Category Archives: U.S. News

CRS: refugees need education, jobs, not just food and shelter

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By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Refugees need education and jobs just as much as they need food and shelter, according to a new report by Catholic Relief Services and a Nov. 6 panel discussion about it at the National Press Club in Washington.
“School is a game changer for refugees” because it gives them a sense of normalcy, said Giulia McPherson, director of advocacy and operations for Jesuit Refugee Service, one of the panelists.
She said education is a top priority and noted that refugees are currently five times more likely to be out of school.
Providing an education for those who have fled their homelands is not just a way to help people find a path to success or college but to give an “opportunity for hope,” McPherson said, with the end goal of learning a trade to support their families.
She also said agencies that help refugees should provide teacher training, not just educational materials, and also should consider adapting the curriculum from the refugees’ countries of origin.
Learning employable skills and then being able to get a job is often easier said than done for many refugees.
Elias Bakhash, a Villanova University student and Syrian refugee working with Catholic Relief Services, can attest to this firsthand. He fled Syria and lived in Jordan, Turkey and briefly in Dubai, before coming to the United States, but was unable to find work or get a job for which he was qualified in part because, he said, people think “refugees are here to take our jobs.”
Enabling refugees to get work permits would be one solution, said Bakhash, one of the panelists at the CRS event. He also said he was “not sure how to address the tension between host countries and refugees” and added: “It’s very complex.”
Some of the complexities are outlined in the CRS report: “Little by Little: Exploring the Impact of Social Acceptance on Refugee Integration Into Host Communities.” It looks at the social integration of refugees in Ecuador, Jordan and India.
The report notes the sheer number of people in exile — 22.5 million — and says the capacity of countries to cope with these numbers requires serious conversation about how to best meet short and long-term needs.
Panelists noted that just a year ago the U.N. General Assembly called for a two-year review process to develop a comprehensive refugee response framework, known by its acronym CRRF.
A year into the review amid a growing refugee crisis and polarized views about refugees around the world heightens the call to come up with a clear way forward, noted a few of the panelists.

(Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim)

Encuentro process aimed at meeting needs, fostering sense of mission

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By Norma Montenegro
WASHINGTON – Most dioceses and archdioceses around the country are holding their diocesan encuentros throughout the fall, highlighting what contributions Hispanic Catholics bring to the Catholic Church and their faith communities.
Anticipation of those gatherings comes as communities celebrate this year’s annual National Hispanic Heritage Month, highlighting Hispanics’ contributions to their communities and to society. The observance began Sept. 15 and ran through Oct. 15.
U.S. census estimates show that about 29.7 million Hispanics/Latinos in the United States identify as Catholics, which represents nearly 59 percent of the total Hispanic population in the country. Among millennials, Hispanic Catholics represent 54 percent of U.S. Catholics born in 1982 or later.
U.S. Catholic officials say the church’s encuentro process is an essential opportunity for many parishes and dioceses to promote and grow unity, leadership and cross-collaboration.
Diocesan encuentros are the current phase of what is a four-year process of ecclesial reflection and action. First came parish-level encuentros, next will be regional encuentros. The process will culminate in the Fifth National Encuentro, known as “V Encuentro,” next September in Grapevine, Texas. Previous national encuentros were held in 1972, 1977, 1985 and 2000.
The purpose, as its name states, is to “encounter” others by reaching out to those at the margins through evangelization, by listening to the concerns of such a diverse community through consultation and preparing emerging ministry leaders.
In the Diocese of San Diego, David Gonzalez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in San Isidro, California, said the process has helped unify his parish community, engage new leaders including youth and young adults, and focus parish ministry groups on one common mission.
Personally, it has brought him a renewed sense of commitment. “I’m part of the church, I am the church, I need to go out too,” he said in an interview. “My wife and I, we try to continue (it). It is not just a process that happened and we are done.”
The Diocese of San Diego, which serves 1.3 million Catholics, is set to hold its encuentro Oct. 21. About 250 delegates from participating parishes were expected to attend. The encuentro process in this culturally diverse diocese, where 75 percent of the Catholic population is Hispanic, is offered in both English and Spanish.
Around the country, more than 100 of the nearly 165 participating dioceses are holding their diocesan encuentro between August and December. Parish delegates will attend and afterward present a report to their respective diocesan bishops that will include needs, goals, priorities and recommendations.
In the Archdiocese of Washington, 300 delegates representing 30 parishes gathered to contribute their recommendations, which were presented in a report to Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl Oct. 21 during the archdiocesan encuentro. About 1,000 people were expected to participate.
The delegates identified several priority areas from information gathered from nearly 6,000 people engaged during the process. Those include the accompaniment of families and youth, including single parents, the elderly and those at risk of violence; the need to foster a sense of missionary discipleship, including outreach to non-Spanish-speaking Hispanics; and the call to advocacy and solidarity with immigrants.

