They prayed Pope Francis' Prayer to the Holy Family, which includes the plea, "Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division."
The pastor at St. Julie's, which is Trujillo's parish, Fr. Mike Pucke, said many more people might have attended the prayer service than the few dozen who did Sunday afternoon, but among the immigrants from Mexico as well as Central- and South America, "people are living scared."
Also, two Butler County Sheriff's cruisers parked nearby may have frightened some, he said.
Speakers during the service contemplated the need to intermingle justice with mercy, which they described as a necessary part of justice. The church and other advocates for Trujillo have pleaded to the area's federal lawmakers, as well as to federal officials on Trujillo's behalf, noting she was not a criminal and had four children who were citizens.
Pucke said Trujillo told both him and her husband to "make sure the kids do their homework."
Tony Stieritz, director of Catholic social action for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati praised Butler County churches for advocating on Trujillo's behalf.
As for her own parish, "Your unrelenting support for the Trujillo Diaz family is a shining example" for the rest of the archdiocese, Stieritz said. He added the church has included Spanish-speaking immigrants not as strangers, but as their own.
Stieritz called on attendees to call their Congressional representatives Monday morning, "and ask them to finally fix our broken immigration system so that more immigrants like Maribel can truly have a viable path to come here and raise their families in peace. That's our simple message."
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