Step Up.
Speak Out.
A father’s journey.
A child’s story.
One step at a time.
Every step matters. Every footprint is a voice. Together, we walk with immigrant children toward justice and hope.
Fr. Gary Graf, a Chicago Catholic Priest and member of the Priests for Justice for Immigrants, is walking from Dolton, IL — the boyhood home of Pope Leo — to the Statue of Liberty in New York City . His steps are a pilgrimage of prayer and action: bring light to the truth of what is happening to immigrant families in America.
“Woe to those who enact unjust statutes, who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of judgment” (Is 10:1–2).
A Message from Fr. Gary Graf and the Priests for Justice for Immigrants
“The cornerstone of our faith and all others flows are values, and central among those values are compassion, humanity, and helping others. What is now happening to immigrant families in the United States, and especially to children, is an assault on those foundational values of people of all faiths.
Children taken from parents, little ones weeping in fear and families torn apart. Again and again, we are left with the same truth: There must be a better way. These children are God’s children and they are our children. Their cries are our cries. To tear families apart is to wound the very heart of God. We must denounce these actions for what they are: immoral and un-American policies and enforcement actions that divide families and fracture our nation.
This pilgrimage is intended to mobilize Americans from every state to demand that compassion, humanity, and helping hands be restored to the immigration process. It is about families and children, and about walking in faith. Step Up. Speak Out. A father’s journey. A child’s story. One step at a time.
“The steps that Father Gary and others joining him will take as they travel across the country, between Pope Leo’s childhood home in Dolton, Illinois to the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island in New York, remind us that immigrants and their families built our nation. They deserve not bullets, nightsticks and tear gas, but rather compassion, dignity and respect. We are speaking the truth, because it is not being told.
“’Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.’ Do we still believe and honor these words, these values? Or, will our federal government next be packing up Lady Liberty and sending her to El Salvador or South Sudan?
“We must all stand up – as people of faith- and raise our voices until they are heard in the halls of Congress, the White House and statehouses across our nation.
“This is the message that Father Gary carries to Lady Liberty – the truth that all immigrants are not strangers, but rather our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters – and America must welcome and embrace them.”