Members of Our Holy Redeemer Church in Freeport, N.Y., pass a sponge soaked in water during a team competition at the annual encuentro gathering in 2016 at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, N.Y. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz, Long Island Catholic) See ENCUENTRO-DIOCESAN-PROCESS Sept. 19, 2017.

“It was pretty evident that folks wanted to be formed in their faith and they wanted to be the ones as missionary disciples, to go out and reach out to these groups.” said Javier Bustamante, chairman of the archdiocesan team for the V Encuentro.
“Our archdiocesan team will be taking a look at these recommendations in the next few months and will continue to come up with strategies, recommendations of best practices, things that we could be doing, both at the archdiocese and the parish level,” he said in an interview.
About 2,000 leaders and delegates from 100 parishes and religious organizations in the Archdiocese of San Antonio were preparing for their encuentro Sept. 30. The encuentro process reaching out to Hispanics and other cultural groups, has been fruitful in many ways, say those involved, including bringing hope and conversion, and helping many return to the church.
In one particularly moving case, it even helped save the life of someone who was considering suicide, according to Lucia Baez Luzondo, director of the Office of the V Encuentro. She also heads the Secretariat for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth at the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
“The spirit and the culture of the encuentro are going to be the backbone of the new pastoral plan of the archdiocese for the next five years. It has been transformational to all of us,” Luzondo said.
In another example of missionary discipleship inspired by the encuentro, a youth group from St. Matthew Catholic Church in San Antonio reached out to a group of young Burmese refugees, who in turn have gotten closer to the parish and its community to the point where about 20 Burmese representatives will take part in the archdiocesan encuentro, Luzondo reported.
Dioceses will share recommendations gathered during their own encuentros with their episcopal regions by next spring and following that will come regional encuentros.
Reports based on recommendations will assist dioceses to better identify strategies, implement recommendations and set priorities in a more inclusive way to continue shaping how Hispanic ministry is done based on Pope Francis’ “Joy of the Gospel,” said Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, national coordinator for the V Encuentro.
He is assistant director of Hispanic affairs in the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.
The V Encuentro is an implementation of that vision of church that is missionary, that is an example and promoter of justice, that reaches out to those who are most in need, that builds community and understanding,” Aguilera-Titus said.
(Editor’s note: see related story on page 1)

Encuentro process aimed at meeting needs, fostering sense of mission

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By Norma Montenegro
WASHINGTON – Most dioceses and archdioceses around the country are holding their diocesan encuentros throughout the fall, highlighting what contributions Hispanic Catholics bring to the Catholic Church and their faith communities.
Anticipation of those gatherings comes as communities celebrate this year’s annual National Hispanic Heritage Month, highlighting Hispanics’ contributions to their communities and to society. The observance began Sept. 15 and ran through Oct. 15.
U.S. census estimates show that about 29.7 million Hispanics/Latinos in the United States identify as Catholics, which represents nearly 59 percent of the total Hispanic population in the country. Among millennials, Hispanic Catholics represent 54 percent of U.S. Catholics born in 1982 or later.
U.S. Catholic officials say the church’s encuentro process is an essential opportunity for many parishes and dioceses to promote and grow unity, leadership and cross-collaboration.
Diocesan encuentros are the current phase of what is a four-year process of ecclesial reflection and action. First came parish-level encuentros, next will be regional encuentros. The process will culminate in the Fifth National Encuentro, known as “V Encuentro,” next September in Grapevine, Texas. Previous national encuentros were held in 1972, 1977, 1985 and 2000.

Members of Our Holy Redeemer Church in Freeport, N.Y., pass a sponge soaked in water during a team competition at the annual encuentro gathering in 2016 at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, N.Y. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz, Long Island Catholic) See ENCUENTRO-DIOCESAN-PROCESS Sept. 19, 2017.

