Catholics Hold Vigil Against Prop. 187 : Religion: More than 200 priests and nuns meeting in Anaheim gather in a strawberry field to show support for immigrant rights.

More than 200 Catholic priests and nuns from across the country held a prayer vigil Friday in a strawberry field near the Anaheim Hilton and Towers to express their opposition to Proposition 187.

Bearing signs saying “Immigrants Are Us,” the group prayed, sang, clapped and loudly proclaimed its support for immigrant rights in the face of the proposition approved by California voters last November that would, among other things, deny illegal residents access to public schools and health care.

“We are all immigrants,” Jo’Ann DeQuattro, a nun from Los Angeles and one of the event’s organizers, told the crowd. “We are one people, in one world, without borders. We want to announce the truth about immigrants; that they are people who enrich our lives and culture. We reject any legislation that robs them of their human respect and dignity.”

The nuns and priests are part of a seven-day conference ending this weekend attended by 1,200 Catholic religious leaders from across the country. The conference is a joint meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.

According to DeQuattro, local organizers decided to hold the vigil despite the fact that major legal challenges have so far prevented the implementation of Proposition 187. First, she said, they wanted their out-of-state visitors to know that not everyone in California is unsympathetic to the plight of immigrants. And second, she said, they consider the issue to be of national importance.

“The same thing is being proposed elsewhere right now,” DeQuattro said. “Our prophetic voices are needed in the public arena--the climate is very xenophobic.”

The vigil’s strawberry field setting was chosen, she said, to remind people that “we expect the immigrants to serve us and we get the benefit, but it’s on their backs. You could not get U.S. citizens to work in these field for what these people are paid.”