Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in January 2022 by The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This article was written as a reflection upon the news that then-Father Williams would be ordained a bishop.
By The Catholic Spirit
Bishop-elect Joseph Williams brought a different kind of salvation to Norberta Lopez and her family: a physical rescue in the midst of protests and rioting that took place after the May 25, 2020, police-involved killing of George Floyd, an African American.
Lopez said the night of May 28 felt like she was living in a movie – a very scary one. She and her husband, Freddy Torres, both 41, and their three children, Jennifer, Freddy and Jimena, were in their Minneapolis apartment four blocks from where Floyd was killed. They lived next to a store where rioters gathered outside.
That night, they heard loud voices outside and saw looting from their window. Then things escalated. The family watched people use a saw to break a lock on the store’s back door. Others carried red containers for gasoline, which the family believed would be used to set the store on fire, if not their home.
That’s when they knew they had to leave, Lopez said. Despite the failed attempt to burn the store, they saw smoke in the distance and still feared their apartment could be set on fire. But they couldn’t flee on their own. Their car was boxed in by other cars – and surrounded by people.
Torres said he felt helpless when he saw “my family, my children who were already beginning to be afraid, to worry, to cry, because there was so much noise outside, with cars braking hard and doors slamming.” The Spanish-speaking family described their ordeal through a translator, their older daughter.
Torres and Lopez believed their best option to escape was to call Bishop-elect Joseph Williams, the pastor of their parish, Saint Stephen. Lopez called him after 11 p.m., asking him to drive her family away from the danger.
Lopez knew friends with cars, but said her family had “a great connection” with Bishop-elect Williams, held him in high esteem, had talked with him before in times of difficulty, and knew his kind heart. “He knows I wouldn’t call unless it is very important,” she said.
Bishop-elect Williams did not hesitate to say yes, she said. She recalled him saying, “Don’t worry, Norberta. I’ll be there soon.”
Bishop-elect Williams shared a recollection of the events with The Catholic Spirit in June 2020.
Thankfully, he knew exactly where the family lived as he had blessed their home a few months previously. “I knew there was an alleyway,” he said, so he told the family he would pick them up on that side of the building. But he had no idea what he would find when he got there, he said, including how many people would be outside the family’s building and where they would be positioned.
Bishop-elect Williams said his drive to the apartment was “almost like out of a movie,” as driving 35W at Lake Street was “just complete smoke. … Flames are leaping up to the west … and you’re driving right through.”
Reflecting on the drive, he said, “thanks be to God” as he saw the alley was clear. “I told the family to come out the back door and they did.”
The five family members packed lightly – bringing a change of clothes and items such as birth certificates they feared could be lost in a fire – “and we just got out of there,” Bishop-elect Williams said.
Lopez said no words or prayers were said aloud during the drive to St. Stephen’s rectory, as the family wanted Bishop-elect Williams to keep his full attention on driving – and there was a lot to look at out the car windows. She remembered some streets were blocked and their driver focused on taking “the safest, surest, quickest route.”
Another family fleeing the violence had stayed at the rectory the previous two nights, but had left earlier that day, making room for the incoming party of five.
The family felt relief when they reached the rectory, where Bishop-elect Williams showed them to their room. “I felt comfort when we saw a picture of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the room,” Lopez said. “We felt like we were sheltered with that mother’s love, too,” she said. “We felt at peace.”
The family stayed one night at the rectory, then moved to a relative’s home for a few days before they returned to their apartment. They were relieved to find it undamaged.
The family came to know Saint Stephen Parish in 2013, when lay missionaries approached them in a Minneapolis park as part of an evangelization outreach initiated by Bishop-elect Williams. The family joined the parish and received sacraments: Lopez and Torres were married in the Church and on the same day, their two oldest received First Communion and their younger daughter was baptized.
More than anything, he and his wife, who immigrated from Mexico in 2001, identified with Bishop-elect Williams because “he speaks our language,” Torres said. “He has welcomed us as a family, as the immigrants we are.” Torres said sometimes immigrants forget about God because they are so busy working. But thanks to the bishop-elect’s outreach and ministry, Torres said his whole family has been saved. As a great evangelizer, Torres said, the bishop-elect has rescued many Latino families.
Torres said they try to lead their children in the way of the Lord “so that they do not suffer what my wife and I suffered – so maybe they feel more welcome and closer to God.”
Lopez said her family is proud of Bishop-elect Williams. He is a good shepherd for the Lord’s people, she said. He will be a good bishop, she said, adding that he would give his life for his sheep.
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