Mass recalls Mexicans who have died in desert trying to enter U.S.

Published: 2004-06-29

PHOENIX (CNS) -- Parishioners, civil rights advocates and the bishops of Phoenix and Tucson prayed together during a memorial Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Phoenix honoring Mexicans who have perished crossing the Sonoran desert to enter the United States. Attending the June 27 Mass were nearly 1,000 people, including an overflow crowd watching from television monitors in the parish hall and a delegation from the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights advocacy group, which was founded in Phoenix. "This is the second time we've done this," said the La Raza council's president, Raul Yzaguirre, who traveled from Washington. "Every time we've been near the border we've felt it was important to give a face to the numbers. "These are people like us," he told The Catholic Sun, newspaper of the Phoenix Diocese. "There are policies and factors that propel them to do what they do and the loss of life is not something we can be immune to."

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