The San Diego diocese is in bankruptcy court over payouts to victims of sexual abuse, yet a parish like St. Peter's, written up in the latest NCR (that's "Reporter" not "Register") is demonstrating how truly counter-cultural the church can be. The story is a quick read, shocking in its descriptions of the harassment and denigration of the pastor and parishioners for their longstanding support for Central American immigrants who need a helping hand. The protests, led by a group called the San Diego Minutemen, have yelled at congregants and created an effigy of Father Bud Kaicher with the head of the Devil. Here's more:

Claudia Smith, a longtime immigrant rights activist, has been joined by several others at the site on Saturday mornings, videotaping the Minutemen and documenting their actions. She directs the Border Project for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation and has been monitoring the Minutemen at various day labor sites throughout San Diego County for two years.

Toward the end of last year, she said, their tenor changed and they became more aggressive, body-slamming the workers, calling them names. She has published video excerpts of the groups bullying tactics in various San Diego communities on a Web site, www.minutemenunvarnished.com, and is cooperating with a law enforcement investigation of a Jan. 27 raid on a day labor campsite alleged to have been organized by members of the San Diego Minutemen. They destroyed all the mens possessions, cutting their pants in half, shredding their tarps, breaking their pencils in half, Smith said. It was unbelievable.