Arrival, and a joyous profound piety

Llegada, y una profunda piedad gozoso

The two adults (foreground), David Leopold and Lynn Tramonte, are immigration advocates and arrived as a vanguard of the pilgrims. They arrived before the estimated finish of 4 p.m.

John Niedzialek lidera el pelotón y el tren de los peregrinos

John Niedzialek leads the peloton and train of the pilgrims through his old boyhood streets to his family's parish of St. Casimir. The marchers left at 8 a.m. (an half hour late) and arrived just on the other side of 4 o'clock. Twenty miles in eight hours, this is a special episode in the history of the parish, and of the entire diocese. Such pilgrimages are not uncommon in the old country, whether in Europe or Latin America; but this is in Cleveland's cold.

They sang three songs, including Pescador de Hombres (which the Casimiri often sang on the streets in the Polish version, Barka, which was John Paul II's favorite hymn. The Poles were surprised that it was not originally Polish. I mentioned this to Wojciech, one of the prayer leaders. He gave me an odd puzzling look, and was shocked). They recited a decade of the rosary, and Father Eric Orzech, pastor of St. Casimir led the Benediction. The Host was displayed in a monstrance, and a pleasant fragrant cloud of incense hung in the air.

The feeling of warm spirituality flooded the physical space of the nave of St. Casimir's parish church to-day upon the arrival of the pilgrims. They had walked twenty miles in eight hours. An initial group of sixty-five left Mentor, and along the way they were joined by others, and welcomed by people waiting outside the church. Some two hundred souls sang, prayed and celebrated Benediction. They marched with an intention for Mary, the Mother of God, to intervene on behalf of Ricardo Ramos. But not only for Ricardo, but his family, and many individuals and their many families. Some people have had their families forcibly torn apart already, and others fear that their family will be so ripped. Too many hundreds of thousands have to live in shadow and fear. Currently the United States has aggressively executed a deportation policy that is cruel, and by very little is interrupted by mercy.

They had the good fortune, and the gift of benevolent providence to have their pilgrimage of supplication on, perhaps, the most hospitable day that this January has to offer. A week before, the temperature was sixty degrees colder, and snow drifted about.

Thursday is another day of demarcation, that will burden a family's nerves, and hearts, to breaking. The government is functionary in a thoughtless manner. Most of the public is ignorant, and uncaring. The last hope is a belief in the Goodness of God. It is a sad comfort, but true: the Crucifixion of Jesus was legal, his Resurrection was prohibited and illegal.

  por favor salvar a nuestras familias, please save our families

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postscriptum: 15 January. for another presentation with audio-visual clips and fotos [click]