The San Xavier del Bac Mission near Tucson is turning inward after COVID-19

A small black sign greets visitors when they enter the San Xavier del Bac Mission south of Tucson.

“Welcome to this house of God. Please speak softly so as not to disturb the prayers. God bless you.”

This is how the Church of San Xavier del Bac should always be: a place of prayer. One of the refuge. A place where the people of Tohono O’odham can come together and worship, said Father William Minkel, known to his ward as Father Bill since 2019 and pastor of the mission since 2019.

The Church doesn’t always feel that way about the people in Wa: k Village.

Over the years the church has filled with more visitors than parishioners.

“It has increasingly become a place for tourists, as they are more likely to withdraw and visit,” said Minkel. “And it has evolved. My concern is that this will not be at the expense of the believing people and the Tohono O’odham community. Sometimes the people here feel that it is no longer their church. ”

“It is a result of people’s belief”

Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, July 29, 2021.

The history of San Xavier del Bac goes back centuries. In 1692 the Italian missionary Father Eusebio Kino visited the village Wa: k in southern Arizona for the first time – the “village of water”. With 800 inhabitants it was one of the largest villages of the Tohono O’odham.

Kino founded a mission and named it San Francisco Xavier del Wa: k in honor of St. Francis Xavier, his patron saint. He planned to make it the Cabecera, or the hub for all other missions in the area, said Father Greg Adolf, a local historian and priest with the parish of St. Andrew in Sierra Vista.

Kino laid the foundation stone for a large church in 1700. He dug trenches and laid stones as a base for sun-dried mud bricks. But he did not live to fulfill his dream. After his death in 1711, other missionaries resided there for a short time.

It was the villagers who upheld the mission – who acted as the faithful custodians of the various local churches and stewards of the vessels and ornaments – for long periods of time without a local missionary, Minkel said.

“The reason why it is still there is an outgrowth of people’s beliefs,” said Minkel. “Jesus motivated St. Francis Xavier, who in turn motivated Father Kino. They have dedicated their lives to share in the story of Jesus that took root here, and it remains in their hearts. “

Father William Minkel at the San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson, August 5, 2021.

In 1783 the construction of today’s church made of clay and plaster began under the direction of Fray Juan Bautista Velderrain. Native Mexican workers and Franciscan missionaries worked together to complete the mission. The “White Dove of the Desert” was completed in 1797 after 14 years.

San Xavier del Bac is one of the few mission churches in the southwest that still serves the original population for whom it was built. That is why it is vitally important to preserve it for the people of Tohono O’odham, Adolf said. The Patronato de San Xavier, an organization made up of tribal members and other local residents, has been doing conservation work in the mission for more than 30 years.

“When you think about it, (the mission) doesn’t remind you of a battle. It’s a bridge between cultures and a place where people met. It is a cross between cultures and peoples, ideas and wisdom, ”said Adolf. it is worth preserving. “

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“It’s not an attraction”

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, many tourists visited San Xavier. Lecturers showed them around the church and grounds, Minkel said, which made it feel more like a museum than a worship room. Tour buses filled the parking lot. Guests often went to the front of the church to take photos with the Spanish colonial decorations as a backdrop.

Those were the first things Minkel noticed when he arrived in 2019. And soon after his arrival, his mission became simple: He wanted to preserve what the Church meant to people from the beginning.

“It’s a bit repulsive when you come to pray and there are groups,” said Minkel. “If you’re just interested in the story and photographing the work of art, and you don’t realize there’s someone praying for someone who is sick in the hospital, you don’t want these dynamics to have a deterrent effect on a person’s peace of mind. “

The church is steeped in tradition, said Felicia Nuñez, who has lived on the reservation since she was born 60 years ago. Since she was a little girl, her parents took her to church where they got married. As a child, she took part in all the festive events.

A couple pray at the San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson on July 29, 2021.

“It brings us our faith, our beliefs, and how to be a devoted Catholic,” said Nuñez.

Ivan Burrell, 40, has served in the Church for 21 years. San Xavier was born and raised in Wa: k Village. There his parents had him baptized and he was confirmed as a Catholic. In addition to maintaining the church grounds, Burrell teaches children the Bible and prayers the rosary with his prayer group once a week.

He loves sharing the church with visitors, he said. Many are friendly and nice. But some don’t understand the purpose of the mission, Burrell said.

“Some think we still live in teepees here,” he said. “Others will ask to take a picture with us because they say they have never seen a Native American before. People ask me questions and I have to say, ‘No, we don’t live in teepees’ or ‘No, we don’t speak Mexican’. It hurts.”

When the Patronato advertised and sought support for the renovation project, more tourists came to see the church. Guided tours started in 2011, said Minkel. Lecturers leading large groups would interrupt parishioners who had come to the service, said Tim Lewis, a member of the conservation team. He and his wife stopped attending church 10 years ago.

“It’s a religious place and people just don’t get it,” said Lewis. “It’s not an attraction. There were signs out there but people are so busy talking that they don’t pay attention to what’s around them. They get talkative and loud and it’s not respectful. I was sick of it. “

“They wanted to get closer to God”

Father William Minkel at the San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson, August 5, 2021.

Then COVID-19 changed everything.

San Xavier was the first church in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson to close at the beginning of the pandemic. Lecturers stopped giving tours. The museum and gift shop are closed. The parking lot was empty. And for the first time, no one came to church on Easter morning.

The only sound was the occasional ringing of a bell. The ringing of the bells brought a solemn message: Another person had died.

“Whatever my plans were, it was of secondary importance to ensure the safety of the people here,” said Minkel.

Tourists were no longer welcome. For a while there was no one in the village either. But the church has slowly reopened. By June 2020, the services were resumed with some changes.

At first Minkel celebrated the mass outdoors at the dance ramada instead of in the church. Later, the services were moved to the church yard, said the regularly present villager Mary Narcho. Minkel blocked the parking lot for some time – another measure to preserve the space for its residents.

As a result, parishioners began returning to church, Lewis said, including him and his wife Matilde. When Narcho lost her sister to COVID-19, the church was a place to pray. And after a year of severe back injuries, Nuñez rolled her wheelchair into church for a healing service.

The church felt more like a safe place again, Burrell said.

“Because of COVID, some of them are scared so they wanted to get closer to God,” he said. “You wanted to be on the safe side. I spoke to parishioners and they said, ‘Oh, I need to go to church and pray for people more often.’ I loved it when my people came to church. ”

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“People are always welcome”

The museum is still closed. Tours were not resumed. When – if – they start again will be checked, said Minkel. The mass is still held outside. A Sunday morning service is reserved for Tohono O’odham members. Father Bill is protecting this time, said Narcho.

“He wants to do everything for the community,” said Narcho. “Other priests who were here didn’t tell people, ‘You can’t come to this mass, it’s for the community, and they fire them and tell them to go,’ and he did that for us.”

COVID-19 was a turning point, as was the arrival of Father Bill, Lewis said. He’s working to preserve the mission for the people of Tohono O’odham – and more keep coming back.

Still, San Xavier del Bac is still a place for anyone who wants to worship, said Narcho and Burrell and Nuñez and Minkel. There are worship times for the people in the surrounding communities as well as for tourists. The doors are open to everyone to appreciate it as a place of worship rather than a photo opportunity.

“I think everyone comes with something, a kind of curiosity, some kind of hunger, even the most hardened hearts,” said Minkel. “My hope is that they will get a sense of the holiness that we have by building the ground, a sense of the sacred.”

Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram @ sofia.krusmark.

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