The purpose, as its name states, is to “encounter” others by reaching out to those at the margins through evangelization, by listening to the concerns of such a diverse community through consultation and preparing emerging ministry leaders.
In the Diocese of San Diego, David Gonzalez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in San Isidro, California, said the process has helped unify his parish community, engage new leaders including youth and young adults, and focus parish ministry groups on one common mission.
Personally, it has brought him a renewed sense of commitment. “I’m part of the church, I am the church, I need to go out too,” he said in an interview. “My wife and I, we try to continue (it). It is not just a process that happened and we are done.”
The Diocese of San Diego, which serves 1.3 million Catholics, is set to hold its encuentro Oct. 21. About 250 delegates from participating parishes were expected to attend. The encuentro process in this culturally diverse diocese, where 75 percent of the Catholic population is Hispanic, is offered in both English and Spanish.
Around the country, more than 100 of the nearly 165 participating dioceses are holding their diocesan encuentro between August and December. Parish delegates will attend and afterward present a report to their respective diocesan bishops that will include needs, goals, priorities and recommendations.
In the Archdiocese of Washington, 300 delegates representing 30 parishes gathered to contribute their recommendations, which were presented in a report to Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl Oct. 21 during the archdiocesan encuentro. About 1,000 people were expected to participate.
The delegates identified several priority areas from information gathered from nearly 6,000 people engaged during the process. Those include the accompaniment of families and youth, including single parents, the elderly and those at risk of violence; the need to foster a sense of missionary discipleship, including outreach to non-Spanish-speaking Hispanics; and the call to advocacy and solidarity with immigrants.
“It was pretty evident that folks wanted to be formed in their faith and they wanted to be the ones as missionary disciples, to go out and reach out to these groups.” said Javier Bustamante, chairman of the archdiocesan team for the V Encuentro.
“Our archdiocesan team will be taking a look at these recommendations in the next few months and will continue to come up with strategies, recommendations of best practices, things that we could be doing, both at the archdiocese and the parish level,” he said in an interview.
About 2,000 leaders and delegates from 100 parishes and religious organizations in the Archdiocese of San Antonio were preparing for their encuentro Sept. 30. The encuentro process reaching out to Hispanics and other cultural groups, has been fruitful in many ways, say those involved, including bringing hope and conversion, and helping many return to the church.
In one particularly moving case, it even helped save the life of someone who was considering suicide, according to Lucia Baez Luzondo, director of the Office of the V Encuentro. She also heads the Secretariat for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth at the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
“The spirit and the culture of the encuentro are going to be the backbone of the new pastoral plan of the archdiocese for the next five years. It has been transformational to all of us,” Luzondo said.
In another example of missionary discipleship inspired by the encuentro, a youth group from St. Matthew Catholic Church in San Antonio reached out to a group of young Burmese refugees, who in turn have gotten closer to the parish and its community to the point where about 20 Burmese representatives will take part in the archdiocesan encuentro, Luzondo reported.
Dioceses will share recommendations gathered during their own encuentros with their episcopal regions by next spring and following that will come regional encuentros.
Reports based on recommendations will assist dioceses to better identify strategies, implement recommendations and set priorities in a more inclusive way to continue shaping how Hispanic ministry is done based on Pope Francis’ “Joy of the Gospel,” said Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, national coordinator for the V Encuentro.
He is assistant director of Hispanic affairs in the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.
The V Encuentro is an implementation of that vision of church that is missionary, that is an example and promoter of justice, that reaches out to those who are most in need, that builds community and understanding,” Aguilera-Titus said.
(Editor’s note: see related story on page 1)

Review of faith, culture, politics of past 50 years essential reading

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By Brian T. Olszewski (CNS)

This is the cover of “Getting Religion: Faith, Culture and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama” by Kenneth L. Woodward. The book is reviewed by Brian T. Olszewski. 

