I Was Shocked
Last week, the Savannah Morning News published an article that captured perfectly what I expressed to the reporter, Destini Ambus. She captured not only my words but also my sentiments. She not only took information from the interview, but I can tell she took the time to read many of my blog posts from throughout the years. I was shocked on Wednesday when I saw a picture of me celebrating Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe on the front page of the paper! And on the top of the fold too!
Will I Change Someone’s Mind?
My social media last week got very much fired up. I was disappointed by the lack of understanding on the issue I discussed, that is, immigration from the mind of the Catholic Church. I usually respond to social media comments in a collected manner and with reasonable arguments. Will I change someone’s mind? Probably not. But I am thanked tremendously by those who do read my responses, so I keep it up. I also believe it’s a way to show it’s possible to exchange points of view and disagree, while not resorting to personal attacks and circular arguments.
Here I share parts of the article published in the local paper by Destini Ambus on Wednesday, February 5th, 2025. You can read it in its entirety here.
“Fr. Pablo Migone was only nine-years-old when he got on a plane in 1991, and left his home of Lima, Peru to fly the nearly 3,000 miles to Augusta, Georgia, his new home. Then, bombs blasted daily in Lima, with kidnappings, blackouts, murders and rampant inflation becoming common.
Despite that, his family didn’t decide to leave until his father, a wealthy businessman there, was threatened and they were given the choice to stay and be murdered, or leave quickly.
“When I talk about immigrants, it begins with a personal experience, because of what I’ve lived through, the memories, and how that’s fashioned who I am as a person,” Migone said. “The other part is, as a Catholic priest, the Catholic Church has always been an advocate for the respect of human life, recognizing the irreplaceable value of every single human person, from conception to natural death.”
The Catholic Church believes that immigrants should come to the U.S. lawfully, but also understands that the current immigration policies make it hard to do so and do not address the country’s need for labor. The Catholic Church has called for the improvement of the policies. Instead, the opposite has happened.
“The ball gets tossed back and forth and nothing changes,” Migone said. “As a priest, I see the human pain right in front of me, and the consequences of the lack of action when it comes to creating something different that will respond to the needs in our country.”
“There’s just a lot of fear,” Migone said. “I would say the biggest fear is not necessarily raids by immigrations, or fears of deportation, but the rhetoric that’s present in our society. That’s my biggest fear, and the biggest fear that affects every immigrant with or without papers.”
The role of the church, Migone said, is to provide spiritual support and informational support. First providing a secure place where immigrants know they’re welcomed, loved and encouraged. The second thing is to provide good information — parishoners trust the church, so he wants to be sure they provide accurate and updated information. The last thing the church provides is more tangible support, with food or funds, when it can.
“Usually they deport the father or husband, who is the only one that works, then you have a wife and a mother, and maybe up to five children,” Migone said. “So then you have a mother with four, or five children with no income. At the local level, we support them with funds that come in through the church, and through the generosity of individuals we provide them with food or whatever their human needs are.”
One thing he said that has surprised him over the course of the last few weeks is the coldness of people who have accused him of being overly emotional about the topic.
“It’s emotional because it deals with human beings that are being affected by this,” Migone said. “When you have a 12-year-old child tell you that her biggest fear is to come back home one day, that her parents will be gone and she will be responsible for her younger siblings, that puts a human face to this problem. You may say its a consequence of what they did, but that doesn’t take away the emotional pain.”
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