Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, August 03, 2008
Joe Orso: Shrine dedication, Postville rally offer two opportunities to encounter faith
This week, I saw two images of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
One, a giant mosaic in the front of the giant Shrine Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where people stand in awe.
The other, a modest statue in the front of a small church in a small town in Iowa, where people suffer.
At a Mass dedicating the Shrine Church on Thursday, Roman Catholic men, wearing robes and having traveled from throughout the country, sat in front and stood when the rest of the congregation kneeled.
At an interfaith gathering to support immigrants in Postville, Iowa, on Sunday, Jewish and Christian men led a prayer service in English, Hebrew and Spanish.
They sang hallelujahs in both churches.
At the shrine, a cantor led a slow rendition of the song of praise, and then a deacon slowly chanted a reading from the Gospel.
At St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, a rabbi, after saying his Jewish friends wanted to tell the government that a May 12 raid against immigrants was wrong, led an upbeat chant of hallelujah while more than a thousand people chanted and clapped along.
Both events were unique.
The church dedication came after nine years of planning and began with a procession of hundreds. Its purpose was to transform a building into a house of worship.
The interfaith prayer service and march came 21/2 months after a raid in Postville, when helicopters hovered and immigrants ran through the streets after federal officials barged into the Agriprocessors Inc. factory where they worked. Mothers and fathers have been detained and put into federal prison before being deported, while their families remain here. The purpose of the Sunday event was to call on the government to make comprehensive reform to immigration policy that respects families, and to stand with those devastated by the raid.
Both events drew protests.
Outside the shrine, 10 Protestants commanded Catholics to stop goddess-worship.
In Postville, more than a hundred people stood on a main street as the interfaith marchers passed. Their counter-protest signs included: “What would Jesus do? Obey the law” and “Ask me why you deserve hell.”
At the shrine, an archbishop described bishops and priests as “images of our Lord.”
In Postville, a Hispanic business owner said, “There is only one race. That is human. There is only one language. That is truth. There is only one religion. That is love.”
So what to make of the two?
Both embraced the Hispanic people and offered a narrative that the people of the Americas are one.
At the shrine, a man outside said we are always at the crossroads of the invisible and the visible, and the shrine could become those crossroads for all of North America.
Could it?
In Postville, a Lutheran chaplain said God stands on the side of immigrants.
“From Abraham and Sarah who left behind, like many people, their families, loved ones and everything they knew to chase a dream and a promise,” he said. “Like Moses and the people of Israel, who left behind oppression and poverty. Like Jesus himself, who began his life as a refugee, escaping poverty and persecution by his own government. Like Muhammad and Buddha and many other traditions that know that it is only through immigration that we understand ourselves; only when we are able to move beyond the narrow understanding of the world do we encounter God.”
Do you believe him?
Joe Orso works part time for the La Crosse Tribune and the Franciscan Spirituality Center. Opinions in this column are his own. He can be reached at jorso@lacrossetribune.com.
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