Pope Francis has called our Church to go to the peripheries of life and be ambassadors of God’s mercy there. On Tuesday, a group of bishops went to the periphery of the U.S., literally, celebrating a Mass a few feet from the fence that divides the U.S. from Mexico. They prayed for those who have lost their lives trying to cross the border. They pleaded for Congress to pass humane immigration reform. It is too soon to know if their actions will have a political effect, but every Latino Catholic understood that whatever the U.S. Congress does, the bishops of the Catholic Church will stand in solidarity with the immigrants and try to ameliorate the sufferings they endure.
The bishops said they were following the example of Pope Francis, who went to the island of Lampedusa last year, the place where many African immigrants die trying to get into Europe. But, the bishops are not monkeys following the example of Pope Francis. They were not primarily following the pope’s example at all. They were, like him, following the example and the urging of the Master who Himself went out to the highways and byways of life and instructed his apostles to do the same.
Read Full Article »