A young girl positions herself behind the plate, leans forward and takes a deep breath. In front of her, by a few yards, a boy with a shock of red hair rears his arm back and rolls a large red rubber ball directly at her. The girl takes a few well-timed steps before delivering a hard kick that thuds into the ball’s gut, emanating a unique rubberized ping.

The ball skims over the grass, past a slow-reacting third baseman with a blonde mullet, and comes to a stop in the outfield. The girl, who took off on impact, reaches second, standing up to the cheers of her teammates.

Welcome to Kickball Arkansas, Little Rock’s first youth kickball league. Now entering its second season, the venture is the brainchild of two former high school pals who share a love for sports and a love for young people.

“Our entire idea is based on the fact that kickball is fun; it’s a sport that everyone loves and that nearly anyone can play,” said Matthew Matchett, who founded the league with Grant Nolan. “We realized there was a niche in the sports league offering, at least in Little Rock.”

If the idea of a youth kickball league sounds like an unusual idea for a business, it is only the latest element of Matchett’s life that defies the convention of your typical 25-year-old. Entering fifth grade, he and his family left Little Rock to spend what was supposed to be a year in Mexico.

“My parents were big travelers, and they made a little pact when they got married that if they ever had kids, that they would spend some time in another country,” he said. “One year turned to three and I did fifth, sixth, and seventh grade in Mexico, then an eighth grade, bounce-back, United States culture shock year.”

Matchett next enrolled in Catholic High School in Little Rock where he met Nolan, who would eventually become class president. After graduating in 2018, Matchett headed to TCU in Fort Worth, where he majored in business with the idea of living the life of an entrepreneur. He came back home and started to suss out the details of turning that dream into reality.

“I was looking for opportunities at that point,” he said. “I’d been trying to find a business to start. I tried some AI-related things; I was making videos online and getting a lot of views on TikTok and Instagram making comedy videos. Honestly, I was kind of confused, just looking for a path. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.”

It was then that Matchett reunited with Nolan, who by that time had become a PE coach at The Anthony School in Little Rock and who’d previously organized a kickball group at work.

“He had done a club for the students at the school where about 15 of them signed up,” Matchett said. “I just thought it was such a great idea that we could turn it into a business and why not invite the whole city and turn it into a league?”

The duo joined forces and set about the details of launching the league they’d call Little Rock Kickball — games for K-8th for eight weeks and no practices. For their first season last fall, they attracted 165 registrations across four age groups. They also secured a playing spot at The Anthony School for their Sunday afternoon games and landed additional help from CHS alumni, who served as volunteer coaches and umpires for the 10-week season.

The experience taught the duo a lot about their business model and the needs and wants of their clientele, whether it’s offering scholarships to make it affordable or accommodating children with special needs, who are warmly welcomed into the fold.

“A big majority of parents have sent us thank you emails, telling us how great of an idea this is because their child can’t participate in sports because of whatever situation,” he said. “We had one girl who has Down syndrome, and she can’t do things with a lot of rules, but she absolutely had a blast being the pitcher for her team in kickball last season. Some of the kids have autism, but you can’t even tell because they’re just out there having fun.”

As the duo enters its second season of play beginning March 30, Matchett, a Methodist, said the venture is serving a higher purpose than the business partners ever imagined.

“This business has taught me to put my faith in God and ask for guidance and wisdom and that is no joke,” he said. “When I got this idea, I had a sales job offer, or I could have worked for our family business and I didn’t know which route to take. I prayed for guidance and within a week, one job offer after another fell through and in front of me was the kickball idea and a very clear path on how we could start executing our business plan.

“There have been so many times where I’ve thought, ‘I am going to look like a fool. This thing is gonna fail. I have no idea which direction to take.’ All you can do is just pray and put your faith in God and he will lead the way.”

To learn more about the league and to sign up, visit kickballar.com or email Matchett at Matt@kickballar.com.

People who are refugees are generally talked about as a group instead of as individuals with names and a story that usually involves a long and arduous journey.  

The Refugee Resettlement Program staff at Catholic Charites of Arkansas received permission from a courageous Guatemalan mother and daughter to share their resettlement story. Only first names are listed to protect their privacy. 

Rosabla and her daughter Liceli arrived at the airport in Little Rock in October 2024. They were greeted by a few family members already living in the area. This was normal because often people with refugee status are sent to destinations where they have a “U.S.tie,” which can be family members or a friend who lives close to where they hope to resettle and who is willing to assist them with the resettlement process.  

Catholic Charities of Arkansas staff were also part of the welcoming party.

Many times, new refugee arrivals are placed in a temporary housing arrangement where it is just them.  Rosabla and Liceli were fortunate to move in with their relatives who, along with Refugee Resettlement staff assigned to their case, helped them begin to adjust to their new life in Arkansas. Reflecting on the past few months, Liceli said she and her mother were “most grateful to Catholic Charities for the services they provided to them with obtaining legal documents and beginning the process of cultural adjustment.”  

“We were able to find jobs and begin to adjust to life in Arkansas because of the help of Catholic Charities,” she said. 

When a refugee is compelled to leave their native country for a fresh start that can take years, they leave behind more than most of their possessions. They also leave behind their livelihoods. For Liceli, this meant leaving Guatemala, where she was close to completing her nursing degree. She hopes eventually to be able to finish her studies in Arkansas, but first, she is studying English.  

On her plans for the future, Liceli said, “I am studying English along with working because one day I hope to obtain my nursing degree.”

A hardship many refugees endure is family separation, and Rosabla and Liceli have not been spared this heartache.  Since Inauguration Day Jan. 20, the new administration suspended, then later stopped admitting any new refugees to the United States.  Whether this policy will change is unclear and remains to be seen.  

