Faith in the news

For the thinkers, theologians, philospophers.
User avatar
Del
Usher
Usher
Posts: 2726
Joined: 11 Apr 2022, 22:08
Location: Madison, WI
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 372 times

The Right to Migrate

Post by Del »

Wosbald wrote: 08 Jan 2023, 23:40 +JMJ+

New US border measures ‘not in line with international standards’, warns UNHCR

Image

Image
© UNHCR/Nicolo Filippo Rosso Asylum seekers arrive along the United States’ southern border. | © UNHCR/Nicolo Filippo Rosso

Plans by the Biden administration to expand restrictions on people seeking refuge in the United States are “not in line with refugee law standards”, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.

According to reports, the reforms would deny migrants the chance to seek asylum in the US if they crossed from Mexico into the US without permission.

But President Biden also said that up to 30,000 people per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela could come legally, if they meet a series of requirements, including finding a sponsor and demonstrate they are able to afford a plane ticket.

UNHCR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told journalists in Geneva that while the UN agency welcomed the expanded safe and regular pathways for entry to the US for some, the new measures “must not preclude people forced to flee from exercising their fundamental human right to seek safety”.

More examination time needed

[…]

Safer pathways

Seeking asylum is a fundamental human right, the agency stressed.

UNHCR will continue to engage with the US and other Governments, to expand safe pathways and develop protection and solutions for asylum seekers — in line with international standards, the Spokesperson said.
I don't care much for "UN standards." I hope they are wise and whatever.

But I like these new Biden standards, if they are reported accurately here. A plane ticket is MUCH cheaper and safer than paying the cartels for trafficking. And if we are allowed to sponsor refugees, then they will be cared for MUCH better than in Biden's concentration camps or turned out homeless onto the streets of El Paso.
User avatar
Wosbald
Sunday School Superintendent
Sunday School Superintendent
Posts: 993
Joined: 15 Nov 2022, 10:50
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 58 times

Fascism

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+

Catholic leaders denounce Brazil’s version of capital riots

Image

Image
Protesters, supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, sit in front of police inside Planalto Palace after storming it in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Planalto is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. (Credit: Eraldo Peres/AP)

SÃO PAULO — Repudiating acts of violence perpetrated by thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the Catholic Church in Brazil has condemned a Jan. 8 assault on government buildings in the national capital of Brasilia that many are comparing to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol building in 2021.

[…]

Videos posted on-line by the marchers showed a group getting into the Senate and screaming that “Brazil belongs to Jesus Christ!” During the presidential campaign, Bolsonaro was supported by Pentecostal megachurches and some segments of Catholic opinion, referring to the dispute with Lula, portrayed as a diabolical atheist, as one of good against evil.

Protestors were also spotted carrying sculptures of Jesus Christ and Our Lady of Aparecida. Others were seen with Israeli flags. Many Evangelicals who support Bolsonaro adopted Jewish symbology and believe that the second coming of Christ will only be possible when the Jewish people resume full control over the Holy Land.

After a few hours, the security forces regained control over the Esplanade of Ministries. Police sources say that at least 300 people have been detained.

[…]

Amid the upheaval, the bishops’ conference released a statement on social media condemning the violent acts and demanding the protection of democracy.

“The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), perplexed with the serious and violent events in Brasilia, calls for serenity, peace, and the immediate cessation of criminal attacks on the democratic rule of law,” the note read.

“These attacks must be immediately stopped, and their organizers and participants must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Citizens and democracy need to be protected,” the bishops added.

The conference’s Justice and Peace Commission also released a public letter, saying that the rioters had been “encouraged by [former president Bolsonaro] to not accept the democratic result of the ballots” and that they “defend a coup d’état, therefore they are perpetrating a crime against the Brazilian constitution.”

“We cannot live anymore with the hatred and violence disseminated by the former federal administration and a few of the former president’s supporters who, with authoritarian spirit, try to impose their will,” the letter said.

Other Catholic entities and groups also manifested their repudiation to the events in Brasília. The Dominican Commission of Justice and Peace published a statement in which it blamed police forces for deliberately failing to act to contain the protestors.

“With the failure of that attempted coup, there must be immediate punishment for the people who were responsible for it; prison for the vandals and their financial supporters; prohibition of any kind of act against the Brazilian democracy,” it said.

Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, affirmed on social media that the events in “Brasília are unacceptable.”

“That has no place in democratic coexistence. It is necessary to calm the spirits. If you want to be respected, you need to respect,” he added.

