Catholics begin monthlong communal fast to urge just immigration laws

Published: 2006-02-16

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Catholic parishioners in Los Angeles have begun a monthlong fast and prayer for comprehensive immigration reform and to oppose harsh legislation that would criminalize undocumented immigrants and those who help them. Several hundred schoolchildren, parents, priests, religious, lay ministers, community organizers and Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala gathered Feb. 1 at Dolores Mission Church in the Boyle Heights neighborhood to announce the communal fast. "We are calling and inviting our community to initiate a month of fasting and prayer," said Bishop Zavala, in the hopes of persuading U.S. senators to oppose HR 4437, a bill passed in the House that would make illegal presence in the U.S. a crime, rather than the civil offense it is now. Estimates are that some 11 million immigrants are undocumented.

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