For Rosabla, this means an older daughter (Liceli’s sister) who was left behind in Guatemala will be unable to join them.  The older daughter was in the process of applying for refugee status using her family (Rosabla and Liceli) as her U.S. ties, and now there is no clear path forward for her. 

Liceli said, “When they first heard about the changes, they were devastated.” 

She and her mother told Catholic Charities that “we are currently praying for each other and have hope that we will one day be reunited.”

Have you ever experienced something amazing or exciting and immediately want to share it with someone? I have. I want to instantly share it with my best friend or my mom. As I’ve been growing in my faith, I’ve noticed three core things about God’s timing, control and being there in my life.

The first thing that reflection has taught me is that I tend to reach out to God only when I need something or when my life isn’t going the way I’d hoped. But the truth is, God should be my closest friend and the first one I turn to, whether it is good or bad news. God will always be with you through the easy times and the bad times. I have learned about myself that I do not like to lose control, and if everything is going right, then why would I change something? I have been working on trying my best to listen to God and allow myself to follow his plan.  

Sadly, I often notice that when I distance myself from God, everything else gets out of control. To me, God can become like my safety blanket, only used when I need him for comfort or want something. During the good times in my life, I have learned that talking to him can be as simple as being silent on a walk or even as involved as praying a rosary. 

When my life gets hectic, I do my best to go to church and turn to God, whether that is spending time with my Bible or sitting quietly and just taking a moment for myself. I love going to an 8 a.m. Mass at Immaculate Conception in North Little Rock because I have learned that if I go early in the morning, I am not distracted by other thoughts of the day, like what is for dinner or how I’ll spend my afternoon. I should be focused on what is truly important, which is the Mass. I also have learned that my favorite books of the bible are Psalms and Proverbs. 

The second thing I have noticed is I struggle with allowing God to take the reins of my life. Allowing someone else to have control over my life is something that really challenges me, but in Proverbs 16:9, King Solomon wrote, “A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.” 

Proverbs 16:9 truly opened my eyes to allow God to determine the right path for me. I have learned that to allow myself to trust him, I have to get to know him just like how you would a friend. To get to know him, I read the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

The third thing I have noticed is that I struggle with being on God’s time. One thing I know about myself is that I am not the most patient person. Allowing myself to surrender to God and tell him that I am OK waiting for something that I want, or even might feel like I need, is hard. 

As I have grown up, I have slowly understood more and more that waiting on God’s timing is going to save a lot of heartbreak and maybe even make more sense in the end. I am not saying that it is easy to wait for something that you want, but it will be easier in the long run. 

I often see one image on Pinterest. This little girl is holding a small teddy bear, and Jesus is standing there with his hand stretched out. He says, “Just trust me…” and the little girl says, “But I love it God…” Little does the small girl know that God has a huge teddy bear behind his back. It is an amazing visual that has helped me understand that surrendering to his timing and trusting him and his ways will allow growth. 

Being able to say “yes” to God is one of the hardest things I think I have ever done. But allowing myself to surrender to God, his timing and his will for my life has allowed me to overcome the hardships. The feeling of not having someone to turn to softly fades away when a relationship with God is developed. His control over my life and my trust to say “yes” to his ways allows me to rest easy as I trust in his timing and not my own. To trust God is to know God; to know God is to love God.

Caroline Koch is a junior at Mount Saint Mary Academy in Little Rock. She attends Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock. 

Amid the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to overseas humanitarian aid, an annual collection used to serve the vulnerable in the U.S. and abroad has taken on “a very urgent significance,” said Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg of Reno, Nevada, head of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ national collections efforts.

The Catholic Relief Services Collection will be taken up in most of the nation’s Catholic dioceses March 29-30, with donations also accepted directly at usccb.igivecatholictogether.org, part of the #iGiveCatholicTogether campaign.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a statement March 10 noted the funds support six key Church-related entities meeting an array of social and spiritual needs:

• Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., which provides both disaster relief and economic development initiatives among the world’s lower-income nations.
• The USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, through which the bishops work to address the pastoral needs of U.S.-based Catholics who span an array of cultural backgrounds.
• The USCCB’s Secretariat of Justice and Peace, which advocates on behalf of the poor while working for peace.
• The USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services, which had contracted with the federal government for decades, under a congressionally established program, to resettle refugees vetted by U.S. immigration and security authorities until Jan. 24. The USCCB filed suit against the Trump administration Feb. 18 for suspending the contract, which the administration later terminated altogether Feb. 26.
• Catholic Legal Immigration Network, or CLINIC, a Maryland-based nonprofit established by the U.S. bishops to provide legal aid to refugees and migrants — including immigrant Catholic clergy and religious, upon whom close to 90 percent of the nation’s Catholic dioceses rely.
• The Holy Father’s Relief Fund, which enables the pope to quickly assist disaster victims.

Bishop Mueggenborg said that “abrupt stop-work orders on foreign humanitarian relief work” have left CRS and other aid organizations “unable to sustain their work overseas, bringing food, life-saving medicine and daily necessities to people in need.”

The administration’s suspension and subsequent termination of its refugee resettlement contract with the USCCB has also impacted “thousands of refugees,” he noted.

The USCCB’s statement on the CRS national collection noted that even when federal funding was still in place, the USCCB still had to supplement the monies, because federal grants did not cover the whole cost of supporting refugees.

The conference also noted that the U.S. government’s funding suspension has forced the USCCB and its local partners to begin laying off employees, damaging their partnerships and future ability to provide refugee assistance. It noted donations to the 2025 collection “will be vital to the Catholic initiatives to reveal Christ’s love to those in need.”

