At the U.S.-Mexico border, a priest tries to save his chapel, which is in the direct path of the proposed border wall.
In Texas, a white adobe chapel built in 1899 on the bank of the Rio Grande sits in the proposed path of President Donald Trump’s border wall. A Border Patrol agent stands sentry yards away. A military helicopter—part of Trump’s troop surge at the border—drowns out Father Roy Snipes. It’s akin to “saying mass in a war zone,” the priest says.
Last year, more than 160,000 people crossed the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley, making the region a top priority for new border-wall construction.
In a new short documentary from The Atlantic, Snipes, known locally as the “cowboy priest,” confronts both the wall and the growing military presence as he provides sanctuary to migrants and spreads his message of peace. “What a Christian strives to do is build bridges, not walls,” Snipes says.
