‘Totally committed to Jesus’ — USCCB to consider cause of Jesuit with charismatic border ministry
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For 42 years, Fr. Richard Thomas S.J. cultivated a vibrant Catholic, charismatic community, serving the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor and youth on both sides of the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas.
Now, almost 20 years after his death, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will discuss whether it should advance the local level investigation into his cause for canonization.
Thomas ran and led Our Lady’s Youth Center and The Lord’s Ranch – charismatic apostolates that serve the local poor in El Paso, southern New Mexico, and across the border in Juarez, Mexico. Those who knew him recount his holiness, dedication to his mission, humor and love for life.
During Tuesday’s public sessions at the USCCB November plenary conference, Bishop Peter Baldacchino of the Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico will petition the USCCB to consider whether to advance the local level cause for Thomas’ beatification and canonization.
Currently, Thomas’ cause for canonization is at a preliminary stage. The Lord’s Ranch website lists a page to request prayer cards and document any graces through his intercession.
Last year, the Lord’s Ranch and individuals who knew Thomas petitioned Baldacchino to begin the investigation into his cause for canonization. Baldacchino accepted and appointed Fr. Bill McCann, a local priest who knew Thomas, as postulator.
“Our petition has been accepted and I’ve been named postulator,” McCann told The Pillar. The next step is for the U.S. Bishops Conference to give the thumbs up on allowing it to go forward. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow.”
The Lord’s Ranch did not respond to The Pillar’s request for comment by press time.
Thomas’ cause has been gaining favor amongst other local bishops. Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso will speak in favor of advancing the investigation, Fernando Ceniceros, the director of communications for the Diocese of El Paso, told The Pillar.
At the time of his death, Thomas was a well-known, beloved figure in both the charismatic and pro-life community. McCann believes that many of the bishops will remember his ministry.
“He was well-known in the charismatic movement and charismatic publications often included articles about him but he was also a pioneer in the pro-life movement. He had a real zeal for protecting babies in the womb,” McCann said. “I think a lot of the bishops, because of their age, probably knew about him and would be interested in seeing his cause go forward.”
Born in Seffner, Florida in 1928, Thomas entered the Society of Jesus in 1945 and was ordained in 1958. In 1964, Thomas was assigned to Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, Texas, a center to serve the poor in downtown El Paso.
In 1969, Thomas and members of his community experienced the charismatic renewal after Fr. Harold Cohen, SJ, another local Jesuit, invited them to a prayer meeting, Thomas’ biographer, Richard Dunstan, told The Pillar.
“Fr. Rick was baptized in the Holy Spirit at that meeting,” Dunstan said. “The immediate effects were not particularly apparent to him, but his ministry took off at that point that he had the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“He said he was never a lazy person, but after he was baptized in the Spirit, he had a level of energy that he hadn’t had before.”
After this experience, Thomas began hosting prayer meetings twice a week and bible studies five days a week. The community developed a charismatic approach to its ministry and, according to the people involved, began witnessing miracles.
On Christmas Day, 1972, Thomas and a group of volunteers traveled across the border to minister to the poor who lived and worked at a garbage dump in Juarez Mexico. The group brought 125 burritos, a few oranges and other pieces of fruit, two hams, and some tamales.
However, more than 350 people showed up after Thomas negotiated for two labor unions at political odds with one another to come together for the meal.
“One labor union stood on one side of the table and the other stood on the other side, barely interacting but we said grace,” Thomas recounted in a television interview. “We told them that we do not have enough food for everybody but we would share with you what we got.”
“They all ate, we all ate, they all took food home and came back and took more,” Thomas recounted. “Yes, God was at work that day.”
Frank Alarcon, a volunteer from Our Lady’s Center, stood in amazement on the bed of his truck as he watched one small ham feed an entire line of people.
“This lady started cutting this ham and she was giving big portions to the people in line,” Alarcon said in the same television interview. “I am looking at the ham and looking at the people and everybody is eating and having a good old time and the lady is still cutting away at this big ham.”
“When it was all over, 350 workers had eaten, eight car loads from the ranch had ate, and we still had so much food that we had to go to three different orphanages on the way home,” Thomas said.
In 1975, Thomas sought to expand the ministry and purchased 160 acres of land east of Vado, New Mexico. Initially, Thomas hoped to turn it into a summer camp for poor children in El Paso. Quickly, it became an active farm where volunteers planted fruit trees and raised goats and cows. The food was donated to The Lord’s Ranch Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico.
Volunteers lived and worked at the ranch, developing a variety of other ministries including a shortwave radio station — KJES, caring and housing youth, hosting retreats, and hosting visitors. It also served as a homebase for Thomas’ other local ministries such as operating schools and orphanages, jail ministry, mental and dental clinics and food banks on both sides of the border.
“He was so zealous for the things of God and wanting to be doing everything for the glory of God,” McCann said. “That’s what was remarkable to me — his radical adherence to the teachings of Jesus.”
Thomas was a strong advocate for the pro-life movement — he was arrested a few times for protesting outside abortion clinics and mentored many of the current leaders of the Diocese of Las Cruces’ nationally recognized pro-life movement.
“In this area here, El Paso, Las Cruces, there’s a very strong pro-life movement, a lot of the leaders of the movement were mentored by Fr. Thomas,” McCann said. “Many other dioceses are looking at us to duplicate what we’re doing, which is a very comprehensive ministry to women, not just trying to stop the abortion, but we’re trying to help women before delivery and after delivery. We have a maternity home.”
“The leadership of this movement here was greatly influenced by Fr. Thomas and his witness.”
Richard Dunstan, a Canadian journalist, learned about The Lord’s Ranch and Thomas’ work in 1989. Curious about the charismatic community, he visited and encountered a vibrant, spiritual community centered on Christ.
“During that visit, I realized I live a worldly life, I’ve got worldly concerns,” Dunstan told The Pillar. “But after meeting Fr. Thomas and working with volunteers at The Lord’s Ranch, I am a different person from that experience.”
The pinnacle moment came in a Mexican jail cell, locke
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