El Paso's Msgr. Arturo Banuelas: 'Don't call it retirement... I still want to serve'

The St. Mark’s Catholic Church sanctuary, still bathed in kaleidoscopic sunlight pouring in through the stained-glass windows, was filled to the brim on a recent Sunday as Monsignor Arturo Banuelas presided over his final Mass after 46 years of service.

“Don’t call it retirement,” Banuelas said of his decision to step away from his duties as a full-time priest. “Call it refinement. I still want to serve. I’m still going to be part of anything that brings justice to this community.”

Banuelas was born and raised in Pecos, Texas, the oldest of eight and the son of parents active in both the church and the community.

“They served the community well,” Banuelas said of his parents, noting that it was their commitment to the church and the community that inspired him to go into the ministry.

“Ever since I was a young kid, I felt a calling to care and serve, especially those who are poor," he said, "and my family did that a lot and I think that inspired me to discern a little deeper if that was a calling. From there, it took off.”

Banuelas decided he wanted to do mission work but he was told that there was a dire need for Hispanic priests in the local diocese, so he altered his plans.

“That’s how I decided to stay in El Paso and it’s been home to me ever since,” Banuelas said. “El Paso is a very special place to be a priest.”

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'We grew up with him'

Lily Limon, who has been a close friend to Banuelas for many years, remembers his earliest days as a priest, where he served as associate pastor and pastor of Santa Lucia Parish from 1976 until 1980.

“We got to see this young man come into the position of a priest at our parish,” Limon said. “It’s kind of like we grew up with him. Right from the beginning, he had an amazing, powerful way with words.”

From there, Banuelas served as administrative assistant to Bishop Raymundo J. Pena, where he served as co-director of the Permanent Deacon Ministry and administered San Isidro Parish, before heading to Rome to study at Gregorian University in 1985.

It was during his time in Rome that Banuelas became a “master theologian,” Limon said, and “one of the most educated priests in the diocese.”

“He is invited, not just nationally, but internationally, to speak,” Limon said. “When I think of him having served 46 years, it’s hard to believe he’s been that long in service, because he never tires. He’s just never run down.”

Limon noted the power of Banuelas’ homilies, which she called “inspiring” and “powerful” — by the time Banuelas moved to St. Pius X Parish in 1988, others were taking note of his homilies as well.

Limon said that his homilies were recorded every Sunday at St. Pius and the congregants would wait after the service to pick up a copy and take it home.

“People really wanted to hear them over and over again,” Limon said. “His ability with words, his ability to describe things, is very powerful.”

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Banuelas' most important work

Around the same time that he took the position at St. Pius, Banuelas took on two missions that he still considers some of his most important work — the founding of Tepeyac Institute, which trains laypeople to be leaders in the church, and the inclusion of social justice issues in his sermons.

Tepeyac Institute was inspired by the home of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her mission of building a new society — since its beginnings, the institute has trained more than 60,000 people for the ministry to become the largest of its kind in the nation.

Where issues of social justice were concerned, Banuelas drew inspiration from his visits with farmworkers in Guatemala and his work with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, experiences that found him sleeping in a truck or on the dirt floor of houses with no electricity.

“When you listen to their stories and hear their plight and their plans for their children, that’s transformative,” Banuelas said. “That tells me where we need to be and, when we’re there, we can ask the bigger questions, like ‘what does my life have to do with their suffering?’ Solidarity has become part of what the mission of the church is supposed to be. Solidarity is at the heart of a priest’s life.”

'It's not just charity'

Banuelas noted that he also drew inspiration for his focus on social justice issues from figures such as labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez and Archbishop Oscar Romero, which led him to believe that action — rather than simple words — was required to reach the desperate.

“It’s not charity, it’s not just help, it’s justice,” Banuelas said. “It’s not supporting any particular political party, but it is intentionally seeking to advocate for the common good, to be part of the voice for those who want to cry out for justice.”

In 2012, while still serving as pastor at St. Pius, Banuelas was called to serve as an administrator at St. Juan Bautista Parish, where he continued to create new missions and oversaw the remodeling and consecration of the parish church.

In June 2014, Banuelas took his final post at St. Mark’s Catholic Church, where he oversaw the construction of the Guadalupe Shrine and the creation of some 65 ministries, many aimed at migrant communities and social justice outreach.

Despite his expansive work in area churches and ministries, Banuelas’ reach goes much farther than El Paso and the churches in it — the monsignor has trained more than 65 missionaries to minister in Sierra Tarahumara in the summer and has seen mission trips bound for Honduras, Cuba, China and Kenya.

Banuelas has been instrumental in the founding of several organizations, including the Hope Border Institute, which focuses on social justice needs in El Paso, Las Cruces and Juarez, the El Paso Inter-Faith Alliance and the RICO Ministry, which works with immigrant children being held in detention centers.

Along with all of that, Banuelas has continued to further his education, most recently receiving an honorary degree of Doctor of Ministry in 2018, lectured all over the world and written extensively on theology and social justice issues.

For Limon, Banuelas’ legacy will be long lasting in the El Paso area.

“He has planted seeds throughout the community that are flourishing,” Limon said. “I don’t even want to call them plants, but trees, because they defy the newness of a new project or a new activity.”

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'Overwhelmed with love'

Alicia Chacon, an El Paso trailblazer who became the first woman elected to El Paso government and the first woman and first Hispanic person in 100 years to serve as a judge in the area, echoed many of Limon's sentiments in a letter she penned for the monsignor.

"When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the love that your pueblo is demonstrating on your behalf, be assured of one thing: these are the seeds which have blossomed from the patient, consistent care you have shown as you’ve tended God’s garden for over 46 years," Chacon said in the letter. "This is your faith made visible."

Though he has reached the end of his time as a full-time priest, Banuelas said his work is far from over. He plans to remain active with Hope Border Institute and Tepeyac Institute and serve wherever other priests need him, as well as returning to painting and spending more time with family and friends.

During Banuelas' final mass, all of the ministries he had helped create formed a procession down the aisle to the altar, led by the matachines who were flanked on either side by a row of children shaking maracas — then came the deacons and other church workers, who held oversized baskets fuming with feathery incense smoke above their heads.

Before being gifted a stone from the Basilica in Mexico City, Banuelas gave one of his famous homilies for the final time, calling on church members to continue to serve the needy and reflecting on his time as a priest.

"It's in peace and happiness that we find the meaning of life," Banuelas said. "We need to give testimony that hatred, racism and violence does not win."

"I leave this community with happiness, because I'm taking you with me in my heart," Banuelas said before stepping away from the altar for the final time on a mid-July Sunday.

Though he said he will miss the routine of being a priest , presiding over Mass, quinceañeras and weddings, Banuelas' work is not finished.

“I’m going to continue doing all of that, but it will be in a different way,” Banuelas said.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Arturo Banuelas, St. Mark’s Catholic Church: Don't call it retirement