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:
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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, i...
Vatican City, Dec 11, 2015 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Attention to the poor was one of the greatest of the bishops' contributions during the Second Vatican Council – and is a legacy Pope Francis carries forward with impressive force, according to some. “A true legacy of the Second Vatican Council is being fulfilled in the person and pontificate of Pope Francis,” Father Paulo Anto Pulikkan told CNA Dec. 11. As someone who routinely calls for justice and care for those who are poor and marginalized, the Pope and his plea for “a poor Church for the poor” is a concrete fulfillment of what the bishops of the Second Vatican Council asked for, Fr. Pulikkan said. The underprivileged “was the theme of the council, but this has been recently very clearly stressed by Francis.” Fr. Pulikkan, director of the Chair for Christian studies at the University of Calicut in the Indian state of Kerala, was one of the speakers at a Dec. 9-11 confer...
Vatican City, Dec 11, 2015 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Attention to the poor was one of the greatest of the bishops' contributions during the Second Vatican Council – and is a legacy Pope Francis carries forward with impressive force, according to some.
“A true legacy of the Second Vatican Council is being fulfilled in the person and pontificate of Pope Francis,” Father Paulo Anto Pulikkan told CNA Dec. 11.
As someone who routinely calls for justice and care for those who are poor and marginalized, the Pope and his plea for “a poor Church for the poor” is a concrete fulfillment of what the bishops of the Second Vatican Council asked for, Fr. Pulikkan said.
The underprivileged “was the theme of the council, but this has been recently very clearly stressed by Francis.”
Fr. Pulikkan, director of the Chair for Christian studies at the University of Calicut in the Indian state of Kerala, was one of the speakers at a Dec. 9-11 conference in Rome on the protagonists of the Second Vatican Council as seen through the archives.
The conference was organized by the Pontifical Committee for Historic Sciences as well as the Pontifical Lateran University's Center for Research and Studies on the Second Vatican Council.
In his speech, titled “English speaking bishops on the Church in the modern world,” Fr. Pulikkan noted how the English-speaking council fathers, particularly those from Asia and the developing world, pushed for a greater inclusion of the poor in the council's final documents.
The council, he told CNA, “is the council for the poor,” which can be particularly seen in the pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes,” dedicated to the Church in the Modern World.
In the initial draft, “the concern for the poor was neglected,” he said noting that the same held true for the council's fourth session in 1965.
Despite the fact that the session took place right after the 1964 Eucharistic Congress in Bombay, which focused heavily on solidarity with the poor and was attended by many of the councils protagonists, concern for the poor was “totally neglected.”
“The situation of the farmers, the question of poverty, the question of our population, all these were neglected or not discussed at all properly in the draft,” he said, noting that the duty of rich nations to share and allow people to migrate with equal opportunity were rarely spoken about.
Fr. Pulikkan stressed that the poor “should be able to migrate, the agricultural farmers should be given opportunity to develop agriculture because normally it is a very disorganized profession,” and also pointed to other key themes such as fighting against racism and in favor of human dignity.
“These were the concerns of the Indian English speaking Bishops. Not only them, but all the English speaking Bishops from the English speaking world in the Council,” he said.
It was after hearing these voices that the draft Gadium et Spes was reworked to include the concerns of the poor, making for “a much more satisfactory” text in the council.
Pope Francis’ desire for a Church in the midst of her people is firm continuation of this legacy, he said, explaining that the Pope’s concern isn’t just limited to the Church, but extends to the entire world.
Other than his constant pleas in favor of the poor, another concrete sign of this is the concern he expressed for creation in his environmental encyclical “Laudato Si,” as well as his focus on inter-religious dialogue.
However, while much has already been done in this area, particularly under Pope Francis, Fr. Pulikkan said that there’s still a long way to go.
He emphasized that the Church “should not run away” from problems surrounding the poor and impoverished nations, but must instead “identify with the joys, hope, anguish and concerns of the people,” which is what Gaudium et Spes and the Second Vatican Council are all about.