”Getting Religion: Faith, Culture and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama” by Kenneth L. Woodward. Convergent (New York, 2016). 447 pp. $30. In the introduction to “Getting Religion,” Kenneth L. Woodward states two goals for writing it: to “provide an account of American religion, culture and politics over the past 50 years by someone who was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to witness events and people in ways that others never could or did; and to challenge some competing narratives through my personal reflections on what happened and why.” That he far surpasses those goals is just one reason why this book is essential reading. In the first two chapters, Woodward blends autobiography with a description of how he saw the United States during the 1940s and ‘50s. Of the latter decade he writes, “religion was embedded in the national culture as well as in the landscape — though, like minerals in the soil, particular religious traditions were deposited at different depths and levels of concentration.” Although the Second Vatican Council and some of its effects, and the “birth control encyclical,” “Humanae Vitae,” fill volumes of reporting and commentary, Catholic readers should appreciate Woodward’s take on these critical moments in Catholic history even though they occupy only a fraction of the pages. The issues, events and personalities he covers go far beyond the Catholic Church. The second part of the book provides an extensive look at what was occurring in the ‘60s and early ‘70s — the civil rights movement, feminization of theology and entrepreneurial religion, i.e. the evangelists, whom he describes as “performance artists.” In each of these areas, Woodward shows how those facets of culture grew out of organized religion or seeped into it, depending on the movement, issue or cause.
Segments of interviews done during his Newsweek stint with the Rev. Billy Graham, Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, the Dalai Lama, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and others add context to the narrative about the respective times in which they were prominent national and world figures. While “Getting Religion” can be heavy reading due to the subject matter, Woodward adds a smattering of humor throughout. For example, he recalls when Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, asked him, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?” Woodward replied, “No, I don’t want a personal lord and savior. I prefer the one everyone else has.” Two factual errors detract from the overall quality of this work. One is that the promulgation date for Blessed Paul VI’s encyclical “Populorum Progressio” (“On the Development of Peoples”) is listed as 1961 instead of 1967. Blessed Paul VI was not elected pope until 1963. Woodward also refers to Jesuit Father Robert Drinan of Massachusetts as “the only Catholic priest ever elected to the U.S. Congress.” Father Gabriel Richard was elected to the U.S. House as a nonvoting member from the Michigan Territory in 1822. Norbertine Father Robert Cornell of Wisconsin was elected to the U.S. House in 1974 and 1976. Nonetheless, one would be hard pressed to find anyone else who could compile and organize its contents, and write this book as well as Woodward. His 38-year tenure as the religion editor at Newsweek, combined with knowledge of and lifelong practice of his Catholic faith, are all the credentials he needs. With that combination Woodward provides an engaging story for readers who “were there,” either by participation or merely by living through those times.
For those who only know what they read about those decades and the people, events and movements integral to them, they will feel as though they “were there” once they have read “Getting Religion.”
(Olszewski has written for and edited diocesan publications for more than 40 years.)

Pastor who served in Clarksdale dies

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Father Patrick McDermott

Father Patrick McDermott of the Diocese of Biloxi died Sunday, September 17, in Ocean Springs. Father McDermott, 77, a native of Donegal, Ireland, was ordained at St. John College in Waterford on June 14, 1964. In the Diocese of Jackson he served at Clarksdale St. Elizabeth Parish. On the coast, he served as assistant pastor of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Biloxi and St. James Parish, Gulfport. His assignments as pastor included St. James Parish, Gulfport; Our Lady of Victories Parish, Pascagoula; Sacred Heart Parish, D’Iberville and a second stint as pastor of Our Lady of Victories Parish in Pascagoula, where he served until his retirement in January 2010. In retirement, Father McDermott resided at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Biloxi. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Monday, September 25 at Our Lady of Victories Church, 503 Convent Avenue, Pascagoula, Visitation is set for noon to 3 p.m., when the Mass will start. Father McDermott will be buried in Ireland.

California pastor of immigrant parish honored with Lumen Christi Award

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CHICAGO (CNS) Today, Greenfield in California’s Salinas Valley looks and feels different because Father Enrique Herrera believed that the Catholic Church could make life better for the city’s residents, according to Chicago-based Catholic Extension.

Father Enrique Herrera, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Greenfield, Calif., is the winner of the 40th annual Lumen Christi Award of the Catholic Extension Society. He is pictured in a late June photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Catholic Extension Society)

