At 10 AM, at St. Martin of Tours, we
began with introductions—and home churches—from the group of 50
people. Jim Bloss, who sent out press advisories and coordinated his
parish's participation, was there; Jim Thomas and JL Drouhard from
the archdiocese with their wives were there; Danny and I drove Miguel
and his grandson Kevin from Mt. Vernon; the Unitarians; some of the
unchurched. Recent immigrants joined with those of us who immigrated
a generation or four ago; there were people from St. Leo’s parish,
nuns from various places, and a contingent from St. Patrick’s,
supporting Sami Malkandi, the Iraqi detainee whose wife Mali we have
all met and loved.
The walk was a gentle one…leaving Fife, walking by Costco and a Mercedes dealership, across the I-5 and into the very industrial Port of Tacoma.
We began our prayer vigil with the Stations of the Cross of the Migrant Jesus…alternating English and Spanish reflections, with James from St. Leo’s leading us in singing “The Lord Hears The Cry Of The Poor.” Jose Ortiz brought the 14 wooden crosses, each with a traditional picture of Christ’s last hours as well as a modern photo of immigrants living through the challenges of their lives. Fourteen pilgrims took turns reading the reflections and prayers…Jose’s daughter Kati introduced each station. The crosses were made by a young man as a part of his Eagle Boy Scout Project, after participating in the Youth Migrant Project in middle school.
It is hard to capture the deep emotion of following a Catholic Good Friday ritual on a grassy field in front of the Northwest Detention Center, which is a private immigration prison located on the tide flats of the Port of Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington. The detention center opened in 2004 by Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) under a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security and in 2005 CSC was purchased by the GEO Group, another private organization. A contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement crowded the facility's housing capacity to 1,000 detainees, making it the largest detention center owned by GEO Group on the West Coast...and thus highly profitable to them, paid for by our tax dollars.
We paused a while, chatted with some of the families coming to visit their loved ones, networked with JustFaith graduates, or got to know pilgrims we had met along the way a little more. The last hour we spent together praying litanies, prayers, and scripture, put together with help from Celeste and JustFaith, using antiphons and responsorials in English and Spanish. Cesar Chavez’s Meditation for Farm Workers, with alternating Spanish and English, followed by “We Shall Overcome” closed our vigil at the Detention Center praying for Comprehensive Immigration Reform!
Some might think that we had enough prayer, but at 5 PM more than 20 pilgrims attended St. Leo’s 5 PM Mass. We took white crosses that the Youth Migrant Project had painted and written on to remind us all of the death toll that migration takes on peoples everywhere. Fr. Jim introduced the pilgrims to the church; we brought the artifacts we had carried with us from church to church to remind us of the reason for the pilgrimage and placed them before the ambo.
But the homily, which set the great challenges of our time in the context of our faith, served as a high point for me. While Father Jim related personal stories from a death penalty sit-in, and the controversies surrounding health care, he made all so simple: we, as Christians, must stand for life. And that is why we walked this pilgrimage…to support life in our United States, to ensure the right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to reduce the deaths of people so desperate for work that they risk their lives to come to our country. We need a life-supporting immigration system…we need a miracle.
There was a lovely meal prepared by the very welcoming parishioners of St. Leo’s…but I’ll let another writer address those final hours of the Pilgrimage for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
posted by Lee
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