In 2023, the bishops distributed $12.7 million in grants and donations among the CRS collection’s six beneficiary organizations, according to an end-of-year report.

Among other projects the funds supported were anti-trafficking efforts in the fishing and seafood industries, legal aid to a religious sister from Asia forced to leave her U.S. ministry due to visa complications, pastoral training for Asian and Pacific Islander Catholics in the U.S., economic development in Chad, and support for Colombia’s Catholic bishops in ending that nation’s brutal decades-long civil war.

Those efforts have also served to address several root causes of migration — including political instability, conflict, exploitation, environmental crises and poverty — as well as the U.S. deficit in clergy and religious, which has become acute in recent years.

Catholic Charities agencies and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have been in the news almost weekly since the new administration took office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20. Their work with immigrants and refugees and the loss of federal funding for refugee resettlement have been in the headlines. At the same time, the new administration has been making its own headlines by ramping up border security and threatening people without legal status with detention and deportation.

Some of the executive orders issued by the new administration have impacted the work of Catholic Charities of Arkansas with people who are immigrants and refugees. 

Prior to Inauguration Day, the Catholic Immigration Services offices in Little Rock and Springdale focused on providing low-cost immigration counseling and support to individuals and families who are eligible for immigration benefits and unable to afford an attorney. 

With the new administration’s push to detain and deport people without legal status that has spread fear, especially through the Spanish-speaking communities, Catholic Immigration Services staff have developed “Know Your Rights” information that they are sharing in presentations at parishes. They are helping families to be prepared with a plan should one or both parents be removed so that their children and other family members will be safe and cared for.

Our Refugee Resettlement Program dates back to the 1970s when people from Vietnam were being resettled in Arkansas. Over the years, the number of refugee arrivals assigned to us has fluctuated from none or a few a year to 75 people just last year. 

When the new administration took office, all refugee arrivals were halted for at least 90 days to allow for a review. Two weeks ago, the U. S. Department of State canceled its cooperative agreement with the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services effectively closing down the Catholic network of refugee resettlement programs that were mostly operated by Catholic Charities agencies.

Where does this leave us today? At Catholic Charities of Arkansas, we are committed to our mission that is rooted in the Gospel and teachings of Jesus: to serve the poor and marginalized with respect and dignity; to advocate for the most vulnerable; and to promote charity, justice and the sanctity of life within the Church and society. 

As Bishop Anthony B. Taylor has asked of us in his Jan. 23 statement, we will seek to be “Christ for others” and “to do what Jesus would do — to do the loving thing.” We will do this by continuing to serve people in the immigrant and refugee population who seek our help.

At Catholic Charities of Arkansas, we have experienced first-hand through the people we see what Bishop Taylor means when he says, “Our current immigration system is broken.” The solution today is the same as it was back in 2008 when he published “I Was A Stranger and You Welcomed Me … A Pastoral Letter on the Human Rights of Immigrants,” and wrote, “Rather than focus on those who are forced to break the law in order to provide for the basic needs of their families, we should focus instead on fixing the broken laws themselves: broken in the sense that they do not work because they impede rather than facilitate the exercise of the God-given rights of migrants.”

The way to comprehensive reform of our country’s immigration laws is through Congress and the new administration. A Catholic grassroots effort could be the catalyst for ending one of the causes of illegal immigration by enacting a solution that Bishop Taylor identified in his pastoral letter: the creation of an immigration “system that welcomes immigrants, facilitates their adaptation to life in the United States and provides an easy path to citizenship.” 

Moving forward, our Church can be a light to our nation by reflecting God’s love, hope and mercy through how we support and advocate for our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters in Christ in our communities.

While you might hope to glimpse your great-great-grandfather’s baptismal certificate, the confirmation record of a distant cousin or the sacramental marriage certificate of your long-forgotten ancestors, the Catholic Church generally does not supply them. 

Father John Antony, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith and a canon lawyer, said sacramental records are confidential. They are typically only requested by the subject of the record or a guardian if they are minors. 

“We don’t make those registries available for genealogists. That’s not the purpose for them. The purpose for them is sacramental and spiritual. It’s great people investigate their family histories … but that’s not typically what we’re holding sacramental registries for,” he said. “You have been changed forever when you are baptized. … Because a person’s baptism is so crucial, we’re very, very careful.” 

All sacramental records — baptism, confirmation, holy orders, marriage — or if an annulment is approved, are notated on the back of a baptismal certificate at the parish where the person was baptized. Father Antony said it is typically the pastor’s responsibility to contact the pastor at the church of the person’s baptism to update those records. 

“The records are in a sealed vault. Every church should ideally keep their registries in a fireproof room,” Father Antony said, adding that his parish has a room of metal interior walls that few people can access. 

This is the third part of a three-part series on immigration and refugee changes under the new federal administration.

Following a slew of executive orders and directives from the Trump Administration, along with a Supreme Court ruling, many DACA recipients worry about what the future holds.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a U.S. immigration policy that offers temporary relief from deportation and work authorization to undocumented individuals brought to the United States as children. 

Introduced in 2012, DACA allows recipients to remain in the country and pursue education and employment.

Since then, many DACA recipients, also known as DREAMers, have lived in the U.S. with many of the same opportunities as U.S. citizens. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, there were 4,040 active DACA recipients in Arkansas, as of March 31, 2023. Across the United States, more than 500,000 people are in the DACA program.

Since the beginning of DACA, the Church has consistently supported recipients, emphasizing their dignity and the importance of providing a path to citizenship. In 2020, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops praised the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate DACA.

