SAN DIEGO — “Make America Care Again.”
Natividad Godina rode a bus early Saturday morning from Carlsbad to San Diego’s bayfront to carry her hand-made sign with that message through downtown streets.
She joined hundreds of other people of faith — women, men and children — who had come together once more for a bilingual prayer service and procession to “Journey with Immigrants and Defend the Vulnerable” on April 12.
The participants included Bishop Michael Pham, the diocesan administrator, and Auxiliary Bishops Ramón Bejarano and Felipe Pulido, from the San Diego Diocese; Jesuit Father Scott Santarosa, from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Barrio Logan; Father Edmundo Zárate, from St. Jude Shrine of the West Parish; other priests, deacons and religious women; and leaders from other faiths.
Godina’s sign showed an image of the Statue of Liberty embracing a woman wearing a simple dress and head cover. She said her parents were from Mexico.
“Immigrants today are not being treated as humans,” said Godina, a member of St. Mark Parish in San Marcos. “That’s what inspired my sign. Immigrants should be treated fairly.”
The event was the second in three months organized by the diocese with Catholic Charities and the San Diego Organizing Project. The goal was to speak out against new federal policies targeting undocumented immigrants and to call attention to plans being considered that would cut billions from programs assisting poor families, the elderly and the sick.
The event was preceded by a “We are Matthew 25” Novena in English, Spanish and Vietnamese presented over Facebook from April 4 to 12, led by the three bishops and various priests. The Novena asked the faithful to support their brothers and sisters in Christ, in accordance with Catholic teaching, and to foster a deeper understanding of the challenges that vulnerable people faced.
Ten buses delivered faithful from Vista, Escondido, Carlsbad and Chula Vista to the County Administration Center. They joined hundreds of others who had converged there. Most carried palms since the event was being held on the day before Palm Sunday.
They listened to a Gospel passage read by Deacon Carlos Morales, from Christ the King Parish, and a homily by Bishop Susan Brown Snook, of the San Diego Episcopal Diocese. Then they heard two testimonies.
The first was from a woman whose husband had been deported in February after the couple had dropped off their children at school. Agents came to their car in a store parking lot and detained the man, who was deported within hours to Tijuana. The testimony was read by two young women parishioners from Our Lady of Guadalupe, who struggled to fight back the tears.
“I want to be strong for our kids, so I don’t cry in front of them,” the testimony said. “But I cry at night. I don’t know what is going to happen to our family. But I know that God is with us.”
The participants next heard from Gonzalo Bautista, an immigrant legally in the country who struggled to have Medi-Cal pay for his treatment as he recovered from a heart attack. This caused him stress, which the doctor had advised him to avoid. After a time, he said, he was able to have the treatment covered.
Indeed, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a letter on April 15 to members of Congress who are considering federal budget cuts. The bishops urged them to protect the Medicaid program — a lifeline for nearly 80 million low-income families, mothers, children, elderly, disabled individuals, the unhoused, and working people across the nation.
The participants walked about a mile to the federal building. There, Bishop Pulido blessed the palms, while deacons walked around sprinkling holy water on the participants’ palms.
Bishop Bejarano then invited everyone to unite in prayer.
“We come together to pray to God to change the hearts of those authorities who are causing fear and terror and who seek to destroy families,” he said.
He said he was worried about the Trump Administration’s message to undocumented immigrants that, if they self-deported, they would be able to return to the country in the future.
“This is a great lie, simply false propaganda,” the bishop said.
He urged everyone to put their faith in action by staying informed through reliable sources, to always keep in mind that they are called by their faith to care for the most vulnerable, and to act concretely.
“We have to speak the truth as people of faith.”
