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 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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Norma Montenegro Flynn
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 WASHINGTON-Pope Francis has named Fr. James Powers, 62, as bishop of Superior, Wisconsin; Fr. Powers is a priest of the diocese and serves as diocesan administrator.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, December 15 by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop-elect Powers was born February 6, 1953 in Baldwin, Wisconsin. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Superior on May 20, 1990. He holds a bachelor's in theology and a master's of divinity from St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. He pursued graduate studies in canon law at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Canada.

Assignments after ordination included 1990-1993, associate pastor, St. Joseph Church, Rice Lake, Wisconsin; 1993-1994, parochial administrator of four parishes in Wisconsin: St. John the Baptist Church, Webster; Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church, Scott; and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Danbury. From 1994-1998, he was named pastor of St. Bridget Church in River Falls, Wisconsin; 1995, elected to the diocesan priest personnel board, and reelected in 1999; 1998, adjunct vicar general; 1998-2003, pastor of three parishes: St. Pius X, Solon Falls; St. Mary Church, Minong; and St. Anthony of Padua, Gordon, Wisconsin.

From 2003-2014, he was named administrator of the last three parishes aforementioned, and pastor of St. Joseph Church, Rice Lake, Wisconsin; in 2010, he was appointed vicar general. Since 2014, he has been pastor of St. Joseph Church and three other churches in Wisconsin: Our Lady of Lourdes in Dobie, St. John the Evangelist in Birchwood, and Holy Trinity in Haugen. He has also served as diocesan administrator for the Diocese of Superior since December 2014.
The Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, has been a vacant see since November 2014, when then- Bishop Peter F. Christensen, was named Bishop of Boise City, Idaho.  

The Diocese of Superior covers 15,715 square miles in the state of Wisconsin. It has a total population of 438,107 of which 69,366, or 16 percent, are Catholic.
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Keywords: USCCB, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Peter F. Christensen, Diocese of Superior, Holy See, apostolic nuncio, Bishop-elect James Powers.
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Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3202

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 WASHINGTON-Pope Francis has named Msgr. Gregory Kelly, a priest of the Diocese of Dallas, Texas, as an auxiliary bishop of the diocese. Msgr. Kelly, 59, currently serves as vicar for clergy.  

The appointment was publicized in Washington, December 16, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Gregory Kelly was born February 15, 1956 in Le Mars, Iowa. He attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, before entering the seminary.

Msgr. Kelly pursued seminary studies at Holy Trinity Seminary, Irving, from 1976-1982. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy (1978), and a master's degree in theology (1982) from the University of Dallas.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Dallas on May 5, 1982. Pope Benedict XVI named him monsignor in 2013.

Assignments after ordination included: assistant pastor, All Saints Church, 1982-1986; chaplain, University of Dallas, 1986-1996; pastor, St. Gabriel Church, 1996-2008; vicar for clergy for the diocese, 2008-present. He has also served in the diocese of Dallas as vocation director, member of the presbyteral council, member of the college of consultors, and interim rector at Holy Trinity seminary.  

The Diocese of Dallas comprises 7,523 square miles in the state of Texas. It has a total population of 3,975,996 people of which 1,258,656, or 32 percent, are Catholic. The bishop of Dallas since 2007 is Bishop Kevin Farrell.
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Keywords: USCCB, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Diocese of Dallas, Holy See, apostolic nuncio, Msgr. Gregory Kelly, Bishop Kevin Farrell
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3202

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Washington D.C., Dec 16, 2015 / 05:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Religious leaders responded to global violence and terrorism with solidarity and prayer on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

“We will stand together, strengthened by the faith of each one in this room and the solidarity we share, simply because we know how to answer the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’” stated Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., preaching on the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke at a Dec. 16 interfaith prayer service.

“Let us never forget, we are each other’s neighbor,” he added. 

The “Interfaith Gathering for Solidarity, Understanding, and Peace” took place at Georgetown University on Dec. 16, featuring prayers, readings, and reflections from Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Jewish leaders. 

The purpose of the gathering was to give public witness to values of solidarity and tolerance in the wake of recent global and domestic violence, and subsequent animosity shown towards certain religions. Leaders of different faiths gathered to “realize the shared resources of our traditions,” as Georgetown University’s president John DeGioia stated in his opening remarks.

We must never let violence and terror change how we see innocent persons, Cardinal Wuerl insisted.  

“Much has changed, beginning with the 9/11 attacks and with the terrorism abroad and now here in our land,” he acknowledged, but he added that “the actions of a few must never change all of us.”

Evil thrives when bad actions are met with silence, he explained. “Today we’re addressing the silence. We’re standing together…all saying this is simply not us,” he said. “We will not be changed because of the violence and the hatred of others.”

