WASHINGTON (RNS) — Hundreds of people attended a Good Friday procession (April 18) at Our Lady Queen of the Americas Catholic Church, surprising even parish staff with the turnout at the largely immigrant congregation.
Across the United States, churches with many immigrant congregants have reported lower attendance since President Donald Trump promised mass deportations and his administration removed restrictions on immigration arrests at houses of worship. But Lilian Cifuentes, director of religious education at Our Lady Queen of the Americas, said Mass attendance has increased at the church since Trump moved into the White House, a mile and a half from the parish in the Kalorama Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
The parish’s pastor, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, has been an outspoken advocate for immigrants, in part because of his own experience arriving in the U.S. at age 19 without legal status after fleeing violence in El Salvador.
After walking in the procession, Menjivar-Ayala, now a U.S. citizen, celebrated a Mass at the archdiocesan cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. His homily echoed an op-ed he wrote last week for the archdiocesan newspaper in which he argued immigrant communities in America are experiencing the Passion, the suffering Jesus Christ experienced during the final events of his life.
“The Passion of Christ is not something that is very far from the reality that many people live today, especially immigrants, who experience in a tangible and personal way, the Pa …