AMERICA/UNITED STATES - MISSION AND EMIGRATION - “La valigia con lo spago”: “my ideas on immigration have changed since I began giving spiritual counseling in detention centers. We try to defend ourselves from people who are simply desperately in need...”

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – The testimony of a religious sister, Sr. Kathleen Erickson, RSM (Sisters of Mercy, USA), who carries out a pastoral activity with immigrants, breaks the veil that has been placed on the reality of these people and the dramatic conditions of their life. Sr. Kathleen says: “My ideas on immigration have changed since I began giving spiritual counseling in detention centers. We try to defend ourselves from people who are simply desperately in need. They have not come to do any harm. What are we doing to the innocent! The majority are women who, in trying to make it over the border, are raped. They, the raped, the abused, are they the criminals? How will we survive on this planet? Can we turn our backs on poverty? If we still have a human heart, we should seek the compassion we are so in need of!” (Luca De Mata) (television program trailer “La valigia con lo spago”: a series of 4 programs: an investigation into migratory flows and new slavery in the world: Rai Uno July 20th , 2nd evening feature). (Agenzia Fides 17/7/2009)