|
Parishioners remember lives lost to desert dangers
By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
November 15, 2007
November is traditionally the time when Catholics remember and pray for the dead, but Most Holy Trinity parishioners are remembering a group of people often forgotten.
They are the 211 migrants who — according to the humanitarian group No More Deaths — have died crossing the border in 2007.
“Many Hispanic people approach us and ask what are we doing as the Church for all the negativity that’s in the newspapers” surrounding the immigration debate, said Fr. Ernesto Reynoso, parochial vicar at the Phoenix church.
“We saw a good opportunity to remember those whom nobody remembers or cares for,” he said.
To commemorate the dead migrants, Fr. Reynoso and parishioners built an altar and decorated it to look like the U.S.-Mexican border.
There is a small, metal wall with writing like “Somos Amigos” and “Familia, Fe, Fortaleza,” which translates “We are Friends” and “Family, Faith, Strength.” Bible citations also line the wall: “Mt 25:35” and “Lv 19:33-34,” both of which refer to caring for the stranger.
Sand fills an area on one side of the wall with little bushes, snakes and plastic human figures. The faithful can light votive candles placed in the sand and pray for the lives claimed by the desert.
“We just tried to represent the border,” said Imelda Flores, director of Hispanic ministry at the parish. “This is something we just want to offer the community to try to tell them that we are in solidarity with them.”
Many parishes throughout the diocese have members who have lost a loved one crossing the border, Fr. Reynoso said. He could think of two such families from Most Holy Trinity. He said the altar lets them know that the Church “is doing something for them.”
Flores agreed.
“Maybe it can relieve a little bit of the pain of the families who lost someone,” she said.
She hopes the altar, which will be on display throughout November, will unite the parish rather than divide it.
“The idea is that we are brothers and sisters, sharing the same faith, sharing the same beliefs,” Flores said.
|
