In Nogales, Catholic bishops hold ‘Border Mass 250’

Just before the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, five of the Southwest’s Catholic bishops led a rosary and procession through Ambos Nogales on Friday evening, calling for compassionate treatment for migrants and comprehensive immigration reform.

The faith leaders gathered at Sacred Heart Catholic Church within view of the U.S.-Mexico border, and held a “pastoral conversation” followed by a mass.

“We call ourselves Christians. To be called a Christian means to be
like Christ — to be living a life as conformed to Christ as possible,”
said Bishop Jason Misko of Tucson in a statement from his diocese. “And we
know that justice is being in right relationship with God and one
another. We’re here as shepherds and as pastors to walk with people, to
listen to people and to be well together with the people of God here at
the border.”

“As we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,
we are reminded that we are made by our creator with certain
inalienable rights,” said Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso. “They’re given by
God. That is a fundamental reality that we in the church always have in
mind and that no policy, no executive order or Supreme Court decision
can take away.’

Earlier this year, Seitz wrote a pastoral letter criticizing mass
deportations and detentions, calling the Trump administration policies
“a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful
action and acts of solidarity with those affected.”

“An unjust immigration system that leads to deadly outcomes is destructive of our shared humanity,” Seitz wrote.

The mass also included:

• Rev. John Dolan, bishop of Phoenix
• Rev. John Wester, archbishop of Santa Fe
• Rev. Gerald Kicanas, bishop emeritus of Tucson
• Rev. José Luis Cerra Luna, bishop of Nogales, Mexico
• Rev, Enrique Sanchez Martinez, bishop of Mexicali, Mexico

Following the mass, the bishops led about 200 people in a procession across the border, passing through the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry, and headed to the nearby Parroquia de la Purísima Concepción in Nogales, Sonora. The bishops later went to the Kino Border Initiative shelter in the Mexican city, where they shared food with migrants and advocates.

The event was organized by the dioceses of Tucson and Phoenix, along with the
Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative, the Hope Border Institute and the
Center for Migration Studies.

“We belong to a particular community that has continued to show an increase in immigration and refugees,” said Bishop Dolan of Phoenix. “We need consistent application of policy from administration to administration and for Congress to work on a true and valuable and sustainable immigration reform.”

“Immigrants have given our country so much for the past 250 years. It is time for us to give them justice, namely in the form of immigration reform which gives them a chance to become Americans and continue to make our country great,” said Archbishop Wester.

In February, a dozen Catholic bishops, including those at Friday’s border mass, criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, writing that while they acknowledged a nation’s right to enforce laws, “we also believe that those laws should be upheld in a manner that protects the God-given human dignity and rights of the human person.”

The bishops argued due process should be “restored in the immigration system” and criticized the use of masks, random stops without probable cause, roving patrols and “physical abuse” of immigrants. They also urged a return to targeted enforcement, and asked Homeland Security officials to keep immigrant families together.

The bishops also criticized the expansion of detention facilities across the nation, including the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, which they called a “grave concern” because “many of these facilities are being built in remote locations, incarcerating immigrants in substandard conditions and in some cases without access to appropriate medical care and religious services.”