[…]

On social media, Bolsonaro said that this kind of protest is “against the rules” and denied any kind of involvement with it. At the moment, Bolsonaro is believed to be residing in Orlando, Florida, in a rented house near Disney World owned by a professional mixed martial arts fighter.


Image
User avatar
Del
Usher
Usher
Posts: 2726
Joined: 11 Apr 2022, 22:08
Location: Madison, WI
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 372 times

Fascism

Post by Del »

Wosbald wrote: 12 Jan 2023, 08:33
SÃO PAULO — Repudiating acts of violence perpetrated by thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the Catholic Church in Brazil has condemned a Jan. 8 assault on government buildings in the national capital of Brasilia that many are comparing to the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol building in 2021.
Wow. I haven't been tuning in the left-wing media. I didn't realize that anyone would be so foolish as to compare the election riots in Brazil with the Epiphany Protest in America.

The American protest was a few hours disruption, then Congress got back to normal and the election was certified. A few thousand wayward souls entered the Capitol, while 200,000 thousand protesters remained peaceful and unthreatening outside. There were a few hotspots of ruckus in the Capitol, and one unarmed female protester was shot and killed.

This insurrection in Brazil is real. That's a huge difference.
User avatar
Wosbald
Sunday School Superintendent
Sunday School Superintendent
Posts: 993
Joined: 15 Nov 2022, 10:50
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 58 times

The Right to Migrate

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+

Border bishop takes lead role in Catholic migrant ministry

Image

Image
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso sits for a portrait in his office in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, April 4, 2022. The friendship bracelets on his wrist were braided by girls housed at a shelter on nearby Fort Bliss Army base for unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexican border. “Immigrants have had the experience of leaving everything that helped them to feel at home and secure in this life behind, and to depend utterly on God as they journey. … They have so much to teach us about how God will accompany us on our journey,” Seitz says. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

With a cheerful soy Marcos — “I’m Mark,” in Spanish — Bishop Mark Seitz introduced himself to migrants eating soup in the shelter on the grounds of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, less than two miles from the U.S.–Mexico border.

The migration crisis roiling the borderlands is literally in the backyard of the new chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, a ministry started a century ago. Seitz will be the first border bishop to serve in this role in at least two decades; he says it will allow him to bring “a new energy to this work from someone who sees it pretty much every day.”

“Immigrants have had the experience of leaving everything that helped them to feel at home and secure in this life behind, and to depend utterly on God as they journey,” Seitz told The Associated Press a few days before Christmas. “They have so much to teach us about how God will accompany us on our journey.”

[…]

The Vatican, Catholic nonprofits and bishops’ conferences across the world collaborate to advocate at all political levels “for just and humane policies,” said Bill Canny, who leads the USCCB’s Department of Migration and Refugee Services.

Border bishops like Seitz are “critically important” to that mission because they provide “a real-time perspective,” Canny added.

The political advocacy of U.S. bishops stems from their mission to care for the most vulnerable, said Steven Millies, a professor at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. However, Millies said the USCCB tends to be most visible in its anti-abortion fight and other “culture wars,” getting entangled in partisan divisions that can undermine its advocacy for other causes.

To Seitz, who was chairman-elect of the migration committee for a year before starting his three-year term in November, a stronger and nuanced Catholic response to migration “can be something that brings the church to life.”

“I think most people would be surprised, and I hope pleasantly surprised, to see the degree of unanimity among the bishops on this question of immigration,” Seitz said. “So many of the bishops have come up to me and expressed … a concern about how we need to do better to welcome (migrants).”

A Milwaukee native who served as bishop of El Paso for the past decade — which saw three U.S. administrations struggle to manage surges of arrivals of families from Central America and beyond — Seitz knows the challenges first-hand.

As he spoke to the AP, he was notified the Supreme Court had issued a stay for pandemic-era restrictions on asylum-seekers.

Seitz had been working with churches and civil authorities “for a scenario in which higher numbers may be coming across than we’ve ever seen” if restrictions were lifted as expected on Dec. 21 — but the stay offered no relief.

“These are, by definition, not the kind of people who can make an application and wait five years to be able to cross,” Seitz said. “And we’re not even asking those questions right now with Title 42. We don’t ask, why did you come? We simply say, turn around and go back somewhere. And we’re sending them into some of the more unstable and dangerous places in the world.”

