[Excerpts:]

A priest from the Vatican visited Houston to gather information for Pope Leo XIV on community organizations like The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) on July 7, the same day that ICE fatally shot a local immigrant on his way to work.

Father Mattia Ferrari, coordinator of Encuentro Mundial de Movimientos Populares (World Encounter with Popular Movements), first visited with Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez and Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro at their Chancery offices, accompanied by Elizabeth Valdez and Joe Higgs of TMO and other community leaders.

Father Ferrari said, “We have seen that injustice and human violence can be terrible. We have seen people suffering enormously because of ICE operations.”

“But we’ve also seen the beautiful commitment of the Church, and of organized communities, who are doing so much to stand beside those who suffer,” he said.

The priest and community organizers then met with parishioners at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church to update Father Ferrari on how community protests helped stop plans to build a concrete-crushing plant near the church and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital that would have increased negative environmental impact against residents and patients…

During his visit, TMO released a press statement emphasizing, “Far from targeting hardened criminals, as the administration repeatedly maintains, ICE is arresting immigrant workers who are often in the process of normalizing their immigration status,” as was the now-deceased Lorenzo Salgado Arujo, who was shot July 7 en route to construction work.

TMO called on public officials to review ICE’s current practices and ask, “Is this really making us safer, or is it simply terrorizing and rounding up vulnerable people who have become integral parts of our communities?”

Father Ferrari said, “I am very grateful to the churches of the U.S. because they are showing me that Christ is truly risen and that the love He gives us is capable of transforming realities of suffering and generating a new world.” 

Priest from Vatican visits with Archbishop and TMO during time of ICE shooting, Texas Catholic Herald [pdf]