Learning From Padre Kino’s Legacy

By Carissa Krautscheid

Today we celebrate the 311th anniversary of Venerable Padre Kino’s death. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino is one of the “founding fathers” of Catholicism in North America. In 1687, he set out on his life’s greatest adventure: the evangelization of the Pimería Alta people in the modern borderlands of Sonora and Arizona. Although other Jesuit priests had been in contact with these native people for more than 40 years, very little progress had been made in evangelizing or connecting with them. Padre Kino bridged cultural borders as he was welcomed by the desert-sharing O'odham people to their homes in the Pimeria Alta.

Padre Kino is a model for us to become better bridge-builders in our community, despite the forces of evil threatening to tear us apart. In our melting-pot society, we are often faced with neighbors whose perspectives, values, and lifestyles differ vastly from our own. This presents us with a choice. Do we choose to ignore, criticize, or resent them for their differences? Or do we choose to empathize, collaborate, or connect with them despite our differences?

Padre Kino chose to collaborate with the native people, because he recognized them as God’s beloved children. As we encounter new cultures, Padre Kino can inspire us to start with a gentle heart and a curious mind. We have much to learn from new ways of life, beginning with the realization that “my way” is not the only way to thrive.

A defender of the native people, Padre Kino urged peace among the warring tribes. He spoke against the violence caused by the Spanish and saved native people from mistreatment and torture. Continue to ask for the intercession of Padre Kino as we pray for peace in our world. He was a peacemaker and can teach us a lot about inviting dialogue, broadening our perspectives, telling our own stories, and truly listening to one another. During this time of turmoil and division, Padre Kino can join in our prayers for peace.

Serving God in this desert region, Padre Kino rode throughout a vast territory of roughly 50,000 miles and became known as the “Padre on horseback.” Padre Kino concentrated not only on spiritual conversion but also on their economic, social, and civil development. He envisioned a land of plenty that could be sustained by hard work, planning, and the gifts of God's nature. Padre Kino put his heart and soul into the 21 Missions he founded that are now thriving towns in the states of Sonora and Arizona.

Padre Kino shows us the value of work. God called Kino to work alongside the native people. Do we discern God’s purpose for our time, work, and vocation? Does our work draw those around us closer to the Kingdom of Heaven? The dignity of work is one of the Church’s seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching. While dignified and moral work is critical to society, Jesus himself reminds us that God made us for more than to just be laborers and consumers. “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Our identity is rooted in Christ, as beloved sons and daughters of God.

Father Kino knew this and recognized the cherished identity of those he met throughout the Pimería Alta region. Moved by love and compassion, he left an indelible mark on the history of the Americas. Padre Kino lived in solidarity with the local people. He died as he had lived: “in peace and poverty on the edge of something even greater.”