San Bernardino interfaith event to honor Cesar Chavez
Roman Catholic Bishop Gerald R. Barnes will celebrate a special Mass on Tuesday in San Bernardino to honor farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
The Mass, the first Cesar Chavez Day service held in the San Bernardino Diocese, will follow an ecumenical prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino and a one-mile procession from St. John’s to Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, where the Mass will be celebrated.
Chavez would have turned 82 on Tuesday. He died in 1993.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese will hold its ninth annual Cesar Chavez Mass today.
Masses have been or are scheduled to be celebrated in several other cities, including Dallas, San Antonio, and the Central Valley town of Delano.
By working to improve the lives of farmworkers, Chavez lived out his Catholic faith, said John Andrews, spokesman for the Inland diocese, comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"Cesar Chavez embodied the social justice values the Catholic Church holds dear, and we know his Catholic faith informed his work in the area of social justice, of promoting the dignity of all people through his labor work," Andrews said.
Several hundred farmworkers from the Coachella Valley and warehouse workers from the Riverside-San Bernardino area are expected at the event, which will call for immigration reform, stronger worker-organizing rights, and better wages, health care coverage and working conditions for low-wage employees, including Inland warehouses workers.
"If Cesar Chavez were here today, he would be fighting for economic justice for warehouse workers, in the same way he fought for economic justice for farmworkers," said the Rev. David Starr, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
"This is a moral issue, that companies can care so little about the people they employ, and that they don’t treat them as the children of God that they are," said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, a Lutheran minister and statewide director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a cosponsor of Tuesday’s events. "Religion is about hope, and Cesar Chavez is a figure of hope."
Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or dolson@PE.com
CESAR CHAVEZ DAY
Religious and labor leaders will hold a prayer service, procession and Mass on Tuesday to honor the late farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
The ecumenical prayer service will begin at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1407 N. Arrowhead Ave., San Bernardino.
A one-mile procession will follow at 5 p.m., ending at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, 265 W. 25th St.
Roman Catholic Bishop Gerald R. Barnes will celebrate Mass at 6 p.m. at the cathedral.
Event sponsors include the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Warehouse Workers United, United Farm Workers, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Inland Congregations United for Change, Change to Win, Libreria del Pueblo and Riverside Latino Voter Registration Project.
Roman Catholic Bishop Gerald R. Barnes will celebrate a special Mass on Tuesday in San Bernardino to honor farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
The Mass, the first Cesar Chavez Day service held in the San Bernardino Diocese, will follow an ecumenical prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino and a one-mile procession from St. John’s to Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, where the Mass will be celebrated.
Chavez would have turned 82 on Tuesday. He died in 1993.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese will hold its ninth annual Cesar Chavez Mass today.
Masses have been or are scheduled to be celebrated in several other cities, including Dallas, San Antonio, and the Central Valley town of Delano.
By working to improve the lives of farmworkers, Chavez lived out his Catholic faith, said John Andrews, spokesman for the Inland diocese, comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"Cesar Chavez embodied the social justice values the Catholic Church holds dear, and we know his Catholic faith informed his work in the area of social justice, of promoting the dignity of all people through his labor work," Andrews said.
Several hundred farmworkers from the Coachella Valley and warehouse workers from the Riverside-San Bernardino area are expected at the event, which will call for immigration reform, stronger worker-organizing rights, and better wages, health care coverage and working conditions for low-wage employees, including Inland warehouses workers.
"If Cesar Chavez were here today, he would be fighting for economic justice for warehouse workers, in the same way he fought for economic justice for farmworkers," said the Rev. David Starr, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
"This is a moral issue, that companies can care so little about the people they employ, and that they don’t treat them as the children of God that they are," said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, a Lutheran minister and statewide director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a cosponsor of Tuesday’s events. "Religion is about hope, and Cesar Chavez is a figure of hope."
Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or dolson@PE.com
CESAR CHAVEZ DAY
Religious and labor leaders will hold a prayer service, procession and Mass on Tuesday to honor the late farmworker leader Cesar Chavez.
The ecumenical prayer service will begin at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1407 N. Arrowhead Ave., San Bernardino.
A one-mile procession will follow at 5 p.m., ending at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, 265 W. 25th St.
Roman Catholic Bishop Gerald R. Barnes will celebrate Mass at 6 p.m. at the cathedral.
Event sponsors include the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Warehouse Workers United, United Farm Workers, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Inland Congregations United for Change, Change to Win, Libreria del Pueblo and Riverside Latino Voter Registration Project.