WASHINGTON (RNS) — A whole lot of individuals attended a Good Friday procession (April 18) at Our Girl Queen of the Americas Catholic Church, stunning even parish employees with the turnout on the largely immigrant congregation.
Throughout the US, church buildings with many immigrant congregants have reported decrease attendance since President Donald Trump promised mass deportations and his administration eliminated restrictions on immigration arrests at homes of worship. However Lilian Cifuentes, director of non secular training at Our Girl Queen of the Americas, stated Mass attendance has elevated on the church since Trump moved into the White Home, a mile and a half from the parish within the Kalorama Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
The parish’s pastor, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, has been an outspoken advocate for immigrants, partly due to his personal expertise arriving within the U.S. at age 19 with out authorized standing after fleeing violence in El Salvador.
After strolling within the procession, Menjivar-Ayala, now a U.S. citizen, celebrated a Mass on the archdiocesan cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. His homily echoed an op-ed he wrote final week for the archdiocesan newspaper wherein he argued immigrant communities in America are experiencing the Ardour, the struggling Jesus Christ skilled in the course of the closing occasions of his life.
“The Ardour of Christ isn’t one thing that may be very removed from the truth that many individuals reside immediately, particularly immigrants, who expertise in a tangible and private means, the Ardour of Christ — dealing with each day worry, humiliation, a priori condemnation with out the potential for respectable protection,” the bishop stated in Spanish. “We meditate on Christ’s Ardour not as a result of we’re sadomasochists, however as a result of it brings us consolation, resilience, energy and hope to these of us who’re additionally carrying the cross to know we’re liked by God.”
Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, proper, makes use of incense throughout a Good Friday procession, April 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (RNS picture/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
He urged worshippers, “Unify your sufferings with these of Christ, and you will notice that you’ll obtain peace, relaxation and above all, the forgiveness of your sins.”
Within the face of challenges immigrants face immediately, the bishop advised the Mass attendees to be delicate to the sufferings of others, together with these coping with melancholy, sickness or loneliness, encouraging them to comply with the instance of the ladies and John who stayed with Jesus when he was crucified.
“Cease pondering nearly your issues,” Menjivar-Ayala preached. “If you change into a part of a neighborhood, worry turns into farther away and hope emerges and is born once more.”
In his op-ed assessing the U.S. political state of affairs, the bishop drew on his childhood in El Salvador.
“Many people from different lands acknowledge all too nicely the phobia of individuals being snatched by secret police and disappeared,” Menjivar-Ayala wrote, noting the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral scholar at Tufts College detained after her visa was revoked with out her data. She stated in a courtroom doc she believed the plainclothes federal brokers who detained her had been abducting her and had been going to kill her.
Cifuentes stated she believes attendance has risen at Our Girl Queen of the Americas as a result of congregants’ “religion is extra highly effective, extra robust” than what they’re studying within the information. She additionally stated their religion is strengthened by the assist of Menjivar-Ayala and the parish’s different leaders.
“That’s why I feel they don’t really feel afraid. They really feel like they’ve a household, and anyone goes to be with them if one thing occurred,” she stated.
Catholics venerate a relic of the Crown of Thorns earlier than a procession at Our Girl Queen of the Americas Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2025. (RNS picture/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
On the parish’s procession, among the many crowd had been about 50 members of the more and more common Catholic youth motion, Hakuna, whose not too long ago established D.C. chapter was internet hosting a visiting worldwide group.
“It’s very stunning to see how the Catholic soul feels the identical all over the place,” stated the Rev. Miguel García Manglano, a Spanish priest doing youth ministry with the group, in Spanish.
One other out-of-town customer on the procession, Isaac Bermúdez, known as Menjivar-Ayala “a really type bishop, a spectacular bishop, a bishop who smells like a pastor.”
Menjivar-Ayala’s message resonated with Bermúdez, a seminarian who was born within the U.S. however grew up in Nicaragua.
Contributors finish a Good Friday procession on the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, April 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (RNS picture/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
“Immigrants are individuals who come right here to work, however they arrive right here to undergo, too,” he stated. “They arrive right here to undergo starvation. They arrive right here to undergo inequality. However nonetheless, they at all times have that religion that’s created in our Latin American international locations.”
A Lenten deal with immigrants has been a part of Stations of the Cross observations all through North America. Again in February, the Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province launched a Stations of the Cross information sharing tales of particular person migrants. Dominican College within the Chicago space, the Kino Border Initiative throughout the border in Nogales, Mexico, and a gaggle in Boston all prayed migration-focused Stations of the Cross all through Lent or on Good Friday.
However Menjivar-Ayala inspired Catholics to not spend an excessive amount of time crying on Calvary.
“The cross, evil, cruelty do not need the ultimate phrase,” he stated. “Even within the gloom of the second, we are able to say with certainty, Christ has defeated dying.”
Contributors carry a statue of Jesus throughout a Good Friday procession in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2025. (RNS picture/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