[…]

Even with Title 42 in place, U.S. officials apprehended and released more than 50,000 asylum-seekers in El Paso from the beginning of October, said the Jesuit Fr. Michael Gallagher, an attorney.

“Bishop Seitz urged parishes to open up empty spaces” like halls as temporary shelters, Gallagher added. His downtown church, Sacred Heart, has been hosting nearly 200 migrants nightly in the gym.

“As people who have been called by Jesus and the Gospel to serve … this sounds like it’s right up our alley,” Seitz explained.

His ministry extends beyond sheltering. For more than a year, he’s been celebrating Mass at a federal shelter for unaccompanied minor migrants and he wears on his right wrist friendship bracelets woven by some of them.

He’s just added a new one, from a mid-December trip to Guatemala to learn from grassroots organizations what pushes so many people on their dangerous northward journey.

That’s an area where Seitz believes the bishops’ conference can make an impact, providing guidance on how the United States can facilitate stability and job creation in origin countries.

Another priority for Seitz focuses on the church’s role in building better understanding between Americans far beyond the borderlands and new immigrants.

“Why do we tend to look at them and say, ‘I think they’re probably criminals,’ instead of to look at them and say, ‘I think they’re probably people in need’?” Seitz said, adding that he also sees a need for “a more orderly process for people to be able to cross.”

His advice starts small — encouraging the faithful to attend Spanish-language Masses, which are increasingly common across the country, and meet migrant churchgoers.

“In that simple act, you will be accomplishing a lot more than you could imagine to help us to welcome and integrate the people who are joining our communities,” Seitz said.


Image
User avatar
Wosbald
Sunday School Superintendent
Sunday School Superintendent
Posts: 993
Joined: 15 Nov 2022, 10:50
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 58 times

The Right to Migrate | Breaking News

Post by Wosbald »



Image
Hovannes
Door Greeter
Door Greeter
Posts: 1408
Joined: 10 Aug 2022, 08:34
Has thanked: 454 times
Been thanked: 235 times

Faith in the news

Post by Hovannes »

I'd be interested to hear what native Americans have to say on this topic.
It's basically the same situation, isn't it?
User avatar
Del
Usher
Usher
Posts: 2726
Joined: 11 Apr 2022, 22:08
Location: Madison, WI
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 372 times

Faith in the news

Post by Del »

Pope Francis says that we need to balance both concerns: Nations need to protect their borders, and nations also need to shelter refugees as much as we are able.

Biden's policies fail miserably on both counts. Refugees pay the cartels, suffer rape and trafficking, perhaps to arrive safely into America -- where they face Biden's concentration camps or dropped off homeless and uncared for and without legal status. The natural result is desperate lawlessness. Meanwhile fentanyl pours across the open border, plus the occasional terrorist.

Oddly enough, Biden has been very strong at limiting refugees from Cuba and Venezuela. Apparently the children of refugees from communism don't vote for socialism when they grow up.

Trump wanted a strong border and a generous refugee policy, but neither Democrats nor Republicans would work with him on immigration reform.

Wosbald's twitter alert is bald-faced lying. International law regarding refugees is to flee the danger and seek asylum in the closest neighboring nation that is safe. The proposed policy (if there is any truth to that) is not "illegal." Frankly, I don't think Biden has any intention of securing our border. This hasn't made a headline in actual news, has it?

Still, everyone wants to come to America and we should help as many as we can. The latest policy proposed by Republicans is to go back to what worked before: Have the refugee apply for asylum at the US embassy in their home country. Let them find the money for airfare to America (which is significantly less than they would have to pay a cartel, so that's good), and let them be matched with a sponsor in America who will see them housed and fitted with a job.

This way, charities and churches and wosbald can absorb about a million refugees each year. Established families can welcome and support their relatives. Legal status for all of them. Minimum suffering, maximum good. The borders can be tightly secured to stop the trafficking of drugs and kids.
User avatar
Wosbald
Sunday School Superintendent
Sunday School Superintendent
Posts: 993
Joined: 15 Nov 2022, 10:50
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 58 times

The Right to Migrate

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+

‘At the Crossroads of Migration’ [Interview]

Image

Image
Bishop Mark J. Seitz walks with a young Honduran migrant at the Lerdo International Bridge in El Paso, June 2019. (CNS photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)

An interview with Bishop Mark J. Seitz.