For his efforts in the Catholic community and the wider community, Catholic Extension has chosen Father Herrera to receive the 2017-2018 Lumen Christi Award, its highest honor. The priest, who is pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Greenfield in the Diocese of Monterrey, will be officially presented with the award during a Mass at his parish Dec. 10. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the award. When Father Herrera arrived at Holy Trinity Parish and saw that parishioners were struggling to feed their families and had few opportunities for a brighter future, he decided that his parish would become a beacon of hope. Together with his parishioners, he started new programs focused on strengthening faith, education and community. “Hearts were opened. Individuals started changing. Families started changing. Neighborhoods started changing. Classrooms started changing. The Police Department, Fire Department, school officials, City Council and mayor all got on board,” Extension said in announcing the award.
“The Lumen Christi Award shines brightly to honor and give recognition to people who are great missionaries in our country,” said Father Jack Wall, president of Catholic Extension. “Father Herrera is a great example. He has stood up as a shepherd for his flock and raised them up. He is a ‘voice for the voiceless,’ but he is also helping people to fi nd their own voice, helping them to aspire and to dream. He is a true missionary.” Catholic Extension’s selection of Father Herrera and his bustling parish of immigrant parishioners also shines a light on a seismic shift that has occurred in the Catholic Church over the past 25 years. A new study released by the Public Religion Research Institute documented what America magazine
called the “shift from a predominantly white church clustered in the Northeast and Midwest to a church influenced by Latin American immigration and located in the South and West.” Before Father Herrera was born, his parents had worked in the Salinas Valley. After his birth in Mexico he is the third of seven children his father continued to travel there regularly as a migrant worker to support the family. Enduring his father’s long absences, he developed a soft spot for the plight of migrants. By age 10, Father Herrera felt the tug toward priesthood. Wanting to be “a voice for the voiceless,” he entered the seminary in Guadalajara, Mexico, after high school. When his family immigrated to the Salinas Valley, he caught the attention of the bishop of Monterey, who asked him to join the diocese. Ever since, he has served the poor in several parishes, working primarily with immigrants. “I have come full circle,” he said in a statement. “As the son of immigrants, I am now able to serve immigrants in the same location.” As pastor of Holy Trinity, Father Herrera shepherds
the only Catholic church in Greenfield. Catholic Extension helped build the church in 1934. A city of 16,000, Greenfield is in the heart of the Salinas Valley. It is comprised mainly of immigrants who come to harvest lettuce, broccoli, grapes and strawberries. Half of the city’s population is under age 21. The average income there is almost 40 percent below the national poverty level. Father Herrera is particularly focused on the youth of the parish. Most of their parents, 90 percent of whom are farmworkers in nearby fields. Their work schedules keep them away from home. This past May, 446 children received their first Communion. Father Herrera also has ramped up the number of teenagers being confirmed. Hundreds are in the confirmation program each year, and he encourages them to be leaders. The teens become his core group of volunteers because they have the “energy, wisdom and understanding” to guide others, he said. With Catholic Extension’s help, this summer the parish started a new summer camp for children. The program includes lessons on faith and on science. For adults, Father Herrera tries to work around their long work schedules. When agricultural fields are dormant, he holds daily Bible classes that attract more than 400. The parish has six Masses each weekend, including four in Spanish. Between liturgies, baptisms and quinceaneras, about 4,000 people come to church each weekend.
Father Herrera believes that the Catholic Church has a role in addressing human needs alongside the spiritual ones. He knows that his parishioners confront pervasive poverty and complex problems, and he wants to “bring the Catholic faith to the streets.” “We need to put the Catholic Church in the social arena, so it not only helps people grow in their faith but also to grow as members of a community,” he explained. The parish has a food bank, English classes, immigration assistance, nutrition and parenting classes. Every year during spring break, 300 high school students attend anti-bullying and anti-violence classes. The priest has established soccer and basketball leagues to keep young people engaged during their free time. “Father Herrera advocates for our community to ensure that we get what we need spiritually as well as physically, emotionally, intellectually and in other aspects that are needed for a balanced life,” said Greenfield Mayor Jesus Olvera Garcia, who is a Holy Trinity parishioner. “Holy Trinity Catholic Church has the doors open to welcome everyone to be part of their events and services.” Father Herrera’s dream is that all his young parishioners will attend college, so the parish holds fundraisers to provide college scholarships and connects students to other resources and scholarships. Catholic Extension, the Chicago-based papal society devoted to building churches and the Catholic Church in America’s poorest places, has supported the Diocese of Jackson for many decades. 

Catholic Charities USA gives $2 million for hurricane relief

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By Catholic News Service
SAN ANTONIO (CNS) — Catholic Charities USA presented a $2 million check Sept. 4 representing donations received to date for immediate emergency assistance for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey and its catastrophic flooding. Parishes in the Diocese of Jackson may take up a special collection for the effort the weekend of Sept. 16-17.
One hundred percent of the funds raised will go directly to immediate and long-term recovery efforts.

Evacuees who were rescued from the floodwaters of Tropical Storm Harvey wait to board school buses bound for Louisiana Aug. 31 in Vidor, Texas. (CNS photo/Jonathan Bachman, Reuters)

