{"id":9330,"date":"2019-06-23T15:06:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T19:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=9330"},"modified":"2019-06-23T17:14:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T21:14:43","slug":"9330","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today is the Latin Catholic feast of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

A certain percentage of my fans like to tell me I should just make art and write about the Eucharist and feast days like Corpus Christi; they don\u2019t like it when I \u201cget political\u201d as they find it off topic.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think this represents a gross theological error. Christ told us specifically where He would be found and where we were to worship Him as Christians until He came in glory: Christ is in the people who need our help. Christ is in hungry and thirsty people; in people without adequate clothing and shelter; in people who are strangers in a strange land and people who are imprisoned. Any so-called Christianity that ignores or, God forbid, abuses such people is pernicious heresy from the pit of hell. You spit on the Body of Christ in the Chalice when you abuse Him in the body of your neighbor.<\/p>\n

So today, in honor of the feast of Corpus Christi, I am asking my brothers and sisters to honor the body of Christ by doing everything in your power to rescue Him from those horrendous prisons our government has set up for immigrants seeking asylum. I\u2019m going to have one of my fruity going-to-church meditations posted later today if all goes as planned, but this one is far more important.<\/p>\n

At this point I am no longer going to waste time arguing that child abuse is wrong, that it\u2019s not the same as \u201csecuring our borders\u201d or any humane manner of processing refugees applying for asylum. If you don\u2019t know that packing little children<\/a> like sardines into a dark cold room where they eat inadequate food served raw, urinate in their pants and aren\u2019t given the most basic hygiene is wrong, I can\u2019t convince you that it is. You can go to your grave not knowing it and face a much higher religious authority than a Catholic woman blogger.<\/p>\n

For those of you who haven\u2019t scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.<\/p>\n

The first thing we need to do is to pray without ceasing, but don\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

The second thing is that we must not get used to this. Traumatic news like the news coming from the border can start to numb a person and we cannot afford to go numb. Stay angry and shocked, keep sharing the news on social media, keep commenting, keep writing to your congressional representatives. If you\u2019re not regularly hearing this atrocity preached against at Mass, write to your pastor and bishop. Walk out during the homily if you hear anyone preaching a defense of the camps. Don\u2019t put up with friends and family who make racist jokes and downplay the situation. I realize that none of these actions are going to make much of a difference individually. But I do believe that a large enough mass of collective outrage can force change, eventually.<\/p>\n

Third, while we\u2019re busy not getting used to this, we mustn\u2019t be overwhelmed either. The enormity of the problem can make us feel helpless, and then we might begin to despair of our actions doing any good. But they can. You can\u2019t shut down a prison camp by yourself, but every one of us can help make a difference for the immigrants imprisoned there, one person at a time.<\/p>\n

If you happen to be bilingual and want to volunteer as a translator for immigrant intake interviews, you can find information on how to do so here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can find a list of charities that pay bail for prisoners in this article<\/a>, though some of the links have expired.<\/p>\n

You can donate to Raices<\/a>, a charity that provides legal representation specifically to asylum-seekers.<\/p>\n

You can also donate to my personal favorite immigrant charity,\u00a0Immigrant Families Together<\/a>, which works quickly to post the bond of one immigrant at a time and get them out of these terrible prisons and reunited with family as fast as possible. They then partner with immigration attorneys to get the migrants legal representation; then, they provide for the migrants\u2019 needs while they await their day in court. Despite what you may have heard, immigrants awaiting a hearing cannot collect ebt or other government aid, nor are granted a work permit, so Immigrant Families Together feeds and houses them; they get them medical care; they also set up Amazon gift registries where you can buy household items, clothing and toys for the families as they recover from their trauma and await their day in court. You can follow Immigrant Families Together on Facebook here<\/a> to see their ongoing projects; their donate page is right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that\u00a0 the bond for an undocumented immigrant is only legally required to be no lower than $1500, but for these prisoners it is often grossly inflated and some need $30,000 to get out of prison. Also remember that being free on bond greatly increases an immigrant\u2019s chances<\/a> of winning their case in court, and that there is no federal legal limit to how long a migrant can be kept in detention before their trial. At this point, their only hope for mercy is us.<\/p>\n

