by Rev. Edward Correia

The story is told of a man who was going to be hanged in a Russian village. The people gathered together in the village square for the hanging. The people tied the man’s hands and were ready to put the rope around his neck when the people heard a little boy crying.

It was the man’s son who came crying to him asking, "Are they going to kill you, daddy?"

The man asked for his hands to be untied for a minute. He held his son. He told him to go to his aunt’s house and that he would meet him there. After a lot of encouraging from the father, the boy left the square. The man’s hands were tied again. The rope was put around his neck.

The women in the crowd began to ask for mercy for this man because the boy would have no father. Others joined so strongly that the man was untied and was sent home to be with his son.

What a little child was able to do.

If there were a child in a playground in school, the child would instinctively go to play with all of the children regardless of language or color. Can we imitate these children as Jesus in the gospel calls us to do?

The newspapers reported this week what we already knew: more and more Hispanic people are moving into this part of our state and into our city. The Catholic Church has projected that in another ten years the majority of Catholics in this country will be Hispanic.

The Hispanic immigration into our city is different from the other groups that came from Europe. The Irish, the Italian, Portuguese, Polish and German immigrations happened during the times of our grandparents and parents. Priests of their country came with them. They were able to establish their own churches as we can see so clearly in our city.

It is not the same with the Hispanic immigration. Although they all speak Spanish, the people come from many different countries in Central and South America. The come without their own priests. They depend upon American born priests to speak their own language and support their faith.

Can we accept them into our city, our neighborhood and church? Do we repeat what others did to our immigrant families many years ago? When we see a person with an Hispanic last name who has done a crime, do we conclude that all of the Hispanic immigrants are criminals? When we hear them speaking in Spanish and cannot speak English, do we immediately say, " This is America. Let them learn English"? Do we tolerate them, because they live next door or on the second floor?

They are our brothers and sisters, members of the same Catholic Church. Can we be last so that they can be first?