(OSV News) — A small delegation from the Vatican-supported World Meeting of Popular Movements has completed its visit to cities across the U.S., where members said they have been struck by the love and compassion people showed for others.
The delegation was scheduled to leave the U.S. July 30, but “unforeseen circumstances” led them to reschedule the trip’s second half, the tour coordinator told OSV News July 17. While the delegation’s members hope to return in the fall or winter for a second visit, they described a rich experience that may inform new ministry initiatives.
The delegation included Father Mattia Ferrari of the Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola in north-central Italy; César Piscoya, a Peruvian theologian and adviser to the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council, widely known as CELAM; and Luca Casarini, the Italian founder of Mediterranea Saving Humans. The three Church leaders arrived in the U.S. June 20 and met with communities in Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
They heard from those affected by the U.S. government’s immigration enforcement crackdown, residents of a contaminated mining neighborhood and those facing other challenges from living on society’s margins.
‘A strong witness of love’
The priest and his two companions spoke to OSV News while resting at the Visitation Sisters’ St. Jane House during the trip’s four scheduled days in Minneapolis. It was the end of one of their many days of joining grassroots community gatherings.
Father Ferrari called the tour inspiring and said he was also surprised.
“To see a Church in a so deeply moving way alongside those who suffer — this is a strong witness of love,” he said.
“This is a strong witness of the Easter of Christ because it’s impossible, on a human level, to explain this commitment from the Church if Jesus was not risen,” he continued. “It’s impossible to explain this just on a human level because we saw a commitment from bishops, from clergy, from nuns, from laypeople — a real commitment … that means also to suffer with the people.”
A stop in San Diego left an impression on the trio. Father Ferrari described participating in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “check-ins” there, where clergy and other Catholic leaders accompanied people not authorized to be in the U.S. to their deportation hearings.
“There are people who have relatives or friends who are deported, and so people are suffering a lot,” he said. “These experiences are very important because you see that when sufferings are shared together in solidarity, … strong feel(ings) of strength, of dignity, arise.”
“This is what (Pope) Francis called the feeling of ‘popular movement’ — that is an emotion that turns into communitarian action,” he added.
World Meeting of Popular Movements
Father Ferrari is the coordinator of the World Meeting of Popular Movements. The organization’s mission is to meet people on the ground, follow their lead on how the Church can best support them, and to “discern together what the demands of the Gospel require,” according to a document describing the U.S. tour.
The movement is a response to Pope Francis’ call in 2014 for bringing together the Church with various grassroots efforts to empower the poor to become change agents. The primary focus of these movements is on “tierra, techo y trabajo”: land, housing and work.
Casarini said he was especially interested in “the other face of the United States.”
“We know only the United States by the ICE killings and the bad, bad situation,” he told OSV News. “Now we know the United States of love, solidarity, welcoming.”
Casarini said he was also taking note of how the community groups “self-organize,” observing how they came together on projects “for a new world, a new town, a new neighborhood.”
Casarini, who returned to his Catholic roots after rediscovering the love of Jesus Christ, said the U.S. efforts he has witnessed are applicable to the refugees and migrants his private rescue organization (for which Father Ferrari serves as chaplain) has saved from the Mediterranean Sea’s dangerous waters.
‘Hope, life, fraternity’
For Piscoya — a former Augustinian missionary and close friend of Pope Leo XIV — communication is the priority after he returns to Latin America. He said it is “very important” to share with the bishops and other Catholics there his experiences with multiple U.S. groups addressing immigration-related challenges, as well as health, labor and other issues.
He said their accompaniment “highlighted the hope, life, fraternity” of those they visited “in great response to these other challenges of injustice, and that … they truly want to rebuild their lives where they are.”
“We’re leaving with much gratitude because (these grassroots groups) knew how to communicate this to us, and because we’ve been able to learn from this rich experience from their recounting, we also want to share about it in South America,” Piscoya said.
He said after listening to the migrants, he may propose to the Latin American bishops the possibility of their collaboration with the Church in North America to address some of the challenges the migrants face.
‘Concrete actions’
Piscoya also identified “concrete actions” the Church in Latin America could take, such as connecting those who are about to be deported to Latin American countries with their local dioceses or pastors. Piscoya said the Church could provide similar pastoral support for family members and other loved ones left behind in the North.
He appealed to those in the United States to have greater sensitivity toward people “who suffer from these dismal immigration policies that this government is steamrolling.”
Piscoya said everyone — including himself, Father Ferrari and Casari — should continue to turn to God for help, “always trusting and praying, so that the Lord continues to act with small but significant gestures and actions that change lives.”
Simone Orendain is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Chicago.
