Country ‘in denial’ about immigrants

Bishop Joseph Tyson used the  Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe to preach a fiery sermon on the plight of immigrants, writes Michael Sean Winters.

“Much of the economic underpinnings for Washington state’s economy is built on fraud,” Bishop Tyson said, citing the large number of undocumented workers in the state’s agricultural industry.

“We have become a nation built on half-truths,” he told congregants at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Granger, Washington. “Without undocumented immigrant labour, we would have very little food on our nation’s table. We fail to tell the truth about the human cost this takes on our nation’s agricultural workers.”

In Chicago, newly installed Archbishop Blase Cupich braved the cold to celebrate an open-air Mass in Des Plaines at midnight for 140,000 people. He also spoke on behalf of immigrant rights.