Armed with ponchos, umbrellas and prayers, more than 100 Brighton Park and Back of the Yards residents walked on May 10 in the pouring rain from Immaculate Conception Parish, 2745 W. 44th St., to 46th Place and Rockwell, the site of two shootings on May 7 that killed three and injured eight. The previous week two Chicago Police officers were shot in Back of the Yards.

Fathers Manuel Dorantes and Carlos Arancibia of Immaculate Conception led the procession along with Father Tomasz Sielecki of Five Holy Martyrs, Brighton Park, and Father Hugo Leon of St. Joseph, Back of the Yards. Participants prayed the rosary in Spanish along the route. At the site of the shootings, the priests blessed the area and entered the homes of neighbors and blessed them.

At the end of the procession there were refreshments donated by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Participants were encouraged to greet the neighbors. The rain thinned out the crowd, but several people stayed.

Several of the neighbors whose homes Dorantes blessed told him that they are considering moving out of the neighborhood because of the violence. Bullets broke windows and penetrated doors of the homes. That weekend, parishioners from Immaculate Conception went back to the homes to help repair the damage.

Before the procession, people gathered for Mass at Immaculate Conception Church. Dorantes, the parish’s pastor, told the congregation that they gathered to pray "that we may have the courage to be sowers of peace" and for the young people killed and those still in the hospital.

"It is our role as church to be the seeds of hope where there is no hope," he said. "It is such a complex issue that plagues our country but we cannot stand idle. It is not acceptable for any of us to get used to this."

Jesus teaches that all life is sacred, both the innocent and the guilty, he said.

"We cannot allow any weapon or any division to break the bonds of us to be a community," Dorantes said during Mass. "We need to care about one another."

The largely immigrant community is no stranger to suffering and finds strength in that and in each other, he said.

"No gun, no injustice, no person, no one can destroy the fact that we are brothers and sisters," Dorantes said.

That is why it is important to reach out to the neighbors who live where the shooting occurred.

"We will walk with them to the darkest corner of our neighborhood," he said. "We need to feel what they feel and walk for just a moment in their pain."