Jennifer Verkamp-Ruthven, director of Catholic Immigration Services and the Refugee Resettlement Office, has been busy since inauguration day Jan. 20, responding to the growing needs of the immigrant and refugee communities. She hopes DACA isn’t added to that growing list of concerns.

“As of right now, nothing with DACA has changed, while many other topics within immigration have changed for the worse,” she said. “I hope this does not happen to DACA. Fortunately, those with DACA are not at risk of deportation so that is one thing that is unique. … I do have concerns about the upcoming case at the Supreme Court on this topic. If DACA is taken away and nothing better replaces it, then it will be a tragedy for many people and their families.” 

Matthew Phillips, an immigration specialist with Catholic Immigration Services, said changes to DACA will not come from the White House.

“Rather than the White House, DACA recipients ought to keep their eyes on the courts,” he said. “In 2022, the Hanen decision ruled that DACA was illegal and stayed all new applications. Since then, no new cases have been adjudicated, but anyone who already has DACA may file to renew. In January of 2025, an appeals court ruled that the injunction was too broad and limited it to Texas while maintaining the stay across the nation. Litigation is likely to continue throughout this year, and the future of DACA depends entirely upon what is decided. For now, though, nothing has actually changed; DACA recipients may continue to live, work and renew their statuses without fear of deportation.”

On Jan. 17, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that DACA is illegal but allowed renewals for current recipients to continue. For now, DACA recipients can still renew their protections, but no new applicants are being processed, and DACA’s future remains uncertain. 

If the Supreme Court rules against DACA in the future, more than 500,000 recipients could lose their ability to work legally and face deportation.

Meet Jenny

One of the Catholic DACA recipients is Jenny Calvario, 31, who has been the administrative assistant of St. Augustine Church in Dardanelle and St. Andrew Church in Danville since 2018. She said she moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 4 four years old in 1997.

“Originally my dad was the first one to come to the U.S., and then it was a little hard for him to be away from his family. Just wanting to give us a better life, he decided that my mom and I should come,” she said. “I don’t think I realized that we didn’t have documents until when I was getting ready to go to college. I realized that I couldn’t apply for scholarships, that my resources were very limited. My counselor was very kind enough to say in the most kind way that it was going to be difficult for me to apply for scholarships due to my immigration status.”

Calvario said that with her parents’ hard work over the years and saving up, she was able to enroll at a community college in Morrilton. Achieving her degree was not easy for Calvario, and the challenge helped her faith bloom.

“It took a very long time just to get an associate’s degree. It took me about four years, so about the time that it takes to get a bachelor’s degree,” she said. “During my college time, my first year of college, I started to live out my faith fully. I think if it weren’t for my faith, if I didn’t have someone that I believe in who’s bigger than me, I wouldn’t be here. It has been a very difficult journey.”

Calvario said every two years, DACA recipients have to pay around $600 to renew their work permits. 

“It’s something very uncertain … and it’s a financial struggle. And there’s always the uncertainty of, will it be renewed?”

Another one of Calvario’s fears is her family being separated.

“I come from a big family. I have four siblings. And just being separated and just (fearing) that … ICE is coming to knock on your door … the feat that you’re going to get home and you wonder if your family will be there. Just the fact that you are not free to drive around because you don’t know if you’ll make it home. That’s my biggest concern — the separation of family. And I have smaller siblings. … If we get separated, what happens? Will we be treated well, with kindness?”

Calvario said there is much misinformation about why and how families immigrate. She said her parents came from a very poor neighborhood in one of the smallest towns in the state of Guerrero in Mexico. 

When she was as young as 5 or 6 years old, Calvario’s mother would go from door to door to work for money or food to help her single father — Calvario’s grandfather — since her mother — Calvario’s grandmother — died shortly after giving birth to her. When her mother met her father, Calvario’s parents moved to Mexico City to make a better living, but crime was rampant. Calvario’s parents made the decision to immigrate to the United States to provide a better life for their children.

The trip was a difficult one for her family — Calvario is too young to remember anything, and her parents don’t speak much about the journey or life in Mexico. Calvario took a trip to the border wall with Catholic Extension in 2022.

“I was so close to the wall at the border, and it broke my heart into a million pieces. Because I looked at that border, and I realized that my parents had to leave their parents, their country, their language to give me a better life, without thinking that they would probably see their parents ever again or return to their home country. 

“I am so grateful, and it breaks my heart at the same time because they gave up everything for me — for their family. And it’s not easy for them. Even though they don’t say much, I can see it in their eyes how it’s been hard for them to leave everything behind to give us a better opportunity to be able to have a good education and to live in a better condition than they were living in.”

Calvario said her faith has kept her grounded.

“I think a lot of times, I’m so scared of speaking out and saying I’m a DACA recipient because of the way people are going to look at me. A lot of times, I just look at Jesus and the Blessed Sacrament. I go to adoration, and I say, ‘My immigration status does not define me, Lord, but your love defines me.’ And that has helped me so much and to walk these uncertain times, but with a lot of faith and hope that things will get better and that God will make it better as well.”

Calvario said she often worries about this life — but her family encourages her to take hope from the promise of the next life. 

“My dad gives us words of hope. That’s what a father does. He doesn’t want to give us more anxiety. He doesn’t want us to carry burdens. They have hope and they’re like, ‘We just have to look at Christ and hold onto his hand and hope that there is something better — that he has something better for us.’ … Maybe there’s no better here. If nothing good ever happens here, we do have hope that there is something better in the next life, which is with Christ. … My parents have given me the faith to continue hoping for something good.”

