Finally, at least a note

I am honestly sorry that I have not posted anything here for almost four weeks. During that time, however, I have posted to Twitter every day, some days quite a few times -- at http://twitter.com/relford. There, anyone who has a special interest in migration/immigration issues and/or in the ongoing crises in the Catholic Church will find a lot of links to up-to-date information. And yes, I hope to get back to blogging here very soon. I really do.

Tucson's Cesar Chavez march

Saturday we had our 12th annual Cesar Chavez march. At the bottom of this page, I'll put a link you can copy and paste into your browser to see photos of the march and rally. (At top left of the photo site, click on view, then on gallery, and hit your spacebar once or twice to go from photo to photo.

Here are my opening comments and prayer:

Our nation -- and our state -- are living in the terrible shadow of racism. Estamos viviendo en la sombra terrible del racismo.

There are now over 1,000 organized hate groups in the US. Beyond those groups, racism also festers in some unexpected places, sometimes very high places. Tambien el racismo se encuentra en algunos lugares impensados.

But the following same words are spoken by both the Prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible & by Jesus of Nazareth in the Christian Gospel -- palabras de Isaias y Jesus:

"El Espíritu del Señor está sobre mí. El me ha ungido para llevar buenas nuevas a los pobres, para anunciar la libertad a los cautivos, y a los ciegos que pronto van a ver, para despedir libres a los oprimidos."

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,"

So let us pray for all who suffer from injustice and let us pray for people in power who are blind to that injustice.

Let us pray for our undocumented sisters and brothers who live in fear, who are jailed as criminals, whose families are broken apart by deportation. Oremos por los que viven con miedo y las familias quebrantadas por la deportacion.

Creador de todos, Dios de justicia y paz,
fortalecenos para luchar
en el espiritu de Cesar Chavez
siempre sin violencia
contra el odio y el racismo,
contra la discriminacion y la censura.
Haznos verdaderos instrumentos de tu paz.
Amen.

Creator of all, God of justice and peace,
give us strength to struggle
in the spirit of Cesar Chavez
always without violence
against hate and racism,
against discrimination and censorship.
Make us true instruments of your peace.
Amen.
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Photo gallery: http://www.azcesarchavezcoalition.org/