Please, don\u2019t turn away from the cry of your brothers and sisters in prison. We can help these people if we all work together. It\u2019s the only Christian response.<\/p>\n

(image via pixabay)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the Latin Catholic feast of Corpus Christi. A certain percentage of my fans like to tell me I should just make art and write about the Eucharist and feast days like Corpus Christi; they don\u2019t like it when I \u201cget political\u201d as they find it off topic. Personally, I think this represents a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":9333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[865,1738,866,728,626,501,485,897,750,1869,1569,1217,742,1652,2146,651,744,330,2039,2120,896,1723],"tags":[8982,2863,3736,8967,13,308,220,262,6297,8979,6204,8970,2744,216,8973,7351,1222,8964,8976],"class_list":["post-9330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuse","category-america","category-babies","category-christ","category-christian-idenitity","category-compassion","category-conscience","category-cry-of-the-poor","category-diaper","category-empathy","category-food","category-gospel","category-heresy","category-horror","category-human-dignity","category-interpretation-of-scripture","category-jesus","category-mercy","category-public-face-of-catholicism","category-racism","category-social-justice","category-work-of-mercy","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-attorney","tag-bail","tag-bond","tag-children","tag-corpus-christi","tag-food","tag-help","tag-immigrant-families-together","tag-immigrants","tag-inhumane","tag-medical-care","tag-migrants","tag-money","tag-outrage","tag-raices","tag-speak-out","tag-translator","tag-voice"],"yoast_head":"\nHere's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0\" \/>\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\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Here's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steel Magnificat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-23T19:06:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-23T21:14:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2019\/06\/prison-370112_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Pezzulo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/\",\"name\":\"Here's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-23T19:06:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-23T21:14:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\"},\"description\":\"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Here’s What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/\",\"name\":\"Steel Magnificat\",\"description\":\"Everything is grace\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b\",\"name\":\"Mary Pezzulo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mary Pezzulo\"},\"description\":\"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Here's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants","description":"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Here's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants","og_description":"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/","og_site_name":"Steel Magnificat","article_published_time":"2019-06-23T19:06:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-23T21:14:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":425,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/664\/2019\/06\/prison-370112_640.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mary Pezzulo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mary Pezzulo","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/","name":"Here's What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-06-23T19:06:29+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-23T21:14:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b"},"description":"For those of you who haven't scrolled down to the combox to call me hysterical already: here are some concrete ways that you can help.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2019\/06\/9330\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Here’s What You Can Do To Help Imprisoned Migrants"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/","name":"Steel Magnificat","description":"Everything is grace","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/eefd606fd6f98b01cd46b38fcead458b","name":"Mary Pezzulo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b65a50a237f24be80481c3e40cdc1c15?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Mary Pezzulo"},"description":"Mary Pezzulo received her BA in English at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She came to Steubenville to earn a Master's degree in philosophy and Catholic bioethics from Franciscan University and had finished most of her course work before she suffered a chronic illness that derailed her university career. Since then, she's been learning from the school of hard knocks. Her essays on politics, faith, religious trauma, and life in Northern Appalachia, have been published in the Catholic Herald, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Convivium Journal, and the Feinschwarz theology blog. She has delivered lectures on the Uncanny in the field of aesthetics at the Power of Beauty Conference at Franciscan University, and the Terra Incognita Literary Gathering. Mary is the author of Stumbling into Grace: How We meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy, published by Ave Maria Press, which was awarded second place in Catholic Social Teaching from the Catholic Media Awards. She has also written Meditations on the Way of the Cross and The Sorrows and Joys of Mary for Apocryphile Press.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/author\/mpezzulo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}