Meet ‘Sebastian’

“Sebastian” is a 26-year-old DACA recipient who attends Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Springdale. He is referred to by this alias for safety in order to share his story.

Sebastian, who had been Protestant alongside his family for most of his life, was confirmed and received into the Catholic Church in December.

He said he immigrated with his mother, aunt, siblings and cousins when he was almost 2 years old. His family immigrated due to the poverty in their neighborhood in Mexico City.

“My dad convinced my mom to move to the states with us, because I think he already was here in the United States for like a year or so, so my dad kind of brought us over here just to start a new life.”

Sebastian said that while he doesn’t remember the journey, his mother said it was a frightening one.

“When I was crossing the border … I think we were crossing the desert with a coyote … and my mom always shares that that was a very scary journey for her because she was in a room full of men and she had to be like the protector of all these different children from any situation that could happen. Luckily, nothing happened, but that was a scary experience for her.”

As Sebastian’s family went to different Protestant churches throughout his youth, looking for somewhere to fit in religiously, Sebastian realized he didn’t seem to fit in culturally either. 

“It’s not that I’ve never been bullied or maybe discriminated against for being an immigrant. It’s just more I felt like I was lost between two worlds. I always felt like I never fit in with my American friends, and then with my Mexican friends, I always felt like I didn’t fit in with them as well. I tried my best to make the best of being stuck in two worlds. … I didn’t know where I belonged, and it was confusing.”

It was when Sebastian began to look at options for college that he realized just how big of an impact his family’s status had on his life. It wasn’t until 2019 that the Arkansas legislature passed HB 1684, which allowed DACA recipients and certain immigrants living in Arkansas to attend public higher education facilities at the same cost as in-state students. Prior to this law being passed, Sebastian was attending a community college and working full-time. After HB 1684 passed, he transferred to the University of Arkansas and continued working while completing his degree.

After graduating, Sebastian’s girlfriend at the time was interested in becoming Pentecostal. Ever the supportive partner, Sebastian joined her. But he began to realize that there were some things he believed differently. 

“Her pastor started giving us Bible study at the church … in one message he gave us at one of the Bible studies, he said Peter was given the key to Jesus’ Church … so then I started doing more research on Church history. If Jesus established his Church through his apostles and disciples, what does that Church look like?”

Sebastian spent the next year researching Catholicism while still supporting his girlfriend’s faith journey. 

“And the more I started looking into it, I was like, ‘Wow. If I was to remain Christian, I don’t know if staying Protestant would be enough for me.”

Not long after Sebastian and his girlfriend ended their relationship, he joined the Catholic Church, which he feels is more accepting of immigrants and individuals in his position.

“It made me feel bad around 2016, because I know there were a lot of evangelical Christians that were not understanding of our story as far as undocumented immigrants. It made me kind of feel like maybe what we did was wrong and like maybe what my parents did was wrong and maybe we don’t deserve to be here. … When I converted (to Catholicism), I started to feel more empathy and compassion for people in my community. The Catholic Church has a good stance on immigration. … They are like champions treating people fairly and like they’re humans, even if they are immigrants.”

Sebastian’s advice for immigrants like himself is simple.

“Spend time with your family. Enjoy the time you have with them. At the end of the day, everything is in God’s hands.”

Meet Kevin

Kevin Azanza, 26, is a policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and a DACA recipient. When he is home in northwest Arkansas, he attends St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, and when he is working in Little Rock, he attends St. Edward Church.

Like Calvario and Sebastian, Azanza’s parents made the journey in search of a better life.

“My mom and dad met in Mexico and ended up having me. When my mom ended up getting pregnant with my sister … they had decided that … although they loved Mexico, they wanted more opportunities for their children, and we ended up coming over,” he said. 

He was only 1 year old when his parents made the journey in 1999.

Azanza is concerned because previous politics have dealt with words around immigration. Now he is seeing more action, and that has many communities afraid.

“We are concerned about immigration, but we’re also concerned about the economic aspect,” he said. “I go to these Latino-owned businesses, barber shops, supermarkets, community centers where they used to be packed on the weekends, and you’d see a thriving community. Now you just see no one — it’s a bare oasis. 

“So seeing the economic aspect also hurts. And it’s something that’s been mentioned a lot in the Latino community lately — that people are scared because they are … not contributing to the economy, they’re not going out and living their lives like they should be, or like they have been on a regular basis. So I think immigration and the economy are two of the big ones, but not to overlook the fact that people are really just nervous about the impacts that this can have on their family and the community.”

Azanza is also scared for many children who will be swept up in abrupt changes that they neither can control nor likely understand.

“I’m lucky that I have DACA, and I’m lucky that my parents are currently residents and that my extended family, for the most part, has documentation. However, I do have friends and other family that are not documented. So some of the things that really scare me are … I’m really scared for the kids. Especially the kids like me, us growing up. I experienced what it is to be undocumented. And so growing up, seeing these kids grow up right now where this fear and anxiety is amplified is what makes me worry for them. I don’t think we’ve seen yet the repercussions that such effects can have later on in the kids’ lives.”

Like Sebastian, Azanza said many DACA recipients occupy a gray area.

“I knew growing up that I was … different, for lack of a better word. But I didn’t know exactly how that impacted my life until I tried to apply for college. That’s when I noticed that I am not necessarily undocumented, but I’m not necessarily documented. It was like feeling like a minority within a minority. I was lucky enough to have the benefits of having a driver’s license, a work permit, protection from deportation. 

