Reforming fasting

Tom McCrory decided not to fast in support of immigration reform, even though his church asked him to do so last week.

An immigrant himself, McCrory felt the church should concentrate on helping the churches of the countries illegal residents have fled from before getting involved in political issues.

“I think you can address the needs of the illegal immigration population, but I don’t think you have to take a political stance,” McCrory said.

McCrory joined hundreds Sunday morning for 10 a.m. Palm Sunday Mass at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, marking the end of Lent, a 40-day period of reflection preceding Easter.

On March 23, the Diocese of Orange asked church members to take part in a fast during the last week of Lent as part of the Hunger for Justice campaign. Announced by Rev. Jaime Soto, Auxiliary Bishop at Saint Boniface Church in Anaheim, members would consume only liquids for one day between March 26 and Friday.

Participants were also asked to send a pledge card to their local political representative expressing their involvement.

“Five or six [church members] said it was a good way of keeping their conscience alert and to make them think different,” St. Joachim’s Rev. Enrique Sera said, adding that somewhere between 400 and 500 pledge cards were passed out to parishioners last week.

A number of St. Joachim’s attenders at Sunday’s Mass were unaware of the requested fast. Of the church members who knew about the fast, many said they could not participate for health reasons, and others simply forgot.

Aware of the fast, Diocese staff member Fred LaPuzza expressed strong backing for the concept, even though he did not participate.

“I don’t believe anyone is illegal in God’s eyes; he wanted to reach out to everyone who needs it,” LaPuzza said. “Anything our church is doing in this area is within those traditions.”

In Costa Mesa, the issue holds an extra negative weight, LaPuzza said.

“It has caused a lot of fear in people,” he said.

“We are an immigrant country,” McCrory said, but “if you want to live the American dream, you have to assimilate. They won’t get out of the cycle of poverty if they don’t.

“The majority of illegal immigrants are great people, hard-working, law-abiding — aside from breaking into the country — citizens,” he said.

McCrory though, chose not to fast in support of what he considered a legislative issue, not a divine or moral one, he said.

“It’s wildly inappropriate for [the church] to guilt Catholics into a political stance,” McCrory said. “The church’s mission is to address the spiritual needs of its congregants.”

Nearly 30 years ago, McCrory emigrated with his parents from Belfast, Northern Ireland to the United States while his father attended Cal State San Francisco on a soccer scholarship.

After years in courts and thousands of dollars in legal fees, the family became U.S. citizens in 1986, he said. Less than two months later, the Immigration and Reform Control Act passed, granting any illegal resident in the country since 1982 the opportunity to obtain citizenship.

“You can’t just pick and choose which ones you want to enforce,” McCrory said.

But for the Costa Mesa resident of 14 years, the question remains, “what can the church do to make the countries these people are fleeing from better?”

For Rev. Sera, St. Joachim’s responsibility rests in the congregants they can help locally.

“Part of the mission is to preach justice everywhere,” Rev. Sera said. “The aspect the church is involved in is a social justice issue,” adding that the same concept applied when the church took part in the civil right movement of the 1960s.

Ever since the immigration debate erupted in Costa Mesa, the church has been working to help immigrant members become legal citizens with citizenship classes and meetings with law enforcement authorities.

“We encourage our people to be law-abiding citizens, immigrants or not,” Rev. Sera said. “Here, justice has to be integrated with compassion.”