Vice President Joe Biden was in attendance and addressed the audience just before the service ended. 

Turning to Cardinal Wuerl, he remarked, “You said it best when you said ‘we receive that spiritual power to participate in the transformation of the world, or at least our small part of it, the transformation into something wonderful.’ This service is something wonderful.”

Man, created “in the image of God, in the likeness of God,” possesses “free will” and the ability to “discern,” said Rabbi M. Bruce Lustig, a senior rabbi at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, in a reflection on Genesis 1:26-27.

“Let this gathering be our promise: that we will choose love over hate. Peace over violence. That we will endeavor to live as God’s children bringing compassion and tolerance and building for our children and our children’s children a world better than ours,” he continued.

“May we act as if we were worthy, worthy of being created in God’s image. This is our prayer. This is our hope.”

Man has a two-fold identity, human and religious, said Talib M. Shareef, imam and president of The Nation’s Mosque. He explained how in the Koran, Adam is considered father of the human community and “gives us our human identity,” and Abraham is also called “Father” and “gives us our religious identity.”

“If you come out of these identities and begin to devour each other, call each other names,” he added, “then you begin to lose not just religious identity but human identity,” and this can be considered “inhumane.”

In his concluding prayer, Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, asked for sacrificial love and for an “uprooting” of all “indifference, suspicion, cowardice, and hypocrisy.”

“Enable us to love others with a sacrificial and self-emptying love that we see in your servant Jesus Christ, who comes to us in extreme humility,” he prayed. 

“All-compassionate Lord, establish in us Your Love, that we may truly love not only our brothers, sisters and friends, but our enemies as well, and do good to those who hate us.”
 

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Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec 16, 2015 / 05:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- North Korea has sentenced Hyeon Soo Lim, a Christian pastor and a Canadian citizen, to life in prison with hard labor, claiming he has committed crimes against the state.

Canada’s foreign ministry said it was “dismayed at the unduly harsh sentence,” citing Lim's age and health, the BBC reports.

Lim, who is 60 years old, was in North Korea for humanitarian work in January. He was arrested in Pyongyang in February.

The pastor is of South Korean origin and lives in Toronto, where he heads the Light Korean Presbyterian Church. His family said he had traveled to the isolated country to support a nursing home, a nursery, and an orphanage, and that his trips were not political.

He was sentenced after a 90 minute trial.

North Korean officials charged that the pastor had joined the U.S. and South Korea in a human rights “racket” against the country. They claim he fabricated and circulated false propaganda materials that tarnished North Korea’s image.

Lim was shown at a press conference confessing a plot to overthrow the government and set up a “religious state.” He said that his humanitarian work was a guise for “subversive plots and activities in a sinister bid to build a religious state.”

He allegedly admitted to giving lectures that North Korea “should be collapsed with the love of God."

Religious activity is banned in the country and foreigners are sometimes detained and undergo staged public confessions.

The pastor was also accused of funding and aiding defectors' escape through Mongolia.

Lim has made many humanitarian visits to North Korea for two decades.

Other Christians detained in North Korea include Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who was imprisoned for two years on charges of trying to overthrow the government. He was released in November 2014.

John Short, an Australian missionary in his mid-70s, was held for a month and deported after a February 2014 arrest on charges he distributed missionary pamphlets, Canada’s CBC News reports.

In 2014, an American Baptist named Jeffrey E. Fowle was detained for six months for an anti-state crime: leaving a Bible in a public washroom.

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By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even though he wasn't on the program, Vice President Joe Biden stole the show at a Georgetown University program promoting peace in wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Laila Brothers, a Georgetown freshman, had just given a moving reflection about being Muslim and her hijab-wearing mother feeling as if she had "a target on her back" in the month following the terror attacks.

Brothers talked about how Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump had suggested that Muslims wear a badge to identify them to others. She added how she wanted to spare her mother the stress that comes with wearing the hijab. Her mother's response: "If they're talking about Muslims wearing a badge, I already have a badge. My hijab is my badge."

While Brothers got applause after her remarks, Biden walked up onto the stage and greeted some of the other participants at the Dec. 16 forum, billed as "Interfaith Gathering for Solidarity, Understanding and Peace," but gave Brothers a warm embrace.

Stepping to the microphone, he said, "My name's Joe Biden, and I align myself with the words of this courageous young woman."

Then, using only index cards as reference points, he spoke for nearly as long as the other speakers combined. Among those speakers was Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, who was quoted by Biden at one point during his remarks.

The immigrants who came "in waves" to the United States, Biden said, told themselves, "We don't know the language. We're not sure if they want us, but let's go."

Those immigrants, Biden added, had "the greatest fortitude, the greatest courage, the greatest sense of optimism."

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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