Mission priest supports American families affected by Venezuela earthquakes

father. Raymond Riding stood behind the altar of the small mission church, writing down the names given by Venezuelan migrants while listing the names of their family members and friends killed, injured or missing in a pair of recent devastating earthquakes.

“We will put their names on this paper and leave them here for Jesus,” Riding told dozens of families gathered June 27 at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish, three days after 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes killed more than 3,500 people and injured thousands more.

From the altar bearing the yellow, blue and red flag of Venezuela, the evangelizing priest assured the migrants that God would accompany them through the dark valley described in the 23rd Psalm.

“Jesus’ arms are always open on the cross,” Riding told them. “It is not the cross that saves us. It is Jesus with his open arms.”

Long before the Trump administration’s current deportation campaign pushed immigration issues to the center of attention, Catholic priests and laity were devoting themselves to accompanying and quietly meeting immigrants navigating a new life in the United States.

“Whether it’s visiting people in prison, or attending ceremonies, she’s an accompaniment,” said Riding, a member of the Servants of the Most Holy Trinity Missionary Society, a group of priests and clergy who serve the poor in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. “This is what Jesus did and what he wants us to do.”

Dominican Fr. Brendan Curran of Chicago, who recently visited southern Arizona to attend a binational mass honoring immigrants, said he draws inspiration from such ministries that meet critical needs without fuss.

“There are a lot of unknown acts of heroism that are still going on,” said Curran, who represents the Dominican International Commission for Justice and Peace and the community nonprofit Resurrection Project. “We have priests in Chicago who drive hours to be with immigrants incarcerated in Michigan because that’s what they’re being asked to do.”

Tucson-based Deacon Mike Gutierrez, who works with Colby Prison Ministries, also provides pastoral care to incarcerated immigrants in southern Arizona, sometimes in partnership with Riding.

With two volunteer laypeople, Gutierrez provides regular services in English and Spanish at two immigration detention centers in the state. He also visits inmates in state prisons, federal prisons, city jails, U.S. Marshals facilities and those on death row.

“We are praying with them and trying to give them hope,” said Gutierrez, who was recently honored with the National Saint Dismas Award, named after the “good thief” pardoned by Jesus.

Every Tuesday, Riding also drives an hour or two to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and pray with detained immigrants about their hearings.

“I don’t want to do just the sacraments. I want it to be more personal,” Riding said. “Sometimes we get caught up in rituals and forget the importance of attendance.”

Now 78, Riding has spent most of his half-century as a priest serving Spanish-speaking people, including at a mission in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, and at an AIDS nursing home in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

During his two years in Tucson, Riding also observed immigration court hearings, prayed with deportees at the U.S.-Mexico border, and joined migrant families in celebrations such as a children’s party for Epiphany and a recent children’s summer camp.

At the Mass for Venezuela, the migrants expressed their gratitude to Riding and their advocate Dora Rodriguez, who often collaborates with the priest through her nonprofit group Salvavision. Rodriguez herself is a former migrant from El Salvador who nearly died in 1980 when smugglers left her group without food or water as they crossed the scorching Arizona desert.

Venezuelan migrant Cesar, his wife and their five children are looking to Salvavision for housing and other assistance as they wait for an asylum hearing after being allowed into the United States two years ago.

Cesar said the deadly earthquakes on June 24 added another layer of stress and uncertainty to their lives. His wife’s cousin, her husband and their two children were killed in Venezuela’s hard-hit coastal state of La Guaira.

“This is a blessing,” Cesar said of the gathering, which included Venezuelan food prepared by his wife. “They are like our family here. They were so concerned for us in every way.”

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