“I think today it’s our duty to go forward and as Gaudium et Spes number 4 says ‘we have to scrutinize, we have to discern the signs of the times and interpret them like the Gospel.’”
Pope Francis, he said, “is doing simply that. He understands today’s situations and interprets them in light of the Gospel.”
Dublin, Ireland, Dec 11, 2015 / 04:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A measure passed by the Irish legislature in the name of equality actually threatens the ability of religious institutions to function and maintain their identity, critics say. Last week, the Irish Senate voted unanimously to repeal Section 37 of the state’s Employment Equality Act. Section 37 clarifies that it is not discrimination when religious organizations make employee decisions “to maintain the religious ethos of the institution” – for example, regarding hiring or employee behavior. Ireland’s lower house has also passed the measure to repeal Section 37, and President Michael D. Higgins is expected to sign the amended equality law soon. If he does so, religious, educational and medical institutions will be subject to greater challenges on the grounds of discrimination. The amended law would no longer offer protection to religious school and entities who make hiri...
Dublin, Ireland, Dec 11, 2015 / 04:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A measure passed by the Irish legislature in the name of equality actually threatens the ability of religious institutions to function and maintain their identity, critics say. Last week, the Irish Senate voted unanimously to repeal Section 37 of the state’s Employment Equality Act. Section 37 clarifies that it is not discrimination when religious organizations make employee decisions “to maintain the religious ethos of the institution” – for example, regarding hiring or employee behavior. Ireland’s lower house has also passed the measure to repeal Section 37, and President Michael D. Higgins is expected to sign the amended equality law soon. If he does so, religious, educational and medical institutions will be subject to greater challenges on the grounds of discrimination. The amended law would no longer offer protection to religious school and entities who make hiring decisions and maintain employee behavior requirements in alignment with their religious identity. As a result, homosexual teachers and other professionals may be able to discuss their sexuality in the classroom or workplace – even if they work for a religious organization. Ireland is predominantly Catholic, with 90 percent of state schools run by the Catholic Church. Many hospitals also have religious affiliations. “The amended law is problematic and undermines what the Irish Supreme Court affirmed in 1996,” Alliance Defending Freedom international legal counsel Lorcán Price told CNA. Price said that the court held that religious institutions were permitted “to form, maintain and protect their common religious ethos. This safeguard is no longer in place.” “Under the amended law, it will be harder for religious institutions to protect their religious ethos against employees who undermine that ethos – in particular, where employees identify as LGBT. It will also be more difficult to defend legal cases in which they are accused of ‘discrimination’ for disciplinary action,” Price added. The Department of Justice and Equality spearheaded efforts to amend the Employment Equality Act. The department was also responsible for laying out changes to be made upon the legalization of same-sex marriage, which occurred by popular vote earlier this year. An official from the Department of Justice and Equality maintained that “(t)he amendment is important because it protects LGBTI teachers in state-funded schools and staff in other similarly-funded religiously-run institutions from arbitrary discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.” “The amendment will end the chilling effect the current law has on such LGBTI employees and does not in any way reduce the protections available to any other group in society or interfere with freedom of religion,” the official told CNA. But Price argues that the law will be misused and will only undermine religious organizations’ mission. “For example, under the new amendment, a teacher at a Christian school can now openly talk about his homosexual relationship even though this is contrary to the school’s ethos. The question now arises, ‘Is the school able to take disciplinary action against the teacher’s behavior without being liable for unlawful discrimination?’” said Price. “It is safe to assume that many schools will ignore employee breaches of conduct to avoid being sued for discrimination. This significantly undermines the ability of religious institutions to practice their ethos.” In the past year, Ireland has introduced a number of other sexual orientation and identity policies. In September, the Gender Recognition Bill was passed to give transgender persons legal recognition without seeing a doctor or receiving medical treatment. Same-sex couples are also able to adopt children because of a bill passed in April. “This latest policy is part of a concerted effort by the left-wing Labour Party in the Irish coalition government to undermine Catholic schools,” said Price. “This new law will have a chilling effect on all religious institutions.”
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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, 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
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3200
