Migration Week a time to meet Christ

By Br. Steve Herro, O. Praem.

	Br. Steve Herro

Wisconsinites have been aware of the plight of migrants for decades before immigration became the buzz word in Congress. Growing up in Fond du Lac in the 1970s, I recall migrants working in nearby canning factories every summer.

After the fall of South Vietnam, the dioceses of Milwaukee and Green Bay opened their arms to thousands of Vietnamese and Hmong refugees. Without the sweat and sacrifice of migrants, the state and its most important industries over the last 200 years - agriculture, canning and brewing - would not be what they are today.

The Catholic Church has always been on the forefront of welcoming Christ in the migrant. The Catholic school system in our country was developed because the newest Americans were not welcome in 19th century WASP public schools.

Religious orders of priests, brothers and sisters were formed by European founders to serve new and marginalized foreign populations in the U.S. My own religious community, St. Norbert Abbey (De Pere), was started by Dutch Norbertines (1893), whom Bp. Sebastian Messmer invited to our diocese to serve the Flemish and Walloons in the diocese's "Belgian peninsula."

Less than one year ago, Card. Roger Mahony of Los Angeles received national attention when he suggested that church workers practice civil disobedience if laws were passed to prevent them from providing pastoral and social services to migrants. The church remains on the front line in 2007 as we welcome Christ in the migrant.

Less than a month ago, I shared Hmong New Year with our Hmong community at St. Bernard Parish (Appleton); the following day, I celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with our Mexican community at St. Agnes (Green Bay). There I was, a middle-aged, U.S. born white male, praising God in song, hearing his Word, and sharing his Body and Blood with our brothers and sisters from Laos and Mexico; it was a powerful realization of the universality of our church.

On both occasions, I was the stranger, the alien, the minority, who received warmth and welcome, whether at the lunch table with the Hmong community or the simple farewell from a Latino after Mass, "It was nice meeting you." It is the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church that united us then, that unites us now as we strive to integrate our local communities with migrants from Sudan, Laos, Russia, Mexico, the Philippines, Iraq and El Salvador.

All Green Bay seminarians experience an immersion experience in Latino culture. Our Catholic Charities offices are leaders in providing legal and social services to our newest Americans. Spanish language pastoral services are offered in Omro, Green Bay, Wautoma, Newton, Sturgeon Bay, Chilton, New London, Oshkosh, Appleton, and soon, Antigo.

But we still have a ways to go. Catholics still write to diocesan staff asking why the church supports an earned path to citizenship for undocumented workers who have been working and paying taxes in the United States for years.

Here are some ways we can commit ourselves this National Migration Week, Jan. 7-13, to become even better at welcoming Christ in the migrant in 2007:

• Pray and share the body of Christ with migrants at any one of several parishes in our diocese. Carlos Hernandez or Fr. Pete Renard, (920)272-8307/1-877-500-3580, ext. 8299, e-mail pastserv@gbdioc.org, would be glad to connect you with Spanish or Hmong faith communities in our diocese.

• Preach immigration from the pulpit. Only 31% of Catholics hear their clergy speak out on immigration ("The Intersection of Religion and Politics," The CARA Report, Vol. 12, No. 2, fall 2006, p. 3)

• Become better informed by attending an immigration forum from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, at St. Mary Church, 223 E. Scott St., Omro.

• Invite a refugee or immigrant to share their story with your parish, school, or community group by contacting Barbara Biebel or Sr. Guadalupe Munoz at (920)272-8234 or 1-877-500-3580, ext. 8234.

• View and discuss a video on immigrants, such as Dying to Live: A Migrant's Journey (www.nd.edu/~latino/units/dying_video.htm), The Line in the Sand (www.crs.org/dramaproject), Crossing Arizona (www.crossingaz.com), Strangers No Longer (www.usccbpublishing.org) and the Invisible Mexicans of Deer County (www.invisiblemexicans.com). Dying to Live and The Line in the Sand are available from the diocesan AV Center, (920)272-8276/1-877-500-3580.

• Explore Catholic teaching and migration on the Web at Justice for Immigrants: A Journey of Hope (www.justiceforimmigrants.org), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Office of Migration and Refugee Services (www.usccb.org/mrs), Catholic Relief Services: Migration (www.crs.org/get_involved/advocacy/migration).

• Become an advocate for refugees and immigrants with the CRS Legislative Network (http://actioncenter.crs.org/ or Justice for Immigrants Legislative Action Center (www.capwiz.com/justiceforimmigrants).

Will we take to heart Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 World Day of Migrants and Refugees statement? He said: "In this misfortune experienced by the Family of Nazareth, obliged to take refuge in Egypt, we can catch a glimpse of the painful condition in which all migrants live, especially refugees, exiles, evacuees, internally displaced persons, those who are persecuted. We can take a quick look at the difficulties that every migrant family lives through, the hardships and humiliations, the deprivation and fragility of millions and millions of migrants, refugees and internally displaced people. The Family of Nazareth reflects the image of God safeguarded in the heart of every human family, even if disfigured and weakened by emigration."

(Br. Herro is the social concerns consultant for the Green Bay Diocese.)