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Bishop Mark J. Seitz leads the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, on the U.S.–Mexico border. The diocese includes ten counties in far West Texas covering more than 20,000 square miles. Two weeks ago, Bishop Seitz met with President Biden during the president’s trip to El Paso. Commonweal contributor John Gehring recently spoke with the bishop about that meeting and what leaders in Washington who are thousands of miles away from the reality on the border should know about migrants.

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

John Gehring: When President Biden visited El Paso, you had a conversation with him in the presidential limousine. What did you tell him and how did he respond?

Bishop Seitz: El Paso is at the crossroads of migration. For us, it was important for the president to understand that we really can meet the challenges of migration in a way that’s true to our values, and can do it with compassion and dignity. It was a bit heady to be swept away by the Secret Service for a one-on-one talk with the president of the United States — who gets a chance like that? Our conversation was private. But he’s the president and I’m a bishop and when people are in confined spaces with a priest they tend to open up. So you can imagine that naturally we spoke about faith and how he himself understands this unique role he inhabits in this unique moment in history. I hope we can pick up the thread again. I also thought it was important for him to be in touch with the pain here at the border. You can’t make good policy if you don’t know the pain. I gave him a holy card of the Sacred Heart with a message from a little girl in Ciudad Juárez looking for a chance to reunite with family in the United States.

JG: President Biden has said that he doesn’t like Title 42, the controversial Trump-era policy that has led to the expulsion of migrants seeking asylum. In a recent announcement, the Biden administration said it would open more legal pathways to migrants, but at the same time expanded restrictive policies that will mean migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti will face immediate expulsion to Mexico if they cross the border illegally. The UN Refugee Agency said the restrictions are “not in line with refugee law standards.” Is the administration creating more insecurity and fear on the border?

Bishop Seitz: If he doesn’t like Title 42, it’s because he shouldn’t. The expansion of Title 42, put in place by the previous administration on the false pretense that immigrants bring disease, is unjustifiable. It is probably illegal, and I hope the Supreme Court will see it that way. But as a priest, I need to be clear: Title 42 and policies like it are merciless and are literally killing people by driving them to cross the desert and to drown in the river. Children are dying. Death can’t be an acceptable part of the overhead of our immigration policy. Have we become that numb? There are alternatives. But from experience, I can tell you it won’t be solved with policies that deny asylum to more people, or with walls, deportation, detention, or more money for immigration enforcement. Immigration is a long-term challenge that’s only going to be solved with long-term thinking. We need to pivot to a more humanitarian approach that respects the rights and dignity of people who need to migrate. We need to promote sustainable development abroad so people don’t have to migrate. But politicians can have a hard time seeing the big picture. So as a Catholic community, we’re going to need to lead by our example, and our bishops’ conference will keep pushing the president to make the moral case to the rest of the country that all of this is possible, is achievable, and is the right thing to do.

JG: While you were with President Biden at the airport in El Paso, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott handed the president a letter that accused the president of failing to enforce federal immigration laws and said he is promoting “open border policies.” Meanwhile, the governor (who is Catholic) has been sending migrants from Texas to cities led by Democratic mayors. What do you make of the governor’s approach, and have you had a chance to speak with him about the Church’s position on these issues?

Bishop Seitz: I had a chance to greet Gov. Abbott when he came to El Paso. The bishops of Texas have been able to have a dialogue with him about the Gospel for years. I think the governor knows where we stand. I want to believe he’s trying to find his way to the light, too. In my experience, the challenges of immigration and its causes and effects are so tangled that you can only begin to get to solutions when the federal government, the states, and local communities are rowing in the same direction. We all know this is a broken system but local communities, our faith communities, and our Catholic agencies are largely picking up the pieces at the border. So whenever you put politics before collaboration, you aren’t helping the cause. As we say in Texas, that dog won’t hunt.

JG: Politicians in Washington are thousands of miles away from the lived reality you see on the border every day. When you talk to migrant families, what are you hearing from them, and what should political leaders know about their lives?

Bishop Seitz: People seem to think that those who are coming to our border are looking for a better life. That’s true. But what I’ve also found is that a lot of people aren’t just seeking a better life, but to be able to live at all. Especially women. There are too many women who come with physical, psychic, and spiritual wounds; it’s a sad reflection on our lack of respect for women. They’re fleeing desperate situations and looking for a shot to live with a little dignity. They just want to support their families, work, and be part of our communities. Through our Border Refugee Assistance Fund, we’ve been able to help women who’ve been through so much trauma. I can’t tell you how humbling it is to witness their strength in adversity. It’s a sin that Washington can’t secure the protections of vulnerable people at the border, that we can’t pass immigration reform, and, more broadly, that we continue to treat certain groups of people as disposable.

