NATION

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 8, 2000 by Teresa Malcolm

Parish honors unnamed dead at Texas border

Parish youths and college students in Kingsville, Texas, have honored 30 people who entered the United States from Mexico illegally and perished in the heat and harsh brush country of south Texas.

The dead were unnamed and their bodies went unclaimed. They were buried in a cemetery near the U.S. Border Patrol's Sarita, Texas, checkpoint.

Fr. Piotr Koziel, pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Kingsville, said he first visited the cemetery to say a funeral Mass. "Everything, including small markers, was covered by brush," he said. "We needed to do something that would give this area some dignity and raise awareness."

After Koziel mentioned the isolated area to college and youth groups in his parish, things took shape fast. The college students prepared a monument, including a 20-foot cross for the area, while the parish youths made 30 individual crosses marking each newly uncovered and cleaned-up gravesite. The burial site is 25 miles south of Kingsville and 100 miles north of the Mexico border.

"These people have been driven out of their country by many of the same things that our ancestors were driven out of their countries for," Cozies said. "And I am an immigrant. I too was escaping from poverty and an oppressive government in Poland. The big difference is that I had the luxury of being able to fly over here on a 747."

The priest added, "We are not only doing this for the dead but for their families, even if they do not know about it."

Letter to Clinton asks for execution moratorium

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference and the chairman of its Domestic Policy Committee are among 40 prominent Americans who have asked President Clinton to declare a moratorium on federal executions.

The Nov. 20 letter listed a number of problems with how the death penalty is applied and asked Clinton to stop federal executions while the government continues to consider whether gross unfairness has led to death sentences for some people while others have received lighter sentences.

Among the signers of the letter were Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, chairman of the bishops' Domestic Policy Committee; and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit.

The letter cites a recent Justice Department study that indicates some racial, ethnic and geographic disparity in how people are charged under federal death penalty statutes, so that racial minorities are over-represented among those on federal death row.

While some of the letter's signers agree with the principle of capital punishment and others do not, "all of us agree that a moratorium should be adopted while these fairness issues are being resolved," it said.

The first execution since 1963 of someone convicted under federal law is scheduled for Dec. 12 at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Juan Raul Garza, of Brownsville, Texas, was convicted of three murders under the federal drug kingpin statute.

Bishop leads delegation to correctional facility

Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles was accompanied by a delegation of religious leaders in a Nov. 6 visit to the largest juvenile correctional facility in the United States.

Twelve Catholic, Lutheran and Quaker leaders joined Zavala in the visit to the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino, Calif. Zavala was appointed by the California Catholic Conference to monitor Catholic pastoral care in prisons throughout California.

The facility houses young men 18 to 25 years old who are serving sentences for crimes they committed as juveniles. It is about one hour east of downtown Los Angeles.

Zavala said that while many in society want to lock up juveniles who have committed crimes and then forget about them, he believes the young men "are still part of the body of Christ. We came to see how we as a community can take some responsibility for ministering to these youth."

The delegation met with the facility's staff. They spoke with wards, the official title for an inmate, from the ward advisory committee; visited the young men on two separate living units, including the maximum-security unit; and listened to wards one-on-one in the Catholic chapel.

At the end of the day the delegation gathered with the staff to talk about future plans, including efforts to identify a full-time Catholic chaplain for the facility and to recruit volunteers to sponsor wards who do not receive family visits.

Protesters call for nun's reinstatement

About 100 protesters calling for the reinstatement of Sr. Jeanette Normandin rallied outside the Jesuit Urban Center in Boston Nov. 12.

The center removed Normandin, a member of the Sisters of St. Anne, and Jesuit Fr. George Winchester in October after the two presided at the Sunday liturgy Oct. 8 during which he baptized one child and she baptized the other. Church law does not allow a layperson to administer baptism if a priest or deacon is available to do it.