Immigrant task force sets course

By J.D. Long-García
The Catholic Sun

The diocesan task force responsible for implementing the national Justice for Immigrants campaign will begin its outreach by propagating the Arizona bishops’ letter on immigration.

In “You Welcomed Me,” a pastoral letter released on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe last year, the bishops spelled out their vision for immigration reform, balancing the dignity of the migrant with the security of the nation.

At the task force meeting June 28, committee members formed subcommittees that will make know that vision at the diocesan and parish level.

“With the harsh rhetoric, there’s not a lot of teaching,” said Armando Ruiz, who is serving on the task force and initiated the White Ribbon campaign which encouraged constructive dialogue about immigration reform.

“Yet the Church does have a teaching, only it isn’t being heard,” he said. Ruiz said the U.S. bishops’ campaign isn’t a question of politics, but of morals.

“Finding a common solution to this crisis requires us to better educate and inform ourselves about the complex issues of immigration facing our communities,” the Arizona bishops wrote in the letter released last December.

The bishops encouraged Catholics to read “Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope” — a pastoral letter by the U.S. and Mexican bishops on immigration — as well as to visit the border and “experience the reality of the situation first hand.”

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted established the 12-person task force to promote comprehensive immigration reform in the diocese.