Local News

Sept. 7, 2006

Parish organizes immigration forum

By J.D. Long-García
The Catholic Sun

MESA — The immigration crisis is dividing communities, including those inside the walls of Catholic churches.

Nearly 40 St. Timothy parishioners discussed the Arizona bishops’ pastoral letter on immigration reform as well as upcoming legislation at a forum Aug. 23.

“Every year, 200 people die in our desert seeking a dream,” said Jorge Montiel, a Newman Center and Valley Interfaith Project member who led the discussion.

The Valley Interfaith Project, a faith-based network of non-profit organizations, has been organizing immigration forums at Valley churches for the last year to encourage reform.

“Every year we have more arrests and every year we have more deaths,” he said, adding that the objective of the night’s discussion was civil dialogue.

“If none of us like the system and agree that it’s broken, why don’t we talk about it instead of fighting with each other,” Montiel said.

Some participants hailed the bishops’ letter as a balanced and well-reasoned consideration of the immigration issue while others called it “pie-in-the-sky” idealism.

The bishops released “You Welcomed Me” late last year on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“We acknowledge the legitimate strain of this crisis on our border communities,” the bishops wrote. “We believe, however, that it is possible to find common ground among all those affected.”

The bishops said Arizona could lead the country to a “comprehensive and permanent solution to our broken immigration system.”

“Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, constitute a growing percentage of Arizona Catholics,” they wrote. “Finding new ways to welcome and integrate immigrants into parish life can only make us a stronger and more united Church in Arizona.”

Six small groups discussed the six sections of the letter before sharing their thoughts with the larger assembly. The small group discussion answered a request the bishops made in the letter.

“This is the living Gospel. So much is happening in Mesa with the immigrants, we need to get this information out to them,” parishioner Saul Solis said.

“It gives me a lot of strength and courage to hear the bishops speaking like this,” he said of the letter. “It lets us know what our responsibilities as Catholics are. It gives us a very important foundation to a complex issue.”

But praise for “You Welcomed Me” was far from universal.

“It’s full of meanings and documents, but not from the heart,” parishioner Marcia Lessing said. “You have to get your hands dirty rather than sit around in meetings all the time.”

Montiel also went over state Proposition 300 and Phoenix Proposition 405.

Among other things, Proposition 300 prohibits a person without legal status from receiving in-state tuition. Proposition 405 calls for more government cooperation with regulation of undocumented immigrants, including police departments designating officers as “immigration officers.”

While the group made no definite plans for future forums, organizers do plan on hosting more immigration discussions, including a look at current legislation proposals.