Bishop Solis: CCS community 'extends the love of God'

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Bishop Oscar A. Solis speaks at the Catholic Community Services Golden Circle reception on April 19 at the McCune Mansion in Salt Lake City. The Golden Circle is comprised of key friends of CCS: donors, board members, and former board members, said Jose Lazaro, CCS development director. The reception was a way to thank the Golden Circle members and provide them a chance to meet the bishop, Lazaro said.

SALT LAKE CITY — At an April 19 reception, the Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis, Bishop of Salt Lake City, commended the Catholic Community Services of Utah staff, board members and volunteers for their work toward the common good.

Quoting James 2:17, that “faith without works is dead,” Bishop Solis expressed his gratitude for those who support the work of CCS.

“The outreach that CCS does in order to extend the love of God to all the people in need is a manifestation that the faith of the people in Utah is very much alive,” he said. “When your faith is alive, it means that God is with us. And what a great feeling – that God is with us, and knowing that we become partners in the mission of God to make the world a better place to live in by what you do.”

The bishop praised CCS for doing a great job. “But it is more than a job,” he added. “What great charitable work that you do, because charity elevates your good work to a different level – you become the hands and the heart of God so that people may know that they are loved.”

After Bishop Solis’ comments, those at the reception, which was held at the McCune Mansion, heard from Adan Batar, director of CCS’ Refugee Resettlement Program. Batar himself came to Utah in 1994 as a refugee from Somalia. He told how he fled war in his home country, seeking a better life for his family, after his first-born child was killed and he could not keep his family safe.

Batar went first to Kenya, then to Nairobi, and after a few years in a refugee camp there he and his family were resettled in Utah with the help of CCS. He calls himself an excellent example of the work that CCS does, “because if I did not get the help that I needed when I arrived, I wouldn’t be here today standing in front of you, leading this program that I’ve been doing for the past 20 years. … I don’t think I could ever pay back what I have received from this community.”

Utah has been recognized as the most welcoming community in the United States for refugees, Batar said, and complimented the other organizations and interfaith groups that are involved in the resettlement effort

More than 60,000 refugees call Utah home, and each year CCS resettles about 600 refugees from more than 20 countries.

The current political climate is difficult for refugees, Batar said. “The challenges that they are facing – I have not seen, the last 20 years that I have been with this program, the challenges we are facing now.”

Everyone has a duty to help refugees, Batar said, because “if we don’t help them, some day we will be asked ‘What have you done?’ I think we all have a responsibility to think about that question, when God asks us, ‘What have you done?’”