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Sólo le Pido a Dios Que el Dolor No Me Sea Indiferente…
On July 8th Pope Francis held a mass at Lampedusa, an Italian island in between Tunisia and Sicily where recently seven immigrants died struggling to cross the Mediterranean to get to Italy. While approximately 20,000 immigrants have died as they immigrate to Lampedusa these recent deaths were particularly tragic in that a local fishing boat crew decided to cut the nets that the survivors were clinging to allowing them to drown rather than being rescued.
Rome Reports on the Pope’s travel to Lampedusa
The Pope used this opportunity to preach against what he calls the “globalization of indifference” and made the following prayer request:
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this.
As I reflected over the Pope’s homily and considered the struggle for promoting Comprehensive Immigration Reform in our own nation I recalled the song “Sólo le Pido a Dios” by Mercedes Sosa, a famous Argentinian folk singer, and the powerful words or prayer that calls us to challenge the social indifference in our society. Below I offer the song as sung by both Mercedes Sosa and Leon Geico for your own reflection. However I also want to leave you with this powerful prayer request from a lyric of her great song.
Sólo le pido a Diosque el futuro no me sea indiferente, desahuciado está el que tiene que marchar a vivir una cultura diferente.
———————————————–I only ask of God that i am not indifferent to the future, May I be mindful of the one who has to go away to live in a different culture.
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John Gonzalez
Catholic Advocacy on Immigration Reform
On May 21, 2013 two organizations sponsored by the US Bishops conference, Justice for Immigrants and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, held an advocacy day on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The US Bishops have been consistently in support of immigrant rights seeing this issue very much in line with the dignity of the human person and recognize the dehumanizing experience of the immigrant community as they struggle to find opportunities and hope for themselves and their families.
The concerns expressed by the Bishops were in relation to the Senate Bill that is currently being developed. The issued revolved around humane approaches to the immigrant process based on Catholic social teaching and the experiences that Catholic Charities and our immigrant services has in providing services to this community. Among other issues these concerns included the promotion of a viable and family based pathway to citizenship, family reunification policies, and addressing inhumane treatment of immigrants and their children during the detention process.
A couple of us from Catholic Charities on Long Island joined other to advocate on this issue with our legislators. While other members of our delegation met with the Senators we had the opportunity to meet with four of our representatives. Overall we found the two democrats and two republicans that we met supportive in principle. Although we recognized that at present the House does not have a Bill we gave them a heads up with regards to the position of the US Bishops. More importantly perhaps is the relationship we developed with our representatives as we invited them to follow up with us for a further conversation where we can share with them some of the Long Island immigrant experience. (more…)
Teología en Conjunto 