“But at the same time, I was not granted the same privileges of being documented, which is being able to apply for some scholarships, some grants, some loans, some federal aid, work-study programs. And so it really was just being a minority within a minority. I think that was amplified even more as a first-generation student. … I was super lucky and really grateful that I had people that invested in me and that helped me get into college. And I know that wasn’t necessarily the case for everyone who was in my situation.”

Like Calvario and Sebastian, Azanza’s faith has helped him greatly. He, too, has put his worries in God’s hands.

“I can only do what I can do, and the rest, I’ve got to leave it up to God,” he said. “And even as my head starts thinking about all the things that can happen to my family, my friends, my community, I always think, well, God’s plan is bigger and it’s all in his hands at every time. So it will be OK in the end, and if it’s not OK, it’s because it’s not the end.”

As football games go, the recent Super Bowl clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs wasn’t exactly one for the record books. The triumphant Eagles jumped on the Chiefs early and often, leaving little doubt by halftime that KC’s quest for an unprecedented Super Bowl “threepeat” had come to a sudden and ignoble end.

Catholics in Arkansas, however ― students, staff and alumni of Catholic High School in particular ― will likely remember the 2025 championship as the one in which two former Rockets participated. It was a special moment in CHS history.

Arkansas Catholic caught up to the young men to learn of their experiences at this rare confluence of one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, and the legendary Little Rock high school that gave them their start in life.

Maj. Nathan Sampson

Class of 2011

Ever since he was 4 or 5 years old, Nathan Sampson has wanted to fly.

“It’s always been a dream of mine growing up ― middle school, high school age ― to follow the military option for pilots,” he said. “It seemed like the adventure that every boy kind of dreams of, you know, getting to fly some sort of cool, high-speed aircraft, trying to get out and make a difference. 

Maj. Sampson participated in Junior ROTC all four years at Catholic High, and he credits the discipline of the program and the leadership of the instructors as major formation in his life, giving him his first real introduction to the Marines. Following graduation from Catholic High, Sampson attended Christian Brothers University in Memphis while participating in ROTC at nearby University of Memphis.

Following that, he joined in the United States Marine Corps before finally arriving in Pensacola, Fla., for flight school in January 2016 and spent time in Texas and North Carolina in various stages of his training before landing in San Diego where he currently lives. He and his wife, Kayla Nehus, a graduate of Mount St. Mary Academy and a former collegiate runner, have two children.

As the operations officer for his group, Sampson was briefed on the different events the USMC was planning to support this year during the 250th birthday of the Corps, one of which was the Super Bowl.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, that’d be really cool to do the Super Bowl flyover,” Sampson said.

After doing some preliminary legwork, he brought the idea and its feasibility to his commanding officer. What started as a longshot idea would work its way through the chain of command and logistics to put together a flyover squad of MV-22B Osprey aircraft.

“I was not the face of it by any means; it quickly snowballed beyond my control,” he said. “Late December, early January, the Marine Corps was like, ‘Well, hang on, we want six planes to come out and do the flyover.’ So, we enlisted the help of our sister squadron on the east coast.

“Then, headquarters Marine Corps Communications Directorate, which was putting together all the 250th Marine Corps stuff, all the higher-level coordination, were really the ones who were calling the shots and running the show. They briefed the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and he said, ‘Well, why aren’t jets doing a fly?’ Which is why at the end of the day you saw two F-35s and four V-22s doing the flyover. It really turned into quite the rodeo.”

The flight itself, and all the pre- and post-flight responsibilities that came with it, were serious business and left little time to soak in where and when it was unfolding, Sampson said. With a worldwide audience that set viewership records, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military hardware at stake, Sampson and his fellow pilots didn’t allow themselves to take their mind off the mission.

“In the plane, you’re in what we call our flight box,” he said. “You tune the rest of the world out from the time you start planning to the time you debrief, to the time you get in the plane, all the way in, down until your plane’s turned off at the end of the day. For us, hitting a time on target is what we do.

“Every time we fly, our job is generally what is called assault support which in layman’s terms means putting people or equipment in the right place at the right time. We train to hit those times on targets, for our wheels to land within 30 seconds of when we’re supposed to be there. That was the goal for us making that flyover.”

Looking back, Sampson admitted that being part of the hoopla on the ground had its share of goosebump-inducing moments, including being introduced on the field with his fellow pilots late in the third quarter.

“It was exciting for sure, having all these different aircraft craft up there and being in such tight formation,” he said. “For me, what made it sink in was all the stuff leading up to it. The NFL has their Fan Zone experience throughout the duration of the week, and they had us up at the convention center talking to different people. I think they said the throughput at that place was like 20,000 people a day. We were out there just mixing and mingling with people from all over the country.

“For me that was a really cool experience because we got to see veterans come up, kids who wanted to be pilots, other people who had served in various branches and different conflicts throughout history. Everybody’s coming together for the Super Bowl, which is an iconic American event.”

Jonah Monroe

Class of 1997

They say the longest journey begins with a single step. For Jonah Monroe the march to the rank of NFL official started just that way. While attending the University of Arkansas after graduating from Catholic High, Monroe began a love affair with officiating that would lead him to the Super Bowl.

“I wanted to be a coach originally,” he said. “I started doing the intermural thing for extra money and just fell in love with officiating.”

Monroe graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, then took a job in Baltimore where he lives today. Once he landed, he immediately began looking for opportunities to officiate.

“I started with the Maryland Board of Football Officials that serviced the private league here, Catholic schools and other denominations and private schools,” he said. “Did that for three years and then started getting into small college football here.”

What started in 2003 unfolded into a journey that even Monroe could not have imagined.

