The lector was missing. So were four members of the choir and two Eucharistic ministers. A Mississippi church copes with ICE raids that took a heavy toll on its congregation:
A new form of family separation leaves children of immigrant workers wondering when they will see their parents again.St. Michael Catholic Church, a small brick structure adorned with a simple white cross and a stained-glass window depicting the Virgin Mary, has long been a refuge for Latinos in this tiny Southern town, population 5,600 – a place not just to worship and gather for baptisms and christenings, but to speak Spanish and find fellowship with other families who have journeyed to the U.
In his modest wood-paneled office, decorated with a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a photo of Pope Francis, he has a fat stack of letters of recommendation to immigration judges for members of his congregation.So far, he has typed up 80. But he has not had any response and he worries about the fate of the detainees as well as their families that are left behind.
“This is a very dark moment in their lives,” Mena said. “They don’t see their future as something bright. Many of them are left thinking it was not a good decision to come to the United States, but their children are now used to this society’s customs and its way of thinking. To go back to Guatemala, where there is a lot of poverty and violence, is not going to be easy.”
Parishioner Sandra Sales, 22, leaves St. Michael with her children after Mass. Salas was detained during the ICE raids while working at a chicken processing plant in Mississippi.
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