Catholic News 2
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The U.S. military is accusing Iran of conducting a missile test in the Strait of Hormuz as warships involved in the fight against the Islamic State group passed by....
WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015."If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, i...
WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).
The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015.
"If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.
Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, including U.S. support for Mexican interdiction efforts which are intercepting children and families in Mexico and sending them back to danger, in violation of international law.
Bishop Seitz recommended an end to these interdictions and the introduction of a regional system which would screen children and families for asylum in Mexico and other parts of the region. He also called for Congress to approve and increase a $1 billion aid package proposed by the Administration.
"If we export enforcement," Bishop Seitz said, "we also must export protection."
Bishop Seitz recalled the words of Pope Francis before Congress in September, when he invoked the golden rule in guiding our nation's actions toward those seeking safety in our land.
Quoting the Holy Father, Bishop Seitz repeated to the committee, "'The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.'"
"Mr. Chairman, I pray that time, and history, will conclude that we honored this rule in meeting this humanitarian challenge," Bishop Seitz concluded.
Bishop Seitz' testimony can be found at http://www.usccb.org//about/migration-policy/congressional-testimony/upload/seitz-ongoing-migration.pdf
Keywords: Bishop Mark J. Seitz, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Congress, Senate, Committee on Migration, migration, unaccompanied children, violence, Pope Francis
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3200
Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec 29, 2015 / 03:55 pm (CNA).- An up-and-coming Catholic musician in Michigan aims to expose listeners to God in the same way she did during her school years – through beauty found in “truly good” forms of art.“My desire with this music and this album is to reach anybody, anywhere and hopefully open their hearts to the reality that transfiguration and transformation is real,” singer/songwriter Alanna-Marie Boudreau told CNA.Growing up, she said that her parents made it a point to expose their children to “the transcendental truth, goodness and beauty” through beautiful literature and art. Since they believed that was not available in the upstate New York schools where they lived, her mother decided to homeschool them.Learning from a Catholic curriculum, Boudreau says excellent books and beautiful music were a regular part of her education.“It was a very natural part of the fabric of our life and it was interwoven wit...
Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec 29, 2015 / 03:55 pm (CNA).- An up-and-coming Catholic musician in Michigan aims to expose listeners to God in the same way she did during her school years – through beauty found in “truly good” forms of art.
“My desire with this music and this album is to reach anybody, anywhere and hopefully open their hearts to the reality that transfiguration and transformation is real,” singer/songwriter Alanna-Marie Boudreau told CNA.
Growing up, she said that her parents made it a point to expose their children to “the transcendental truth, goodness and beauty” through beautiful literature and art. Since they believed that was not available in the upstate New York schools where they lived, her mother decided to homeschool them.
Learning from a Catholic curriculum, Boudreau says excellent books and beautiful music were a regular part of her education.
“It was a very natural part of the fabric of our life and it was interwoven with a really sacramental understanding of life and of family,” she said.
“The faith, it always fit like a hand in the glove with our upbringing and with our education.” That integration of faith, beauty and truth is something the 24-year old woman says she hopes permeates her music, including her recent, full-length album, “Hints and Guesses” – a follow-up to her 2012 EP, “Hands in the Land.”
“And anybody – everybody – is affected by beauty, no matter what their life experience is, where they’re from, or what they’ve done, there’s something about beauty that bypasses those preconceived ideas and it just sets the heart in a very good position to hear God.”
But Boudreau doesn’t label her work as “Christian music” – not because it doesn’t deal with the faith, but because of the inclination of some to automatically be turned off by such a label or assume that it will sound a certain way without listening to it.
“I’m a Catholic woman and that affects the way that I write and the way that I understand the world, but I have noticed there’s a tendency when people hear about a label like ‘Christian’ they misunderstand it, so they feel threatened by it and they close their hearts to it.”
However, when music or other art forms simply expose the listener to beauty instead of assigning labels, that’s when conversion of the heart can begin, she explained.
“God, in His wisdom, he knows that beauty is a way of bypassing the intellect and softening the heart to make it receptive.”
That’s something she hopes “Hints and Guesses” will do – open listeners’ hearts up in a way that allows them to be more receptive to authentic beauty, and in turn, God.
“I hope that the album would act kind of as a question mark for them – that it would bring up certain things or inspire certain movements that would make them examine things a little more deeply – to have a more examined life and to ask those big questions, whether it has to do with relationships, inner healing, if it has to do with seeking God more ardently, or if it has to do with just being more receptive to life in general.”
One of the songs on the album, “The Weight of Glory,” is based on a sermon of the same name by C.S. Lewis and deals with asking questions and developing a thirst for God.
Another track, “Solitudes,” focuses on how human relationships can never fully satisfy us, while at the same time revealing something eternal.
“There will always be a part of us that is incommunicable to another person and that’s what sets us above creation and it’s what makes us like God, in a sense. And yet, there’s that tension: we are made for community,” Boudreau explained.
She encouraged fans to connect with her online, either through her Facebook or YouTube pages, or her website, alannamariemusic.com. Her music is available through iTunes or lovegoodmusic.com.
This article was originally published on CNA Nov. 15, 2014.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Authorities say former "Glee" star Mark Salling has been arrested in Los Angeles for investigation of possessing child pornography....