“When I started officiating high school games, I just thought, ‘Oh, I’m going do Friday Night Lights forever,’ you know?’ That’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “Somebody talked me into doing small college, and small college is a lot of effort for no money. You’re doing it for the love of doing it. Fortunately for us here in Baltimore, we have a ton of small colleges scattered around so I was able to cut my teeth on some pretty good football up here.”

Monroe made key connections early on. He attended an NFL Grassroots Clinic during his second year in high school ball where he rubbed elbows with some heavy hitters in the world of officiating.

“I walk in and I’m like, I don’t think I should be here,” he said, “but I’ll listen to these guys talk. I sat in the back of the room, away from everybody, and this little guy sat right next to me. I’m listening to these stories, and I’m taking notes and he doesn’t say anything to me until the end. He’s like, ‘OK, where do you officiate?’”

The conversation led the man, Tom Beard, to invite the young Arkie to his officiating classes at Howard University, where NFL and major college officials taught every Saturday morning. The potential for his side gig expanded exponentially.

Monroe graduated from small college games to mid-major conferences, such as the Big East, Conference USA and the American Conference, which put eyes on him from people influential in officiating at the highest level. That got him invitations to work on crews and postseason contests to show what he could do.

“In 2015, I ended up working the East West Shrine Game, and they had been scouting me for a while at that point,” he said. “After that, they told me, ‘Hey, we think you’re ready to come to the NFL, we just don’t have a spot for you. Just wait it out. Keep doing what you’re doing.’

“Well, come June 1, I get the call to the NFL and what they told me was James Coleman, who was a University of Arkansas graduate, also an electrical engineer, blew out his Achilles, and they needed someone to fill his spot. So, they offered it to me.”

In his first game, a Monday Night Football tilt between the Philadelphia Eagles and the host Atlanta Falcons, he didn’t have to wait long to get ushered into the fraternity.

“Of course, I have the very first flag of the game, offensive pass interference,” he said. “The coaches all jumped on me, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing, rookie! How can you call this crap!’ blah, blah, blah, but it ended up being correct call. My referee, Terry McAulay, gave me big kudos for getting my first call correct.”

Ten years and many playoff games later, things would come full circle when Monroe, at backjudge, got the nod for his first Super Bowl crew, again featuring the Eagles

He said sharing the moment with his family hit hardest, including his wife, Heather, whom he first dated in eighth grade at St. Patrick School in North Little Rock. Heather is currently a Division I football official in the Missouri Valley Conference and for the record, there’s never been a husband-wife officiating duo in the NFL, giving the couple something to shoot for. It’s a long shot, but then so was Jonah making it to the ultimate game.

“The Super Bowl is obviously special. That’s part of history standing on that field,” he said. “I had my family in the stands, and it was emotional to me. I’ve had a lot of support; officials are gone a lot, so families take the hit because we miss birthdays and funerals, which is tough. To be able to celebrate this with them, that accomplishment, was special.”

“It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools” -Ecclesiastes 7:5. 

The devil is clever. 

So often, he presents his temptations so that they appear beautiful and joyful. The fools of our world sing songs of drunkenness, lust or greed that appear to bring joy and happiness, but really only lead to emptiness and sorrow. 

We all face songs that tempt us as they appear to be a fun or easy path to happiness, while the truth of being Catholic is hard and sacrificial. It means not only attending Mass and being charitable but also (most importantly and probably most difficult) it means a conversion of heart — a giving of oneself wholly to God the Father. 

Being a good Catholic means opening our hearts to improvement. This means we must not only allow — but even seek out — the rebukes of the wise. We must choose the difficult path of self-criticism and improvement instead of the easy and ignorant path of the foolish. We should always be searching for ways to become more like the person God created us to be. 

Carefully listening to the rebukes of the wise is a hard path to choose, but it is the only path to true happiness with God! Chapters 43 through 46 of the Rule of St. Benedict, followed by Benedictine monks around the world, focus on what should be done to those monks who make mistakes in regard to a multitude of offenses. 

St. Benedict emphasizes the importance of admitting fault with humility and seeking correction from the abbot (who is his religious superior.) Anyone striving to live a good life should constantly be seeking the rebukes of the abbot in his life. This abbot may come in the form of a parent, a parish priest, a teacher or a spiritual advisor. They must be someone who can be harsh enough to recognize and voice the faults of their mentee even when the mentee themself cannot. 

A good Christian must be strong enough to appreciate this criticism not as degrading but as a way to build them up, understanding that this wise person in their life is rebuking their actions so that they may grow to become a better and happier person. 

Though it may be difficult, the Catholic cannot live a stagnant life. They must constantly be moving closer to the perfection of Christ. This constant movement means the Catholic must depend on the wisdom of those around them to improve themself and move beyond their faults.

Anna Constantino is a parishioner of St. Benedict Church in Subiaco. She is currently studying philosophy, theology and business at Benedictine College.

Second part of a three-part series on immigration and refugee changes under the new federal administration.

When the Trump administration announced Jan. 21 that it would reverse a longstanding policy preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from making arrests at sensitive locations, such as schools and churches, the response of the Diocese of Little Rock was immediate. 

“You may feel like there is nothing you can do to change politicians’ minds. But the place to begin is with ourselves, our own hearts and our own parishes and our own discomfort in dealing with another culture and immigrant group. And to not forget about the human dignity and the human rights of the other person,” Bishop Anthony B. Taylor wrote in a diocesan statement Jan. 23. 

