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Religious groups rally for immigrants

Saying it is their duty to help the poor and the needy, leaders call on their faithful for support of reforms.

By SHERRI DAY
Published April 13, 2006

	[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
	Rafael Serrano, 28, of Wimauma prays during Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Wimauma.

ST. PETERSBURG - Bishop Robert N. Lynch would rather go to jail than obey a law that makes it a felony to assist poor and needy illegal immigrants.

The head of the five-county Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg called on Tampa Bay area Catholics this week to stand in solidarity with their Hispanic brothers and sisters and fight for reform in the immigration debate.

He is the latest example of a growing chorus of diverse faith communities around the country rallying on behalf of illegal immigrants and demanding what they call "sane" immigration reform.

Religious leaders among Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims say it is their duty to look out for the poor and needy.

Other Tampa Bay area religious leaders agree.

In Clearwater, the Rev. Abhi Janamanchi at the Unitarian Universalists church, encourages his flock to protest, write letters to Congress and sign petitions. At Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon, leaders recently handed out fliers outlining immigration reform as a profound moral issue. Father Demetrio L. Lorden of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Wimauma plans to protest with his parishioners, 60 percent of whom are illegal immigrants.

Lynch's call to action was his most vocal stance to date on immigrant rights. He has also written several letters on behalf of the 115,000 illegal immigrants the diocese says it has. He hopes the diocese's nearly 400,000 parishioners get on board.

"There was a day when we marched with Martin Luther King Jr. before it was fashionable to do that," said Lynch, who plans to attend upcoming protest marches. "We've gotten a little too comfortable as a church even though we've had our own trials and tribulations. I think we lost a sense of what it means to be servants of the poor."

Lynch opposes the House of Representative's bill that would make it a felony to aid illegal immigrants and send some 11-million people back across the border. He urged Catholics to write their legislators and press for compromise.

"Where, my brothers, are our voices?" Lynch asked during a homily Tuesday at the diocese's annual Chrism Mass, where he blessed the oils that priests will use throughout the year. "Where is the spirit of the Lord?"

Hispanic leaders welcome the support.

"It's extremely important because it adds a different lens through which we can see that this is the right choice for the United States," said Flavia Jimenez, an immigration policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in Washington. "People that otherwise would not be educated about the immigration issue have started to better comprehend the problem of the broken immigration system."

Still, scholars warned that issues such as immigration often divide the faithful.

"I suspect there are many who attend churches who are very resentful of illegal aliens coming into the country without penalty," said Amanda Porterfield, the Robert A. Spivey professor of religion at Florida State University. "I suspect the Religious Right is part of what drove the collapse of the immigration bill in the Senate last week."

Even in seemingly immigrant-supportive religious communities, there are pockets of dissent.

Michael Coats, a customer service representative from Hudson, took issue with some statements in Lynch's homily.

"If that's what God told him to bring up, I have no problem with it," Coats said. "Did I agree with it? I don't agree with everything he said."

Scholars said the Catholic Church's aggressive stance should elicit little surprise. Helping the poor and needy and assisting with labor issues is part of the church's work.

Although religious leaders' efforts to aid illegal immigrants have increased in recent months, the Catholic Church has long been at the forefront of the debate. In 2003, bishops from the United States and Mexico issued a pastoral letter about migration. In May 2005, the U.S. Conference for Catholic Bishops launched an immigration reform campaign called "Justice for Immigrants: A Journey of Hope." As part of the effort, the bishops distributed kits, which included homily notes and bulletin inserts, to help priests teach Catholics about immigration issues.

Support from other faith communities and national religious groups soon followed.

The evangelical community, however, has been criticized for largely staying out of the debate. So, too, have black churches, a stance some activists find surprising given the church's role in the civil rights movement.

The Rev. Manuel Sykes, president of St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, understands the churches' silence.

"In many cases, blacks watch immigrant populations come to America and within a couple of decades, they're in the mainstream and doing very well, where African-Americans are still at the bottom," said Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. "There is an ambivalence there. It's like rooting for someone to win a football game that ultimately might meet you in the championship."

Although agitation from religious communities has helped to crystalize the immigration debate, some activists said the success or failure of immigrant-friendly reform will rest on the backs of the thousands of Hispanics who have taken to the nation's streets and the collection of groups that stepped in to help.

The collective voices of the religious draw attention, but ultimately fall short of providing solutions.

"When people make pronouncements, they're not necessarily thinking about what they mean in terms of policy," said Christine Pohl, a professor of Christian Social Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. "Saying that we need to care for people doesn't take us all the way to figuring out how we're going to do that in a way that's just."

Sherri Day can be reached at 813 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 13, 2006, 01:01:20]