Making the presentation was Dominican Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, accompanied by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of the neighboring Diocese of Victoria, J. Antonio Fernandez, president and CEO of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic Charities USA’s Mobile Response Center vehicle, filled with emergency supplies, left Catholic Charities headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, for Texas and will remain there to assist Catholic Charities agencies with response efforts.
Diocesan Catholic Charities agencies have been hard at work in recovery efforts, trying to address difficulties as they arise.
In Houston, which has received the lion’s share of attention, there have been huge problems finding temporary housing. Apartments are flooded and hotels are not accepting payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On top of that, the city is getting ready to shut down shelters.
In Victoria, relief efforts are just getting started, as Catholic Charities is trying to find a building to convert into a distribution center. Cleaning supplies are still needed to cope with the aftermath of flooding.
While most volunteers want to go to southeast Texas, which suffered significant damage, five counties in the Diocese of Austin were also hit by Harvey. Catholic Charities personnel have gone door-to-door to hotels in Bryan and College Station trying to find displaced people, then connecting them to United Way, as hotels in the area are full due to the college football season. Some businesses are offering paid time off for their employees to go to impacted areas and do volunteer work.
In Corpus Christi, Catholic Charities USA workers are on the ground with people and resources. The biggest challenges they face include trying to find places to store donated supplies and relocating residents with no affordable housing available.
Trucks are a big issue in Beaumont and San Antonio. In Beaumont, six 18-wheelers arrived fully loaded with donations, and up to 100 volunteers stayed until 2 a.m. on Sept. 5 to unload them.
Beaumont’s water supply has remained sketchy since the storm. Water service has not been restored to all areas and those who do have water must boil it first. With flooding still an issue, supply routes change daily and Catholic Charities faces the challenge of getting donations to the right places. They are also setting up food service for volunteers and survivors and looking for vehicles to deliver donations to outlying areas.
(Editor’s note: at press time, the path of Hurricane Irma was unclear. Look for relief efforts in the next edition.)

Catholic leaders sharply criticize Trump’s decision to end DACA

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By Kurt Jensen
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Catholic church leaders, immigration officials and university presidents were swift and unanimous in their condemnation of President Donald Trump’s Sept. 5 decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals known as DACA.
“In the past, the president stated that the Dreamer story ‘is about the heart,’ yet (the) decision is nothing short of heartless,” said Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich. “The Dreamers are now left in a six-month limbo, during which Congress is supposed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, a feat they have been unable to achieve for a decade,” he said in a Sept. 5 statement.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals supporters demonstrate near the White House in Washington Sept. 5. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Sept. 5 that the DACA program is “being rescinded” by President Donald Trump, leaving some 800,000 youth, brought illegally to the U.S. as minors, in peril of deportation and of losing permits that allow them to work. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)

The rescission of DACA, announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, places an estimated 800,000 undocumented immigrants, many of whom were brought to the United States as young children and have known no other home, under threat of deportation and losing permits that allow them to work. President Trump later tweeted that he was depending on congress to take action in that time and then hinted that he may re-visit DACA if no plan is passed by then. From August through December, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the work permits of more than 200,000 DACA recipients will expire and only 55,258 have submitted requests for permit renewals.
Amelia McGowan, the program director for Catholic Charities of Jackson’s Migrant Resource Center, said her office is still working on DACA cases and renewals. “We remain committed to to supporting our clients with DACA,” said McGowan. She urged calm for those in the program. “We understand there is some uncertainty. We want to remain a resource for everyon in the community with questions. There may be other immigration options for those seeking DACA, so we want to remain a resource for them,” she added.
Bishop Joseph Kopacz of the Diocese of Jackson echoed his support of the program. “Here in Mississippi, we cannot ignore the contributions immigrants make to our culture and our economy. Our neighbors from other nations have now been here so long, they have set roots in the soil. They are raising families and working to strengthen our state in many ways. It is time to seek a just and reasonable solution to the issue of immigration. Scripture instructs us to ‘welcome the stranger,’ and care for those on the margins. As Catholics, we will stand with immigrants and support their efforts to become citizens,” said the bishop.
The decision to end DACA is “a heartbreaking disappointment,” said Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. She also said her organization rejects and adamantly disagrees with Sessions’ “untested personal opinion that DACA is unconstitutional.”
“Americans have never been a people who punish children for the mistakes of their parents. I am hopeful that we will not begin now,” said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. “I do not believe this decision represents the best of our national spirit or the consensus of the American people. This decision reflects only the polarization of our political moment.”
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the USCCB, said in a statement with other USCCB leaders: “The Catholic Church has long watched with pride and admiration as DACA youth live out their daily lives with hope and a determination to flourish and contribute to society: continuing to work and provide for their families, continuing to serve in the military, and continuing to receive an education. Now, after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people face deportation. This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.”
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, called the decision “malicious.”
“One can’t hide behind the term ‘legality’ in rescinding DACA,” his statement added. “That is an abandonment of humanity, and abandonment of talented and hopeful young people who are as American as you and I.”
Mercy Sister Aine O’Connor, who stood in front of the White House as the decision was announced, also took issue with Sessions’ remark: “Nothing is compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws.”
“We do not see it as a compassionate act. It is a merciless act,” Sister O’Connor told Catholic News Service, adding that it was “an abdication of responsibility by the Trump administration.”
Future plans for her group include lobbying members of Congress to show “the root cause of immigration, which includes American policies that destroy economic stability in other countries.”
The Washington-based Franciscan Action Network’s statement compared Trump to Pontius Pilate: “Like Pilate, President Trump has tried to wash his hands of responsibility when he could have and should have kept DACA in place. God commands his people to care for immigrants and treat them ‘no differently than the natives born among you.'” (Lv 19:34)
The Ohio-based Ignatian Solidarity Network accused Trump of undermining “the dignity of undocumented individuals,” adding, “As people of faith, we are called to uphold the inherent dignity of our immigrant brothers and sisters, to stand with those marginalized by a broken immigration system, and to recognize the gifts and talents that these young people bring to our communities.”
Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia, in a statement on his Facebook page, said he wanted to emphasize Georgetown’s “strongest support for all of our undocumented students. As a nation, we have the capacity and responsibility to work together to provide a permanent legislative solution to ensure the safety and well-being of these young women and men who have – and will – contribute to the future of our country in deeply meaningful ways.”

