Catholic News 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Arizona Cardinals will enjoy their new hats and T-shirts for a night. Then they'll focus on bigger goals....
PARIS (AP) -- A retired French police officer traveling on Air France was detained after a fake bomb hidden in a lavatory forced his Paris-bound flight to make an emergency landing in Kenya, according to prosecutors....
 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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(Vatican Radio) The European Union is expected to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months over its role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. Monday's likely adoption of the punitive measures follows recommendations by EU ambassadors on the sidelines of an EU summit and comes despite fresh tensions among member states over a natural gas project with Russia. Listen to Stefan Bos' report: EU ambassadors said that sanctions against Russia should stay in place until July 31, 2016. The measures target Russia's financial, oil, and military sectors and specific individuals linked to Ukraine's conflict that has killed some 8,000 people.The sanctions were expected to be approved by the EU during a final, formal ratification process on Monday. They were first imposed in July and September 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Moscow’s supp...
(Vatican Radio) The European Union is expected to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months over its role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. Monday's likely adoption of the punitive measures follows recommendations by EU ambassadors on the sidelines of an EU summit and comes despite fresh tensions among member states over a natural gas project with Russia.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
EU ambassadors said that sanctions against Russia should stay in place until July 31, 2016. The measures target Russia's financial, oil, and military sectors and specific individuals linked to Ukraine's conflict that has killed some 8,000 people.
The sanctions were expected to be approved by the EU during a final, formal ratification process on Monday. They were first imposed in July and September 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and Moscow’s support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Without an extension, the existing sanctions would expire on January 31. Yet the measures come amid tensions within the EU over ongoing preparations for a natural-gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany, a major trade partner of Russia.
European Council President Donald Tusk says the proposed Nord Stream-2 pipeline extension does not meet EU energy rules on supply diversification and would undermine Ukraine's role as a natural gas transit state. "The Commission has said if Nord Stream-2 were to be constructed it would increase Europe's dependence on one supplier and concentrate 80 percent of Russian gas imports on one route," he told reporters.
Dominant Market Share
"It would also to lead to a dominant position of [Russia's energy giant] Gazprom on the German market by increasing its share to over 60 percent," Tusk said.
The project is also opposed by several Central and Eastern European EU members as well as the United States, who see it as a Russian strategy to bypass Ukraine, which already faces economic difficulties.
Yet there has been some good news for Ukraine this festive season: Speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU should offer visa-free short-stay travel within the Union's passport free Schengen zone for citizens of Ukraine.
"The European Union and Ukraine have a shared interest in visa liberalisation: making it easier for our citizens to travel to each other's countries," he said. "If Ukraine stands by the commitments made, the Commission will do exactly the same."
Juncker stressed that he was "glad to say that Ukraine has made tremendous progress...For instance, in the fight against corruption an important step was taken with the appointment a few weeks ago of a specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor."
Swimming in right direction
That is why, he said, "we are swimming, moving in the right direction" of visa-free travel.
He wants similar deals with Georgia and Kosovo who are also locked in bitter disputes with Russia.
If approved by member states and the European Parliament, Ukrainian and other citizens could travel to the EU without visas as soon as 2016.
But the EU's measures are unlikely to quickly end what seems a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine: In recent days separatists even placed a statue there to Soviet-era dictator Josef Stalin in the Luhansk region.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The humming is constant; a low-pitched drone from 155 miles of conveyer belts racing packages in every direction. Boxes shift from one belt to another and bump into a metal wall. Thud. Thud. Thud. In the background, trucks beep and jet engines roar....
BOSTON (AP) -- A warm start to winter has New Englanders feeling wary as Tuesday's winter solstice approaches. And who can blame them?...
SHENZHEN, China (AP) -- Rescuers were searching Monday for at least 91 missing people a day after a mountain of excavated soil and construction waste buried dozens of buildings when it swept through an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gone are the Bojangles fried chicken and biscuits. When supporters offer Tex-Mex, she takes a salad. And forget about cake (most of the time)....
ZURICH (AP) -- Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were each banned for eight years by the FIFA ethics committee on Monday in a stunning takedown of world soccer's most powerful leaders....
MADRID (AP) -- Spanish political parties face what are likely to be tough negotiations to form a government after the country voted in a fragmented Parliament that bade farewell to the dominating two-party scene of recent decades....
