Father Ed, 69

I am working in a mostly immigrant parish and yesterday at Sunday Mass our newly formed Children's Mariachi Group performed at the 9:00 am (English) Mass -- it was great! I cried tears of joy as I saw these 21 beautiful children playing and singing in front of their non-immigrant brothers and sisters. The children -- ages 3-13 -- are all United States citizens, most of whose parents are eligible for deportation. And then I cried even more tears of sadness and anger when I remembered that one of their dads is in fact in a Deportation Center in Kentucky as we speak. He was pulled over for a broken tail light about 2 months ago and has not been home ever since. Of course he was the bread-winner in the house, so his wife is now trying to make more money to feed her children . All for a broken tail light?? And in the meantime the children's grandmother makes sure they show up to serve as altar servers every Sunday and to make it to Mariachi practice every Wednesday. Thank you, Father Gary, for walking for these children.