathan Blitzer, journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker

    Apr 14

    S10E7: “The Death of Asylum” with Jonathan Blitzer, journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker

    For our final episode of Season 10, we are excited to welcome Jonathan Blitzer, journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker. Jonathan’s 2024 book, “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis,” was named a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2024. Jonathan talks about the origins of his interest in journalism and writing about immigration. He reflects on the spellbinding stories that drove his book and the challenges of bringing the historical arc up to the present moment. The vision for the end of the arc was recent policy choices, under both President Trump and former President Biden, that have ushered in the death of asylum for people fleeing violence and seeking safety in the United States. Joe and Brian share stories that demonstrate the all-out assault on the asylum system. Joe shares the story of Ana and her kids, who fled a terrifying situation of domestic violence and came to seek asylum in the U.S. When Trump took office in 2025, Ana had her appointment for legal entry canceled, so she continues to live in Mexico, hiding in fear. Brian shares the story of Erika, a young mom from Venezuela, who has reached the point of giving up her asylum process in the U.S. because of the campaign of fear from the administration and the horror stories of migrant detention. But as a Venezuelan national without an active passport, she is finding out just how difficult it is to exit the country and avoid the mass detention machine. Thank you for joining us for the 10th season of the podcast, and blessings as the summer approaches. We will be back with a new season in the Fall of 2026.

    1h 3m
  3. S10E6: “Shifting the Narrative” with Kristin Heyer, Theology Professor at Boston College

    Apr 7

    S10E6: “Shifting the Narrative” with Kristin Heyer, Theology Professor at Boston College

    We are delighted to welcome Kristin Heyer, who holds the Joseph Chair in Theology and is a Professor of Theological Ethics at Boston College. Kristin reflects on the current campaign of mass deportation in light of a Christian ethic. Framed by Church teaching from Vatican II to Pope Francis and Pope Leo, she critiques the intrinsic evil of mass deportation and offers a vision of a more Christian corrective to the border and immigration policy that is attentive to human dignity. As an educator, Kristin shares ways that her students have been transformed by experiences of encounter that force them to shift away from the dominant narratives of immigration. Brian and Joe share stories about shifting the narrative as well. Brian shares the story of Samantha, a 7-year-old girl from Honduras whom he first met back in the Reynosa plaza in 2021. After a couple of years in the U.S., Samantha was excelling in school and had picked up perfect English. Everything seemed to be going great until Brian got some voice messages from an unknown phone number in Honduras. Joe shares the story of celebrating a communion service with women at a local detention center. The detained women felt falsely accused by the dominant narrative as being “the worst of the worst,” when the reality is that they have no criminal convictions and have been separated from their families. Accompanying detained individuals in a religious service like this reveals the reality and shifts the narrative.

    40 min
  4. S10E5: “Holy Sacred Moments” with Hung Nguyen, SJ, from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Diego

    Mar 24

    S10E5: “Holy Sacred Moments” with Hung Nguyen, SJ, from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Diego

    We are excited to welcome Hung Nguyen, SJ, a Jesuit priest and parochial vicar at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in San Diego. Hung is a migrant himself who came to the U.S. from Vietnam as a child. In San Diego, he has helped to lead the parish’s efforts to serve and accompany the local migrant population. During the last years of the Biden administration, the parish ran a shelter to receive migrants after their legal entry into the country. In this new era of heightened immigration enforcement, Hung has helped to coordinate a court accompaniment project with volunteers from across the diocese. Earlier this year, the parish opened the Pope Francis Center to create a welcoming space for immigrant families and help connect them with the services they need. In all these areas of migrant ministry, Hung looks for the holy sacred moments that reveal God’s grace. Joe and Brian share stories of holy sacred moments in their own ministry. Joe shares the story of a brief encounter at a detention center with a woman who felt she had distanced herself from God. She desperately needed the assurance of being seen and loved by God. Brian shares the story of a deported Mexican national who joined for Mass, but did not come up to receive communion. He sought out Fr. Flavio after Mass, and they shared a holy sacred moment of reconciliation and communion.

    39 min
  5. S10E4: “The Church as a Field Hospital” with Bishop Cristiano Borro Barbosa from the Archdiocese of Boston

    Mar 17

    S10E4: “The Church as a Field Hospital” with Bishop Cristiano Borro Barbosa from the Archdiocese of Boston

    We are humbled to welcome Bishop Cristiano Borro Barbosa, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Boston. Bishop Cristiano was born in Brazil and came to the U.S. for graduate studies as a priest. He ended up joining the Archdiocese of Boston and was later ordained an auxiliary bishop. He primarily ministers to the migrant population, including the large Brazilian population in Massachusetts. Bishop Cristiano reflects on the image from Pope Francis of the Church as a field hospital that tends the wounds of people amid the challenges of life, including the current climate of fear in the immigrant communities he accompanies. Brian and Joe reflect on this image of the Church as a field hospital. Brian shares the story of Selina, a single mom from Honduras who sent her son Samuel into the United States alone as an unaccompanied minor. While Brian was upset about this decision, he realized that Selina didn’t need to be castigated; she needed someone to hold her and tend her wounds. Joe shares the story of a recent communion service at a detention center, where the spontaneous request of a detainee led to a beautiful moment of people reaching out for God’s healing touch.

