dean knuth / arizona daily star

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NOGALES, Ariz. — With border agents, Customs officers and police looking on, a group of Catholics here turned the international border into Bethlehem and sang Christmas songs into a green metal grille separating the United States and Mexico.

The Saturday afternoon "Posada on the Border" was a dramatization of Mary and Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem the night of Jesus' birth. Re-enactments occurred simultaneously on both sides of the international line, with those on the U.S. side incorporating border politics into their performance.

In a shadow cast by the cement-and-steel border wall, 11-year-old Gerardo Perez, playing Joseph, and 11-year-old Luz Mariela Robles, as Mary, walked the sidewalk along the international border seeking shelter, or posada.

Led by Miriam Lewis, also 11, who played the angel, they knocked on doors of three "inns" named Arizona, California, and New Mexico/Texas.

Each time, they were rejected and the group prayed for migrants who have died in that state while trying to cross into the United States from Mexico on foot.

Catholic officials say the dramatization was intended as a message that we need to be more welcoming of migrants seeking jobs and homes in other countries.

"We have a fundamental belief that God has made every human in God's image and likeness. It gives us certain duties to make sure that the human dignity of each person is respected, whether it's through immigration reform or health care," said the Rev. Sean Carroll, a Jesuit priest from the largely immigrant Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Los Angeles, who came to Arizona for Saturday's Posada event.

"The Mary and Joseph story lives on today. There are so many people looking for a safe place to stay," Carroll said.

Both Gerardo and Luz Mariela said they understood the story to mean that people should be nicer to the migrants who cross into Arizona from Mexico. They also said it would be easier to visit friends and family if there weren't a wall dividing their city, Nogales, Ariz., from the city where so many of their friends and family live, Nogales, Sonora.

Officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson say the Posada event they sponsored is aimed at strengthening social, religious, economic and cultural bonds in both countries and to counter what they say is an anti-immigration sentiment.

A segment of the border east of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry was selected because that section of fence is a grille style, and people on both sides can see one another.

"When Mary and Joseph left Bethlehem to return to Nazareth to raise their child, they crossed borders as undocumented refugees," said the Rev. Bill Remmel of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Tucson's West Side. Remmel emceed the event.

"They fled to Egypt, then returned to Nazareth. They were at risk, and their child was at risk. In her arms, Mary cradled the savior of the world. ... They could have died crossing borders as others have died. Let us pray that we will be people who are present in the struggle of all pilgrims and become witnesses of justice and dignity for all."

The Rev. Saul Mendoza from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hermosillo in Sonora read the same passage in Spanish to Catholics who stood on the Mexican side of the border.

Speaking above the din of shoppers, cars honking and a train that arrived as the Posada began, the groups read a passage from the Gospel of Luke in both English and Spanish.

The passage was about the decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled, which is why Joseph went to the city of David — Bethlehem. He was of the house and family of David and he went to Bethlehem to be enrolled with his fiancee, Mary.

"Don't be inhumane. Have mercy on us," the Mexican Catholics sang in Spanish.

"You can go on now and don't bother us," the American Catholics sang back, also in Spanish.

In the end, the Mary and Joseph on the U.S. side were welcomed after they walked through the rotating turnstile from the United States into Mexico.

The political message wasn't welcomed by all.

"I don't think it's appropriate. The church should stay out of politics. The border is the government's job," said Rod Caramella, 67, a retired government administrator who attends St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Midtown Tucson.

Caramella was not at Saturday's Posada event. But he doesn't like the idea of making the Christmas story political, he said. Also, he doesn't agree with the Catholic Church's political stance on immigration.

But Kevin McGillis, 51, a parishioner at Most Holy Trinity, said that, in his opinion, the Christmas story is political.

"Mary could have stayed home, but politics made her hit the road," said McGillis, a businessman who drove from Tucson to Nogales to watch the Posada. "I think it's neat. This is my first Posada."

Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas did not attend the event because of another commitment. But he has said that finding a pathway to legalize the 12 million or so illegal immigrants currently living in the United States should be a priority in 2008.

Kicanas, who is vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform. He has cited the fact that at least 1,000 illegal entrants per day continue to be apprehended in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector alone, which includes Nogales.

"God repays your charity, dear friends. And may heaven fill you with happiness," the Mexican Catholics sang Saturday in Spanish.

"This day the house is blessed that shelters the beautiful and pure Virgin Mary," the Americans sang back.

See a video of the "Posada on the Border" dramatization at www.azstarnet.com.