Fr. Juan de la Cruz Turcios, OFM, was born in El Salvador just a day after the murder of St. Archbishop Oscar Romero 44 years ago. It may be little wonder that he was destined towards a ministry committed to justice.
Fr. Juan now works with the Franciscan Justice Peace and Creation group, advocating on environmental and other issues, and also serves as a parochial vicar at St. Camillius Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, just a walk from the D.C. border.
At St. Camillius, a diverse and vibrant parish with Masses in English, Spanish, French (largely for Haitian and African immigrants), and with a fledgling mission to refugees from Bangladesh, the world’s issues are right at the church’s footsteps. The parish serves as a vital link for Catholic immigrants from all over the world who have made the Washington D.C. region their home.
“With all the different languages and cultures, we are united with the Eucharist,” says Fr. Juan about the parish, which he first encountered as a teenager.
Fr. Juan first met the Franciscans of Silver Spring when, as a 17-year-old newly arrived in Maryland, he went to Spanish Mass with his parents. There he heard an American friar struggle with the language yet determined to minister to a struggling immigrant community.
“I can say Mass in Spanish better than that priest,” he remembers telling his parents.
Through his involvement in the parish, he soon got to know the aspiring Franciscan students at Holy Name College and became interested in Franciscan life. And the priest he first heard as a teenager struggling with a new language became an inspiration. “I wanted to be with him, I wanted to help others,” Fr. Juan recalls how observing the friar’s ministry with migrants made an impact on his vocation.
Fr. Juan entered the Franciscans as a novice in 2002 and, answering the call for priests to minister to the migrant community, was ordained a priest by Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington three years ago. The ordination – particularly the new friar’s connection to St. Camillius Parish – was highlighted in a Washington Post feature story at the time. Fr. Juan returned to St. Camillius after studies at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and service in parishes in New Jersey and Indiana. He also earned a degree in art history from the University of South Florida.
Fr. Juan’s ministry includes outreach to the people of Langley Park, a special outreach of the friars at St. Camillius to an impoverished community. The housing development includes migrants from Guatemala and Nicaragua, often people not familiar with English or Spanish, who grew up speaking indigenous languages. The friars are there to help them with their struggles in adjusting to life in Maryland.
The friar is familiar in many ways with their stories, having lived it himself.
Fr. Juan is the youngest of five, born in the coastal area of Canton Valle Afuera. In the midst of the civil war in El Salvador, his father migrated to Texas when Juan was only two, leaving his family behind while, typical for Central American migrants, sending money back home to support the family. Fr. Juan was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather.
His grandfather, Silverio, transmitted the faith to his grandson, complete with a household full of shrines where they prayed together. At seven, Fr. Juan dressed as a friar during a procession in his village in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The call to Franciscan priesthood was nurturing at the time, and he was active in youth ministry both in El Salvador and in Maryland, where the family eventually settled.
The friars became a strong connection to the faith for him in Maryland. He speaks passionately about how it’s important to encourage religious vocations among Latino immigrants if the faith is to grow here.
“It something that we need,” says Fr. Juan, noting the history of immigration to the United States, when Italian and Irish immigrants were often accompanied by priests from their home countries. “Who is going to continue this work?” he asks, noting the extensive outreach to migrants emanating from St. Camillius.
He sees his Franciscan priesthood as a gift he loves to share as an immigrant ministering to other immigrants. “This is beautiful work,” he says. “But we need to see how we can persuade other people to do it.”