Friends,
Last night (10/13) the doorbell rang at an unusual hour.  Opening the door I found eight Venezuelan migrants just arrived in our city from Texas, in need of help, with no clue what to do.  Thanks to the fidelity and generosity of Washington's Catholic community we were able to get them to safe housing and resources as they seek asylum in our country. A parishioner I'd been meeting with stuck around to prepare dinner for our eight visitors from the Rectory pantry.  A deacon friend from Catholic charities made contact with federal authorities charged with caring for Venezuelans who've been bussed to DC.  Our parish secretary spent the evening on speakerphone translating for our brothers in need... and multiple other parishioners offered food, clothing and other assistance.
These eight men included a master chef trained in French cuisine, a petrochemical engineer, two university students, and four day laborers.  They were polite, extremely grateful, and they LOVED meeting the Rectory dogs.  All of them had walked for 45 days across the jungles of Colombia and Central America, then through the arid stretches of Mexico at great risk to their lives.  They came to work and send money home to their families suffering in Caraccas and its surrounding provinces.  
Now that they are in the care of the contractor engaged by the federal government to help settle them in the US, I don't know what will happen to these men.  I gave them my card so they could reach our community at any time, and I assured them repeatedly that the Catholic Church in America would always be a safe place for them.  Please pray for these travelers, not so very different from you or me. -Fr De Rosa