When Pope Francis takes a seat during mass next month in New York City, he’ll being sitting in a chair made — intentionally — by immigrant hands.
According to the New York Times, several months ago Cardinal Timothy Dolan — the Archbishop of New York — began making preparations for Francis’ historic visit to the United States in September, when he is expected to officiate Mass in Madison Square Garden. Among other planning efforts, Dolan reportedly decided to honor immigrant labor by hiring day laborers to help construct the pope’s chair.
Since then, three day laborers — Fausto Hernandez, Hector Rojas, and Francisco SantaMaria — have been building a holy seat for the pope in a garage in Port Chester, New York. Their project is being led by Brother Sal Sammarco, a member of the Salesian order, and the men have reportedly become minor celebrities among readers of Spanish-language media.
“Simple, simple, simple,” was the Vatican’s instruction given to the workers for designing the chair.
Hernandez, Rojas, and SantaMaria are all affiliated with different day laborer organizations in the area, and their project helps highlight the efforts of immigrant workers, millions of whom contribute to the U.S. economy every year. Yet undocumented immigrants and guest-workers are traditionally paid far less than U.S. citizens, and sometimes aren’t paid at all. Some are forced to live in horrific housing situations, even as they provide the backbone for some of America’s largest industries.
Cardinal Dolan has attracted criticism in the past for fighting against LGBT rights and contraception, but has won praise from immigration advocates for speaking up about the needs of America’s undocumented. Among other pro-immigrant remarks, the Cardinal recently chastised GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump for calling immigrants rapists and drug dealers, saying that the businessman’s comments were part of “the ugly phenomenon called nativism.”
Dolan was likely inspired in part by Pope Francis, who has been a vocal supporter of immigrants and immigrant rights while pontiff. He has repeatedly spoken out against anti-immigrant hatred, imploring Catholics to greet immigrants with “encounter,” not “confrontation.” He also directly addressed the surge migrant children fleeing to the United States to escape gang violence in a 2014 letter, saying they should be “welcomed and protected.” And in February, the pontiff sent a personal message to a group of teenagers in Arizona, thanking them for assisting immigrants along border and advocating for more humane immigration legislation.
Francis even floated the idea of crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border on his own in January, saying, “To enter the United States from the border with Mexico would be a beautiful gesture of brotherhood and support for immigrants.”