Stuck in traffic

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Father Ron Rolheiser

There’s a famous billboard that hangs along a congested highway that reads: You aren’t stuck in traffic. You are traffic! Good wit, good insight! How glibly we distance ourselves from a problem, whether it is our politics, our churches, the ecological problems on our planet or most anything else.
We aren’t, as we want to think, stuck in a bad political climate wherein we can no longer talk to each other and live respectfully with each other. Rather we ourselves have become so rigid, arrogant and sure of ourselves that we can no longer respect those who think differently than we do. We are a bad political climate and not just stuck in one.
Likewise for our churches: We aren’t stuck in churches that are too self-serving and not faithful enough to the teachings of Jesus. Rather we are Christians who too often, ourselves, out of self-interest compromise the teachings of Jesus. We aren’t stuck in our churches, we comprise those churches.
The same is true apposite the ecological challenges we face on this planet: We aren’t stuck on a planet that’s becoming oxygen-starved and a junkyard for human wastage. Rather it’s we, not just others, who are too careless in how we are using up the earth’s resources and how we are leaving behind our waste.
Admittedly, this isn’t always true. Sometimes we are stuck in negative situations for which we bear no responsibility and within which, through no fault of our own, we are simply the unfortunate victim of circumstance and someone else’s carelessness, illness, dysfunction or sin. We can, for instance, be born into a dysfunctional situation which leaves us stuck in a family and an environment that don’t make for easy freedom. Or, sometimes simple circumstance can burden us with duties that take away our freedom. So, metaphorically speaking, we can be stuck in traffic and not ourselves be part of that traffic, though generally we are, at least partially, part of the traffic we’re stuck in.
Henri Nouwen often highlighted this in his writings. We are not, he tells us, separate from the events that make up the world news each day. Rather, what we see written large in the world news each night simply reflects what’s going on inside of us. When we see instances of injustice, bigotry, racism, greed, violence, murder and war on our newscasts we rightly feel a certain moral indignation. It’s healthy to feel that way, but it’s not healthy to naively think that it’s others, not us, who are the problem.
When we’re honest we have to admit that we’re complicit in all these things, perhaps not in their crasser forms, but in subtler, though very real, ways: The fear and paranoia that are at the root of so much conflict in our world are not foreign to us. We too, find it hard to accept those who are different from us. We too, cling to privilege and do most everything we can to secure and protect our comfort. We too, use up an unfair amount of the world’s resources in our hunger for comfort and experience.
As well, our negative judgments, jealousies, gossip and bitter words are, at the end of the day, genuine acts of violence since, as Henri Nouwen puts it: Nobody is shot by a gun that isn’t first shot by a word. And nobody is shot by a word before he or she is first shot by a murderous thought: Who does she thinks she is! The evening news just shows large what’s inside our hearts. What’s in the macrocosm is also in the microcosm.
And so we aren’t just viewers of the evening news, we’re complicit in it. The old catechisms were right when they told us that there’s no such a thing as a truly private act, that even our most private actions affect everyone else. The private is political. Everything affects everything.
The first take-away from this is obvious: When we find ourselves stuck in traffic, metaphorically and otherwise, we need to admit our own complicity and resist the temptation to simply blame others.
But there’s another important lesson here too: We are never healthier than when we are confessing our sins; in this case, confessing that we are traffic and not just stuck in traffic. After recognizing that we are complicit, hopefully we can forgive ourselves for the fact that, partially at least, we are helpless to not be complicit. No one can walk through life without leaving a footprint. To pretend otherwise is dishonest and to try to not leave a footprint is futile. The starting point to make things better is for us to admit and confess our complicity.
So the next time you’re stuck in traffic, irritated and impatient, muttering angrily about why there are so many people on the road, you might want to glance at yourself in rearview mirror, ask yourself why you are on the road at that time and then give yourself a forgiving wink as you utter the French word, touché.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Kansas Sister remembers brother on path to sainthood

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By Christopher M. Riggs
WICHITA, Kan. (CNS) – Sister Marita Rother really didn’t get to know her brother, Father Stanley Rother, as a priest until she visited him in Guatemala in the 1970s.
She was at the Adorers of the Blood of Christ convent in Wichita when he left to study for the priesthood.

