From OSV News:
Amid recent deadly immigration enforcement operations, Catholics in Minneapolis are wrestling with sorrow, anger, fear and faith as they navigate tensions between federal and local authorities, while continuing to serve their communities.
“The challenge … is that sense of sadness that we’re all struggling with at this point deeply,” said Father Jim Cassidy, parochial vicar at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Minneapolis.
The priest was one of several faith and community leaders who, along with Minnesota officials, were part of CNN’s live Jan. 28 town hall, “State of Emergency: Confronting the Crisis in Minnesota,” moderated by journalists Anderson Cooper and Sara Sidner.
The town hall came just days after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. 37-year-old citizens and Minneapolis residents shot and killed by federal agents Jan. 7 and 24 respectively as they protested immigration enforcement actions in that city.
Since its launch in December, the Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Metro Surge” — part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on unauthorized immigration — has so far seen the arrest of at least 3,000 persons alleged to lack authorized immigration status…
…The deaths of two citizens — along with incidents such as the Jan. 20 afterschool detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were sent to a family detention facility in Texas — have wounded the community, said Father Cassidy, who described his parish as “very inclusive and welcoming.”
“How do you find hope, and simply being able to walk that walk?” he said during the CNN town hall broadcast, adding that “the biggest thing” is for “people to name that grief.
“It’s deep here in the cities. I have never seen it as such,” he admitted.
“At the same time,” said Father Cassidy, there is “rage.”
“So it’s that whole combination,” he said, noting that he and fellow faith leaders “journey with people in that process.”
