{"id":274962,"date":"2018-01-29T12:45:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T17:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&amp;p=274962"},"modified":"2018-01-29T12:45:07","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T17:45:07","slug":"chicago-priest-embarks-on-hunger-strike-for-dreamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/01\/chicago-priest-embarks-on-hunger-strike-for-dreamers\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago priest embarks on hunger strike for &#8216;Dreamers&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>From <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/immigration\/ct-met-reverend-hunger-strike-0125-story.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Chicago Tribune:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Rev. Gary Graf hasn\u2019t touched solid food in 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>The Pilsen-based priest has committed to a hunger strike in support of local \u201cDreamers\u201d whose lives hang in the balance as Congress wrangles over immigration reform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNi hambre tengo,\u201d he said in Spanish on Tuesday afternoon. \u201cI\u2019m not even hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Graf plans to fast until lawmakers reach a deal to replace Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that shields young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children. The <a id=\"PEBSL000163\" title=\"Donald Trump\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/topic\/politics-government\/donald-trump-PEBSL000163-topic.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Trump<\/a> administration moved to end the program in September, but a federal judge in California ordered the White House to keep it in place while a lawsuit goes forward.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_ar_sponsoredmod\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_nt\"><span style=\"line-height:1.5\">Health permitting, Graf said he will live off water and protein powder until at least March 5, a deadline set by President Donald Trump to end the program. He does plan to continue taking communion during the fast.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Graf, a former pastor at Most Blessed Trinity Parish in Waukegan and North Chicago, announced the hunger strike during a Sunday mass at St. Procopius Catholic Church earlier this month. It was a somewhat impulsive decision, he acknowledged, but one he doesn\u2019t take lightly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, it\u2019s dramatic,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way in which we pray for our political leaders and invite them to do their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bishops and priests from across the Archdiocese of Chicago, including Cardinal <a id=\"PERLF000001\" title=\"Blase Cupich\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/topic\/religion-belief\/christianity\/blase-cupich-PERLF000001-topic.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Blase Cupich<\/a>, are lending support.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/immigration\/ct-met-reverend-hunger-strike-0125-story.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And you can watch a video of Father Graf below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fr. Gary Graf Statement\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g8bNy8lbP6Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Chicago Tribune:\u00a0 The Rev. Gary Graf hasn\u2019t touched solid food in 10 days. The Pilsen-based priest has committed to a hunger strike in support of local \u201cDreamers\u201d whose lives hang in the balance as Congress wrangles over immigration reform. \u201cNi hambre tengo,\u201d he said in Spanish on Tuesday afternoon. \u201cI\u2019m not even hungry.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":232075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-mind"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chicago priest embarks on hunger strike for &#039;Dreamers&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From The Chicago Tribune:\u00a0 The Rev. Gary Graf hasn\u2019t touched solid food in 10 days. The Pilsen-based priest has committed to a hunger strike in support of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/01\/chicago-priest-embarks-on-hunger-strike-for-dreamers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicago priest embarks on hunger strike for &#039;Dreamers&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From The Chicago Tribune:\u00a0 The Rev. Gary Graf hasn\u2019t touched solid food in 10 days. 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