Sister Marita Rother, a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, holds a picture of her brother, Father Stanley Rother, a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese, who will be beatified Sept. 23 in Oklahoma City. (CNS photo/Christopher Riggs, Catholic Advance)

“He went to the seminary right after high school,” she said, adding that he didn’t tell his parents of his interest in the priesthood until after he graduated.
“We never talked about it,” Sister Marita told the Catholic Advance, newspaper of the Wichita Diocese. “We were both rather quiet. I didn’t even tell my friends until shortly before I left that I was actually leaving (to become a nun).”
Still, she and her three brothers were close to one another and to their parents, she recalled.
“We were very seldom not doing things together. Our parents really did keep us in line. We had great respect for each other … anytime they would hear squabbling – if it was in their earshot – they would calm us down.”
But Stanley was different from his siblings, she said.
“I actually do not remember him getting a scolding from my parents,” Sister Marita said. “I got my share, my other brothers got theirs. Not that I was comparing myself, but when I thought back on it, I don’t remember, particularly my mother, ever correcting him for anything, or scolding him like we used to get.”
His behavior may have been a foreshadowing of why he will soon be honored by the church.
Sister Marita will be among those participating in a beatification ceremony for Father Rother Sept. 23, in Oklahoma City. Pope Francis acknowledged Father Rother’s martyrdom in December, making the Okarche, Oklahoma, native the first recognized martyr to have been born in the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of Catholics died in the Guatemalan civil war from 1960 to 1996, targeted because of the church’s insistence on catechizing.
In time, Father Rother’s name appeared on a death list. He and an associate left Guatemala in 1981 because of the danger. Father Rother returned to Oklahoma, but his heart was still with the people.
He had a great empathy for the poor, Sister Marita said. Though many of his flock spoke Spanish, a year or two after he began his missionary work in Santiago Atitlan, he asked to begin training in the Tzutujil language, one of the 21 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, so that he could better serve his flock.
“It’s a very difficult language to learn and almost everyone who heard him speak it could not believe that he learned it in the short time that he did. This man who flunked a year in the seminary because he couldn’t learn Latin is now speaking Tzutujil,” she said.
It was a blessing for many of his estimated 15,000 parishioners.
“They could understand what he was talking about,” Sister Marita said. “It got to where he was giving his homilies in Tzutujil. He soon became known as Padre A’Plas, his Indian name, which was Tzutujil for Francis.”
Francis was Father Rother’s middle name.
Because of his ability to communicate in the Mayan dialect, she said, the people claimed Father Rother as one of their own.
“When he left, it was like leaving his people,” she said. “There was no one there to continue the Mass in their language. He did not want to leave. When he got home, he longed to be back with them. He knew they were not going to survive spiritually and I think he felt like he abandoned them.”
He returned to Oklahoma for about three months.
“When I saw him … he looked terrible. It was like he was lost. He kept gazing out the window, kind of in his own thoughts, and we knew what they were.”
When he was told it was safe to return to Guatemala, he hesitated because of his mother’s illness, but he decided to return.

People stand near an image of Father Stanley Rother, a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese, during Mass in 2006 at a church in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Father Rother will be beatified Sept. 23 in Oklahoma. (CNS photo/Daniel LeClair, Reuters)

“I’ve got to do it,” he told his sister. “And I knew that. I could see it in his eyes. He had to do it.”
Within three months of his return, on July 28, 1981, three men entered his rectory in the dead of night and murdered him.
“We knew he was in danger. We didn’t know that things had escalated to that point,” Sister Marita said. “To get that call was very painful.”
She added that she began to understand the love the people had for her brother on her second trip to Guatemala in 1978. She met children here and there all named Francisco. “It turns out there were lots of Franciscos there,” she said. “It became a very common name.”
Although Father Rother’s body is buried in Resurrection Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma City, his heart will always be with the people he loved. It is enshrined at St. James the Apostle Church in Santiago Atitlan.
(Riggs is editor of the Catholic Advance, newspaper of the Diocese of Wichita. Bishop Joseph Kopcaz will be in Oklahoma City for the beatification.)