“I want to appeal to your hearts — to the reality that we are all brothers and sisters — including the one-third of Arkansas Catholics who worship in Spanish in 43 of our parishes. And right now, this Spanish-speaking part of our body of Christ is hurting and living in fear. If you’re living in fear today, I want you to know we stand in solidarity and in prayer with you. And if you’re not familiar with the parts of our one body of Christ who are living in fear, I implore you to pray for them and try to find ways to get to know them. Find ways to help your fellow believers feel welcomed.”

Deacon Matt Glover, chancellor for canonical affairs, sent parochial schools and parishes steps to take in the event of an interaction with or visit from ICE. 

Kristy Dunn, principal of St. Theresa School in southwest Little Rock, oversees daily school operations for more than 200 students — a majority of whom are Latino. 

“I am hearing some fear and uncertainty within the community,” she said. “As a Catholic, I feel called to journey alongside my people, no matter their status in our country. Our mission remains the same.” 

Father Ramsés Mendieta, a native of Nicaragua and pastor of St. Barbara Church in De Queen, has similar concerns, as his parish is predominantly Hispanic.

“We should be very grateful for our bishop, who, since the beginning of his ministry in the diocese, has been a strong and pastoral voice for immigrants,” he said. “They are parishioners, ministry coordinators, lectors, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, catechists, active adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, humble and hard-working people and must not be treated as second-class Catholics. 

“It is in these times we are reminded that our Church is a house of mercy for the less fortunate, and they do have a place and shepherds who care for them. This is not about politics, but about living our Christian values ​​with love and compassion — compassion not measured by social, economic or political interests.”

One of those parishioners at St. Barbara Church is Roberto Martinez. The 75-year-old serves on the Diocesan Pastoral Council. He moved to Arkansas from Chicago with his family in 1979 and began to build up Hispanic ministry in the state upon discovering there weren’t many Catholic opportunities for him in Sevier County. 

In October, he was named to the Arkansas Latino Hall of Fame and is a respected leader in his faith and civic communities. As a leader, he has heard concerns and fears from his community.

“People in our communities here are scared to go to work. They’re afraid to send their kids to school. They’re scared to be stopped and deported and leave their kids behind. They don’t know what to do. It is a big concern,” he said. 

Martinez said he is also concerned about the economic ramifications of deportations on communities that heavily rely on the Latino population to work in agriculture and livestock. 

“No doubt, we all agree that there are some criminals that need to be punished and need to be deported here in these communities,” he said. “But deporting the farm workers, the construction workers, I think that hurts the economy in southwest Arkansas and also northwest Arkansas. The poultry industry really depends on the Latino workforce. A lot of construction work around here is done by Latinos. Farmers and independent Latino workers are good workers — peaceful, they don’t get in trouble. They ought to be let work. I wish they would come to an agreement for people who have been living here for 10 years without getting in trouble in any way, and maybe find a way to legalize it.”

Martinez said many of the immigrants have established lives here, and for their children, America is all they know. 

“We just hope that (ICE) doesn’t come and separate families,” he said. “A lot of them have already bought homes, and they have cars. If they are deported, those are going to be left here. Some of their kids’ main language is English. If they are sent to Mexico or Central America or wherever they are from, they are going to have to learn that language from the beginning. They will be foreigners over there. They were born here. It’s a very difficult situation for undocumented families.”

Sister Mickey Espinoza, MCP, director of the Hispanic Ministry Office, said she hopes to help bridge the gap between immigrants and services provided by Catholic Charities of Arkansas. 

“My hope for refugees and immigrant families is to work with Catholic Charities to get some information out to the communities as soon as possible,” she said. “The fact that they know our Church is looking out for them is important just as the bishop’s letter and his commitment. There are families who are living in fear — in some churches, the attendance has dropped. There are so many things being put up on (social) media, that we must help them distinguish what is true, where to find the correct resources and how to be prepared.”

Dennis Lee, director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas, said, “We are working with Sister Mikey and her office to provide ‘Know Your Rights’ information for people at risk of being approached by ICE agents. People need to be prepared in the event they are stopped or detained, and parents need to have a plan for the care of their children in an emergency.  

“We cannot dispel the fear that many of our immigrant brothers and sisters are living under, but we can pray for them, get to know them and offer our support by taking to heart the message of Jesus in Matthew 25 that Bishop Taylor has directed us to — ‘I was a stranger, and you welcomed me …. As often as you did this for one of my least brothers and sisters, you did it for me.’”

Matthew Phillips, an immigration specialist with Catholic Immigration Services, said people are “simply terrified.”

“This is intentional, as most of the changes to immigration policy have been purely security theater,” he said. “The most effective means by which immigration was impeded throughout the years 2017 to 2020 was not by the creation of a wall nor increased deportations, but by the fact that fewer people were willing to try. 

“Our office saw a tremendous decline in applications for citizenship and residency from those years because people believed that any misstep would lead to deportation proceedings. The same thing is happening now. The scattershot executive orders, the publication of numbers of immigrants arrested and the hostile rhetoric are an elaborate performance to instill fear.”

Phillips said Catholic Immigration Services is working to educate immigrants.

“Recently, we have started scheduling presentations at parishes and schools to update people on what has changed and how people can protect themselves,” he said. “In these presentations, we go over an immigrant’s rights when talking with the police or immigration agents, discuss the difference between valid and invalid warrants and give advice on how to avoid doing anything that might jeopardize oneself.”

Catherine Phillips, director of the Respect Life Office, said caring for immigrants and refugees, regardless of their situation, is a pro-life issue.

“Immigration policy and enforcement are matters of human dignity. First and foremost, we should see all people — immigrants, refugees, citizens — as human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, with inherent dignity. This makes the current immigration situation in our country a respect life issue,” she said.