Social Issues
July 26, 2019
Georgina Vides from Los Angeles and Leyden Rovelo Krull from Kansas City, Mo., both delegates at the Instituto Pastoral Migratoria workshop, visit in the chapel at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago during a break July 12, 2019. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Chicago Catholic)
More than two dozen representatives from 13 dioceses around the United States joined regulars from the Archdiocese of Chicago outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Broadview to pray the rosary on a recent Friday.
The group was from Instituto Pastoral Migratoria, the second annual workshop to train diocesan, pastoral and lay leaders to start their own ministries based on the archdiocese's immigrant-to-immigrant ministry, which started in 2008.
The parish-based Pastoral Migratoria uses Catholic social teaching to train immigrants to support people in their own parishes.
Delegates to the July 10-14 workshop came from Atlanta; Baltimore; Chicago; Fresno, California; Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri; Los Angeles; New York; Richmond, Virginia; Salt Lake City; St. Cloud, Minnesota; St. Petersburg, Florida; Stockton, California; and Washington, D.C. A representative from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops attended the institute, which was mostly conducted in Spanish.
"In the Old Testament, God clearly and consistently urges hospitality and generosity toward the stranger and the Catholic Church welcomes migrants and stands in solidarity with them," Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich told the attendees.
"Instituto Pastoral Migratoria answers the call for us all to return to our baptismal and ancestral heritages to support the human rights of all people and provide them pastoral care, human dignity and social support, no matter what the circumstances of entry into this country, especially for those who find themselves in desperate circumstances," he said.
He called it "an honor the USCCB recognizes Pastoral Migratoria as a best practice for immigrant leadership development and missionary discipleship."
Most of the July 12 prayer vigil at the ICE facility was conducted in English, by immigration attorney Royal Berg, who was at the first such vigil in December 2006. Recalling that first event, Berg said there was a snowstorm that day and he called everyone he knew who planned to come to tell them not to; road conditions were too dangerous.