    36 min
  6. S10E3: “Putting Your Passion to Work” with Michele Pistone, professor of law at Villanova University

    Mar 10

    S10E3: “Putting Your Passion to Work” with Michele Pistone, professor of law at Villanova University

    We are thrilled to welcome Michele Pistone, who is a professor of law at Villanova University and the director of the VIISTA online program, which trains people to serve as “accredited representatives” in immigration court without a law degree. She emphasizes the importance of legal representation for migrants and paints the startling picture of what it is like to see young children brought into immigration court and left to represent themselves. She shares stories that inspire her of people putting their passion to work, like a graduate of the VIISTA program who is helping Catholics who were persecuted in Nicaragua with their court cases. Brian and Joe recount stories from a recent trip to Houston. First, they share the details of their meeting with Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, the superior general of the global Society of Jesus. A native of Venezuela, Fr. Sosa shares a passion for immigration and understands the complexities of border dynamics. While in Houston, the Del Camino team also met up with Lisbeth and her 20-year-old daughter for breakfast. Lisbeth ran the kitchen in a Reynosa shelter, and we greatly enjoyed the food that she would prepare. She used to make us baleadas, a popular dish from Honduras, although her daughter was quick to complain that she still hasn’t taught her how to make them yet!

    42 min
  7. S9E2: “The Inhumanity of Mass Deportation” with Dylan Corbett from the Hope Border Institute

    Mar 3

    S9E2: “The Inhumanity of Mass Deportation” with Dylan Corbett from the Hope Border Institute

    We are delighted to welcome Dylan Corbett, the Executive Director of the Hope Border Institute based in El Paso, TX. Dylan reflects on the cycles in U.S. history of welcoming migrants followed by intense rejection. He laments the massive funding boost to immigration enforcement and how that is fueling an expansion of immigration detention centers across the country. With the abuses committed on the streets and in detention, he emphasizes the impossibility of conducting a campaign of mass deportation humanely. Brian and Joe share stories that reflect this reality. Joe talks about visiting a center in northern Mexico that is receiving and processing deported Mexican nationals. Eric, a young man in his early 30s, had come to the U.S. as an infant. He does not speak Spanish, and has been separated from his U.S.-citizen wife and children. With no family currently in Mexico, he was at a loss for where to go or what to do now. Brian shares updates on the story of our good friend Isis from Venezuela, who was detained in April 2025 for his tattoos. The latest updates on his story shed light on the inhumanity of the process and the way that detention is key to the government’s goal of mass deportations.

    42 min
  8. S10E1: “Faith Comes Before Fear” with Bishop Kevin Kenney of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

    Feb 24

    S10E1: “Faith Comes Before Fear” with Bishop Kevin Kenney of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

    For our first full episode of Season 10, we are thrilled to welcome Bishop Kevin Kenney, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In early 2026, ICE ramped up enforcement operations in the Twin Cities, which led to the killing of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We talk with Bishop Kenney about the on-the-ground reality and the response from the Church. He talks about the source of resiliency among the people of Minnesota and the importance of the faith community staying strong and united amidst a climate of fear. Brian and Joe share examples of how faith comes before fear and how it provides comfort and hope in the face of sadness and despair. Brian shares the story of visiting an undocumented family. Alexa, a 14-year-old girl, started quoting the Beatitudes, and Brian asked her which one spoke the most to her in this moment. She gave a tragic but heartfelt response. Joe shares the story of a detained father, Mateo, who was distraught knowing that his son was preparing for heart surgery, since he could not be by his side. Amid his feelings of helplessness, he knew there was at least one thing he could do. Listen to the episode to hear the full stories.

    43 min
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About

Brian Strassburger, SJ, and Joe Nolla, SJ, are two Jesuits based in the diocese of Brownsville, TX, and working in the Rio Grande Valley along the U.S.-Mexico Border. This podcast will share on-the-ground stories and interviews that highlight the tremendous response to the migrant situation from a Catholic perspective.

Information

  • Creator
    The Jesuit Post
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    91
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Jesuit Post
  • Show Website
    The Jesuit Border Podcast

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