What can we do about violence against migrants? Out of his experience of walking alongside migrants in the Chicago area and witnessing their plight, Fr. Brendan Curran challenges us to see the violence in our communities and become speakers of truth, inspired by Habakkuk and Pope Leo. For the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C.
"Violence, violence. How long, O Lord, I cry out, and you do not hear."
This is a challenging, stinging excerpt of the Prophet Habakkuk from the first reading of the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Let's wrestle with it.
My name is Father Brendan Curran, Dominican promoter for Justice and Peace for North America. My ministry for more than two decades now has been to live in Chicago and walk alongside the migrant community of this city. As a Dominican, my community bears the motto of "Veritas" or "Truth." As the Dominican Promoter for Justice and Peace, I draw on the words of Pope Leo XIV:
"From the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers. Truth, then, does not create division, but rather enables us to confront all the more resolutely the challenges of our time, such as migration, the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the protection of our beloved planet Earth. These are challenges that require commitment and cooperation on the part of all, since no one can think of facing them alone."
This Sunday, a commitment to "being true" compels me to walk alongside migrants in Chicago as the president sends out troops to keep the peace in a seemingly violent city. When I hear the stinging voice of Habakkuk, "Violence, violence. How long do we call out?" my nearness to the people of Chicago makes me want to cry out as well.
I think about Laura, who was a tamale vendor just days ago, at her booth early morning, selling tamales right in front of a Home Depot on 47th Street. And she's surrounded by ICE agents with heavy weapons, who demand her papers from her, pluck her from her booth, and she disappears.
Violence, violence!
I think about Nancy, over a week before that, who, after attending daily Mass, after dropping off her three kids at a Catholic school in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, leaves from the church parking lot and is surrounded by ICE vehicles with weapons drawn, demanding her papers from her.
Violence, violence!
I think about roofers who are repairing, and replacing a roof in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of a family home. And while they're on the roof, the building, the house is surrounded by ICE agents with weapons drawn, demanding the roofers come down off the roof and present their immigration papers.
Violence, violence!
These are criminals? A tamale vendor, a woman going to daily Mass, dropping her kids off at Catholic school? And yet Silverio, another tragedy, dropping off his son, seven years old, at school, and after dropping off his three-year-old daughter at daycare, is approached by an ICE vehicle, and ICE agents open fire on him, killing him in cold blood.
This is what it means to make Chicago peaceful? This is how we do it? Violence, violence! How long, O Lord, do we need to cry out before you will hear?
This very weekend, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the first weekend of October, across the worldwide Catholic Church, is the very weekend Pope Leo XIV has called us to mark World Migrant Sunday. He challenges each of us across the world to see our migrants as messengers of hope. They have been through hardships and even death threats, and yet they remind us that the kernel of God's hope and faith is alive in their own lives incarnate. Truly, though, it is only when we draw near to migrants and stand alongside them that we can receive that witness they offer. How can we draw closer? How can we be more "true" to our migrant sisters and brothers right now?
"Violence, violence," Habakkuk cries out in our first reading today. "How long, O Lord, I cry out, and you do not hear." When we are true to walking with our migrant sisters and brothers in Chicago, there is no way that Habakkuk's lament will not become ours as well.
(Quote from Pope Leo's Address to Diplomatic Corps, 16 May 2025 https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250516-corpo-diplomatico.html )
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