El Paso is a great example of how we have nothing to fear from migrants. If you only listened to politicians in Washington, you wouldn’t know this, but one-quarter of our community was born abroad. We are more than 80 percent Mexican American. People here have been coming and going since before this country existed. And we’re a beautiful, vibrant, and safe community for it. I feel like I’m the bishop of the best diocese in the country. Our parishes are filled with life and song and joy. We’re better off for our diversity. It’s certainly not without challenges, but the work of welcome is really transformative.

[…]

JG: Comprehensive immigration reform that would offer pathways to citizenship for migrants used to have some bipartisan support in Congress. That has not been the case for a while now. What happened and what will it take to revive that kind of legislation?

Bishop Seitz: Fundamentally, we need to stop running scared. There are smart, committed people in Washington, but on the whole, when it comes down to it, half our lawmakers are running scared from migration and the other half are peddling unfounded fears about immigrants. So there’s a lot of fear. On a spiritual level, fear is poison. It makes you want to possess and master and be defensive. That’s what you hear in rhetoric about sealing the border or in language that demonizes refugees. But fear blinds us to the reality that we might be transformed and freed for another sort of future — reconciliation, the Reign of God, a community that makes space for everyone. The Church has to work for immigration reform, but we can’t ignore how dysfunctional and fear driven our politics is right now. Some of that’s cable TV and some of it is gerrymandering and other legal factors. But it’s deeper than that. Never mind welcoming the stranger, we’ve become strangers to one another. That’s an infirmity of the soul.

[…]

JG: Last November, your fellow bishops elected you to become chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee. What are your goals for that role?

Bishop Seitz: Above all, I want to be a servant to my brother bishops in the conference, to read the signs of the times with them, interpret the magisterium of Pope Francis on this issue in our American context, and do my part to help revitalize our witness to the social gospel. I also want to find creative ways to make sure migrants and refugees feel that the Church is with them. Wherever they’re from, whatever their documentation status, whatever their faith commitment might be, they should feel that the Church is on their side and rooting for them. They need to feel God’s mercy in everyday life. We’ve got to be ministers of joy. I want to understand from immigrant leaders how our Church can better stand with them in their work for reform so our advocacy can be grounded. There are so many inspiring immigrant leaders who are showing us the way. Many of them were formed in our parishes and Church halls.

We’ve also got to work to reduce inequality and injustice abroad so people don’t have to migrate. I ministered for a while in Honduras and I learned how important it is to be in touch with the pain in those countries. This is where the Church can play an important role. As a global Church, we can build bridges with faith communities in sending countries to learn from them and better understand how we can stand alongside them in their struggles.

[…]


Image
User avatar
FredS
A Rotten Mexican Woman
A Rotten Mexican Woman
Posts: 1687
Joined: 08 Apr 2022, 06:05
Has thanked: 39 times
Been thanked: 465 times

Faith in the news

Post by FredS »

I'll leave this here without comment. My only wish is that you think about it a minute before dismissing it as liberal trash.

If we ever get to heaven boys, it ain't because we ain't done nothin' wrong. - Kris Kristofferson
User avatar
tuttle
Sunday School Teacher
Sunday School Teacher
Posts: 424
Joined: 08 Apr 2022, 05:21
Location: Middle-west
Has thanked: 213 times
Been thanked: 90 times
Contact:

Faith in the news

Post by tuttle »

FredS wrote: 24 Jan 2023, 06:32 I'll leave this here without comment. My only wish is that you think about it a minute before dismissing it as liberal trash.

I've considered it.

I won't say it's liberal trash, but I will say, after viewing a number of these ads and learning about who is producing them, it's aimed at appeasing trashy liberal ideology.

Now, I'm of the belief that God uses truth and longing, regardless of whatever dirt might be clinging to it, to draw men to Himself, and so I'm not going to say anyone who resonates with the ad is in any sort of danger or is merely having his liberal ideology scratched. But appeasing [fill-in-the-blank-cultural-moment-zeitgeist adherents] in order to re-brand Jesus is an old old ploy and the bulk of fruit it produces always turns out rotten. A Jesus who identifies sinners, but does not call them to faith and repentance... ah, to hell with that.

Image
"tuttle isn't saved" - Legion
Post Reply