Mass by New Bishop a Boost for Migrants

In a clear rebuff of anti-immigrant sentiment, incoming San Diego Roman Catholic Bishop Robert H. Brom celebrated an open-air Mass in Encinitas Friday for migrant workers and spoke out on behalf of the impoverished laborers.

Brom’s brief but pointed homily called on all Catholics to rally around the plight of the migrants and other dispossessed people.

“Tonight, we pray that members of the church will be a compassionate voice for those who have no voice, in behalf of justice and basic fairness, work and a decent wage, housing, health care, and other human services,” said Brom, speaking in his embryonic Spanish to more than 300 worshipers, including many migrant workers.

“In the church, we celebrate that we are all one family--men and women, white people, black people and brown people, citizens and aliens, rich and poor,” said Brom, who stood on an elevated podium at the end of a dusty Encinitas arena used for charro , a kind of Mexican rodeo.

“And so tonight, we hope and pray that all people of good will join us in striving to eliminate prejudice, and to develop together a social conscience of solidarity.”

Brom wore a fuchsia-color skullcap and resplendent robes made of Mexican fabric, including a multi-colored stole woven with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patroness of Mexico and Latin America.

As Brom was celebrating the sunset service, he was accompanied by a mariachi band, whose smartly dressed members played ballads of pilgrims and sojourners.

The bishop’s sermon carried a striking message of unity and conciliation against what many perceive as a rising wave of resentment and racism against the area’s immigrant population. Most of the migrants are men from Mexico and Guatemala, but many women and children immigrants also live in the area.

Brom, a native of rural Wisconsin, is scheduled to be officially installed as San Diego’s Roman Catholic prelate next month, after Bishop Leo T. Maher retires.

Brom has said he plans to reach out to the area’s Latino population, and this was the second time that he had celebrated an open-air Mass for migrant workers. The first was in January, in a large migrant worker encampment in the Rancho Penasquitos area of San Diego.

Last year, he spent time in Mexico honing his Spanish, which is still halting but was much appreciated by those in attendance.

“When we see him here, we know that he will help us,” said Julio Felipe Leon, a 34-year-old Mexican man who was among those attending the service. “We are all Catholics here, and it gives us pleasure to see him here.”

During his homily, Brom made no direct mention of the tensions in northern San Diego County surrounding the explosive migrant issue. But the controversy provided an unspoken backdrop to the whole evening.

Bolstering the service’s symbolic importance was the fact that it took place in Encinitas, where city officials have taken the area’s most stringent measures against the migrant population.

The service was timed to take place before June 22, the effective date of an Encinitas ordinance aimed at outlawing the roadside hiring of day laborers. It also took place near El Camino Real, the north-south thoroughfare, where each morning hundreds of Latin American laborers seek roadside employment. Many live in crude encampments on either side of the road.

A banner placed at the entrance of the rodeo arena denounced the ordinance, saying the new law is intended “to harass men and boys whose only crime is to seek an honest day’s work.”

After the 45-minute service, meals were served to the participants, and Bishop Brom blessed babies and posed for photographs with the mariachi musicians and accompanying rodeo artists.

Organizers of the event described it as successful in its purpose of consolidating support for the migrants.

“The mere fact that he came to officiate a Mass for them is a strong statement that he cares,” said Ozzie Venzor, an Encinitas resident who heads a group called Friends of the Immigrant Workers.

A similar sentiment was voiced by Enrique M. Loaeza Tovar, the Mexican consul general in San Diego, who also attended the service.

“Despite some of the negative currents against the presence of the migrants, it is good to see that there are many citizens who are open to the possibility of sharing with these people and enriching themselves in the mixture of culture that is so evident here,” Loaeza said.