For the past year, PICO affiliate Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT) has been collaborating with the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and Bishop Jamie Soto to realize a diocese-wide Immigration Support Network. 

Bishop Soto wants the Catholic Church to be the best source of safe, reliable information and support for the immigrant community in Northern California.  He knows that many immigrant families are in need of the correct information, social services, and reliable legal advice.

The Immigration Support Network is a combined effort of over 25 Catholic parishes and includes well over 50 parish lay leaders and clergy throughout the diocese.  ACT has been helping to lay the groundwork for this network of leaders for over a year.  Forums were conducted at each parish in the fall touching upon the theme of the Rights and Responsibilities of Immigrants.  Regional forums were then conducted in early 2009 in which legal experts and lawyers provided parishioners with specific advice and support. 

A third series of forums are being implemented at each parish throughout Lent that will use the Stations of the Cross to provide a touchstone for dialog between the Latino and Anglo communities at each church.

These forums are designed to give immigrants the information and resources they need to keep their families safe and to keep them on the right path to achieve their goals in this country, but they are also designed to achieve something deeper: leadership development and empowerment. 

The parishes throughout the diocese now have a network of lay leaders that have been activated around immigration issues.  ACT hopes to harness this new activism in effective and far-reaching ways, including positioning the diocese to have a powerful voice in local and federal immigration policy, including the impact of county budget decisions on immigrant communities, the DREAM Act, and national comprehensive immigration reform.  These teams will also be able to organize around any other local concern that their parish identifies.

For more information on Sacramento ACT, visit www.sacact.org