Thread: Leader of Hispanic church welcomes all, including undocument

07/01/2007
Leader of Hispanic church welcomes all, including undocumented
Mary E. O’Leary , Register Topics Editor

NEW HAVEN — By any definition, St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church is bustling.
Masses are packed every Sunday, baptisms are up and its elementary school is holding its own.

But most importantly, according to its pastor, the century-old parish is continuing to serve as a bridge between and among cultures.

It’s members come from 17 different Spanish-speaking countries and Brazil and it is lead by The Rev. James Manship, a native of East Hartford and a University of Connecticut graduate, who worked as an engineer until he become a priest in the 1990s.

Inspired by a seminary teacher to reach out to the country’s growing Latino population, he came back a changed man after serving at a church in Puerto Rico and immersing himself in the language and the culture.

"That experience continues to be for me a well of tremendous learning and I still draw from it," Manship said in an interview in his office at the church in Fair Haven.

A priest for nine years, Manship had an earlier stint at St. Rose’s when he was there for three years, before returning as pastor in 2005.

The pastor has been in the news lately as one of the advocates for the city’s growing immigrant community, many of them here illegally, who count on the church for practical, as well as spiritual guidance.

"The Catholic Church has always been a doorway into the larger community," said Manship. "I just see that as part of our mission."

Besides the school, there is an extensive English tutoring program for adults run by Dominican nuns, who arrange for volunteers to match people’s work schedules.

"To go to adult education is difficult, if you work in a restaurant. So the sisters have a cadre of tutors to keep it all moving," Manship said.

But in the school, it is English only. "We provide an environment that allows them to be successful," Manship said.

He likes to tell the story of one youngster who spoke only Spanish in August, but by February, came in fourth in the citywide spelling bee.

"We are not only serving the Catholic community, but the immigrant community. It is so important that these young people understand that education is a pathway to the larger culture and society," Manship said.

For the parents, all the materials are bilingual, and the Masses are in Spanish, "because that is the mother tongue."

The one and only priest at the church, the demands on Manship’s time are considerable, but he says he manages to function because of the heavy involvement of lay leaders, both long-time members and new arrivals, who together work on a social justice agenda.

It is typical of the mission of the immigrant-built churches in America of the 19th century, but the large number of illegal immigrants makes life that much more complicated for the parishioners.

A raid last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in New Haven sent the church into crisis mode, as many of the 31 picked up in the sweep, were members of St. Rose’s. The federal agency was targeting illegal immigrants who had ignoted deportation orders.

Manship spent his days comforting the families left behind, many of whom had lost their main breadwinner. He worked with other agencies to provide food and helped raise money to help those arrested post bonds, while lawyers from the Yale Law School took up their cause in court.

Manship was a familiar figure at the bond hearings in immigration court and provided affidavits attesting to his parishioners ties to the community.

Before this, working with Elm City Congregations Organized, another advocacy group, Manship had arranged several times for city police to come and talk to the immigrants about not being afraid to report crimes.

He is among the leaders endorsing a new municipal ID card that will be available to all residents, including illegal immigrants, to help them access library and park services and he is a familiar face, along with Catholic Bishop Peter Rosazza, at the many rallies and press conferences held by city leaders in the wake of the ICE raid.

"I think to be a patriot is to contribute to the public debate," Manship said.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the church was the site of an update on the fate of those arrested, and a series of skits were put on by parish leaders on what rights the immigrants have and how they should respond if they encounter an ICE agent.

"Our history is not a good history of welcoming the stranger among us," the pastor said of how immigrants have been treated historically.

"It is pointless to attack people who are defenseless. To try to solve our larger issues, our country needs to come together and have a substantial and deep conversation about comprehensive immigration reform and be honest with ourselves about our past history," Manship said.

"I’m sorry to say, it is hard to not believe that what happened in New Haven was not somehow a cause and effect to this community’s stand on the municipal ID to all its residents," he said.

ICE has denied this and said the raid had been planned since April. The agents, however, were only able to find five people who had deportation orders and, according to its own policies, those five were of the lowest priority for enforcement.

Manship said one of the things that he has taken to heart from the Latino community and their expression of faith "is to understand the concept of la lucha — the struggle. It is part of life. Nobody likes it, but the suffering and the struggle has a point and the point is to bring us closer to the world as it should be."

The pastor said this country has to get beyond slogans to further the debate on race and immigration.

"This country is so much better than that. We can’t allow fear to dominate or we will miss an historic opportunity," Manship said.

Pedro Cuerbelo, a long time parishioner active in the church, said he is grateful that Manship, 43, was assigned to St. Rose’s.

"He is young. He is full of energy and he believes that faith is action. That is probably why I feel so lucky to work with him, because he really puts his faith to work," Cuerbelo said. "He has a vision of what a community should be."

Cuerbelo said welcoming the stranger begins in the parish itself, which has managed to find common ground among immigrants from the 18 countries represented, who now share each other’s customs in the many feasts celebrated at the church.

"He is a good leader," Cuerbelo said. "We have a theme at St. Rose. For God, there are no strangers and he really believes in that."

Manship has also made a point of reaching out to other Catholic parishes to establish relationships with them, particularly Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Hamden.

Cathy Elia, who is from that parish, sees a correlation between her advocacy work on behalf of autistic children and Manship’s work at St. Rose.

"These people are isolated in many ways and there is a lot of ignorance that has to be overcome so that people can really understand the issue and there is a lot of education that needs to be done," Elia said.

"He is just a very dynamic, caring person. He cares deeply about the immigration issue. We really do need more Father Manships," Elia said.

Mary E. O’Leary can be reached at 789-5731 or moleary@nhregister.com.

A catholic priest in our town just announced that 70% of his 4,000 strong congregation is 'undocumented.' Father Graf is leading a protest against my city because our council voted to apply for 287g.

http://www.waukegan.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7497

video at bottom of recent meeting were 6,500 protesters against 287g showed up.

Jesus said that we have to obey the law of the land too... These priests should be busy trying to undercover child molesters in their churches instead of being the supporters of illegals..

Church leaders who disregard U.S. law should be brought to justice for their criminal harboring & protection of illegal aliens.
The Catholic Church in particular should be punished for this.
I take offense at their policy of unrestricted procreation, and I don't think I should have to pay taxes to pay for all the cost of unlimited births by illegal aliens.
I am sick & tired of paying taxes to support what I consider to be illegal and immoral behavior.

Take away their tax exempt status and lets see how welcoming they are