The newly formed Christian Clergy of Astoria-Long Island City hosted an Ecumenical Prayer Service for Immigration Reform at Immaculate Conception, Astoria, on the evening of March 7. 

Astoria clergymen Rev. Father George Anastasiou of the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Demetrios and pastor James Klockau of Grace Lutheran Church, as well as 25 priests from Queens and Brooklyn joined Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. 

Also in attendance were former City Council President Peter Vallone Sr., City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., and a representative from Senator Charles Schumer's office. The prayer service was a culmination of the past six months, when hundreds have attended events and meetings to raise awareness about immigration and the need for immigration reform as part of Project Welcome, a parish-based initiative at Immaculate Conception that also involves other churches and parishioners in their cluster. 

"We are trying to raise awareness, get people involved," said Msgr. Fernando Ferrarese, pastor. "When immigration becomes an issue in Congress, we want to be able to mobilize people and raise their consciousness on the issue." 

Over 700 people attended the service, including members from Brooklyn Congregations United (BCU), Catholic Charities, Catholic Migration Office, and Queens Congregations United for Action (QCUA). 
"While everyone knows the immigration system needs to be overhauled, people are divided on how to do this," said Cleo Vivas-Rojos, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception. "We need to find ways to be both humane and just in our policy and to administrate it effectively."

"This is the first time anyone can remember in a long time that the churches have held anything like this together," said Robert McCreanor, director of legal services for the Immigrant Tenant Advocacy Project in the Catholic Migration Office. McCreanor, who has been involved with Project Welcome, said, "An example of one of our events was a documentary film we screened called ‘The Sixth Section' about Mexicans from the state of Puebla who migrated to New York. It shows how they live in a transnational community and it addresses the root cause of migration, which is poverty."

The bishops are calling for comprehensive immigration reform, McCreanor said, "and to change laws, peoples minds and hearts need to be changed before the law can be."

Bishop DiMarzio gave a sermon on immigration, in which he shared the moral underpinnings of the issue and his vision of a better immigration policy. The bishop is an internationally renowned authority on immigration issues and has served on the United Nations Committee on Migration. 
"Immigration touches Brooklyn and Queens," he said. "We come here together because we are a people of faith... And as people of faith, we are close to this issue on various levels... Church teaching says each individual is endowed with a dignity and we must respect everyone. We can't respect one life and not another.

"All of us have to understand that we all came from somewhere else... There is an innate right as human persons to be able to move to better themselves. Immigration is not a vacation. It comes from necessity." 
The bishop spoke about how U.S. laws often keep migrant families separated. "If we keep our families separated, nothing good can come from that. It isn't good for the children and it doesn't build strong marriages."

There are an estimated 12 million undocumented workers currently in the U.S. today, "and every state has the presence of people who are undocumented. How can we have security if we don't know who these people are?" he asked. "Through research, we know the vast majority of the undocumented are working... What if we had a national identity card? The rest of the world has it, I don't know why we don't." 
He urged the congregation to "be good advocates for those who have no voice for themselves. People of faith must understand what the issues are so we can do something."

For updated news and events on immigration reform, visit www.justiceforimmigrants.org. Reported by Stefanie Gutierrez, The Tablet.