CLINTON, Iowa (AP) -- Amid new criticisms about his Senate attendance record, Marco Rubio says some of his rival candidates are getting "a little desperate and a little nasty."...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The pilot of a small plane that smashed into a building in downtown Anchorage on Tuesday was not authorized to fly the aircraft used in volunteer search-and-rescue missions, authorities said....
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Despite the grand jury decision not to charge a white patrolman in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the case is far from over for the city of Cleveland, the officers involved in the shooting, or the black boy's grief-stricken family....
WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015."If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, i...
WASHINGTON- The United States has a moral obligation to protect unaccompanied children and families from persecution in Central America, said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, October 21. Bishop Seitz is an advisor to the USCCB Committee on Migration and a member of the board of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).
The humanitarian outflow, driven by organized crime in the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, continues, with nearly 40,000 unaccompanied children and an equal number of mothers with children having arrived in the United States in Fiscal Year 2015.
"If we do not respond justly and humanely to this challenge in our own backyard, then we will relinquish our moral leadership and moral influence globally," Bishop Seitz said.
Bishop Seitz pointed to the human consequences of U.S. policies which are designed to deter migration from the region, including U.S. support for Mexican interdiction efforts which are intercepting children and families in Mexico and sending them back to danger, in violation of international law.
Bishop Seitz recommended an end to these interdictions and the introduction of a regional system which would screen children and families for asylum in Mexico and other parts of the region. He also called for Congress to approve and increase a $1 billion aid package proposed by the Administration.
"If we export enforcement," Bishop Seitz said, "we also must export protection."
Bishop Seitz recalled the words of Pope Francis before Congress in September, when he invoked the golden rule in guiding our nation's actions toward those seeking safety in our land.
Quoting the Holy Father, Bishop Seitz repeated to the committee, "'The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.'"
"Mr. Chairman, I pray that time, and history, will conclude that we honored this rule in meeting this humanitarian challenge," Bishop Seitz concluded.
Bishop Seitz' testimony can be found at http://www.usccb.org//about/migration-policy/congressional-testimony/upload/seitz-ongoing-migration.pdf
Keywords: Bishop Mark J. Seitz, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Congress, Senate, Committee on Migration, migration, unaccompanied children, violence, Pope Francis
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3200
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday erected a new diocese in Bangladesh. The Diocese of Barisal is composed of some territory from the diocese of Chittagong, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Dhaka, Bangladesh.The Holy Father also appointed Bishop Subroto Lawrence Howlander, C.S.C., auxiliary bishop of Chittagong, as the first bishop of the new diocese of Barisal.Comprising an area of 20,708 square kilometres, the new diocese of Barisal has a population of 15,183,927 of whom 29,685 are Catholics. There are 19 priests (of whom 6 are religious) who will serve the diocese along with 29 female religious and 4 lay brothers.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday erected a new diocese in Bangladesh. The Diocese of Barisal is composed of some territory from the diocese of Chittagong, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Holy Father also appointed Bishop Subroto Lawrence Howlander, C.S.C., auxiliary bishop of Chittagong, as the first bishop of the new diocese of Barisal.
Comprising an area of 20,708 square kilometres, the new diocese of Barisal has a population of 15,183,927 of whom 29,685 are Catholics.
There are 19 priests (of whom 6 are religious) who will serve the diocese along with 29 female religious and 4 lay brothers.
(Vatican Radio) A crisis involving 8,000 Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica, has been resolved after Sunday's Angelus appeal from Pope Francis led to a meeting of Central American nations who've reached a humane resolution.Listen to James Blears' report: Many of the Cuban refugees had flown from Havana to Ecuador, continuing on through Colombia and Panama, reaching Costa Rica. But then they were stranded, because officials had stopped issuing transit visas, saying sheer numbers were swamping them, stretching their resources to breaking point.With the crisis worsening, a dose of compassion and humanity blended with common sense was needed to ease a logjam. On Sunday His Holiness Pope Francis appealed to Central American governments to review with generosity all necessary efforts to find a rapid solution to this humanitarian drama.Faith moved as well as traversed mountains. The next act was a meeting in Guatemala City. Foreign Ministers and ...
(Vatican Radio) A crisis involving 8,000 Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica, has been resolved after Sunday's Angelus appeal from Pope Francis led to a meeting of Central American nations who've reached a humane resolution.
Listen to James Blears' report:
Many of the Cuban refugees had flown from Havana to Ecuador, continuing on through Colombia and Panama, reaching Costa Rica. But then they were stranded, because officials had stopped issuing transit visas, saying sheer numbers were swamping them, stretching their resources to breaking point.
With the crisis worsening, a dose of compassion and humanity blended with common sense was needed to ease a logjam.
On Sunday His Holiness Pope Francis appealed to Central American governments to review with generosity all necessary efforts to find a rapid solution to this humanitarian drama.
Faith moved as well as traversed mountains.
The next act was a meeting in Guatemala City. Foreign Ministers and officials from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala itself, and the International Organization for Migration, reached an agreement.
Cuban migrants who legally travelled to Costa Rica, will be flown to El Salvador, bused to Mexico and then on to the United States, who'll accept them.
This will be achieved via "Wet foot, dry foot" arrival policy: Those from Cuba who physically set foot on US territory instead of arriving by sea, can apply for residency.
Wary Costa Rica has stressed this is an exception and won't become the rule.
