Catholic Relief Services caring for victims of Haiti earthquake

Washington D.C., Apr 3, 2019 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- While the United States threatens to cut funding to Central America in response to immigration issues, critics say the cutbacks will only aggravate concerns about immigration and illegal border crossings.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that roughly $500 million will be cut from aid going to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

The plan has received pushback from social service organizations, including Catholic Relief Services.

Sean Callahan, president and CEO of CRS, decried the decision in a statement on April 2.

“We oppose the administration’s decision to cancel foreign assistance for the Northern Triangle of Central America. With bipartisan support, targeted U.S. assistance has improved prosperity for the poor and vulnerable in Central America,” the statement said.

In a press release on Tuesday, Department of State spokesman Robert Palladino clarified that the budget cuts would impact money allocated for in 2017 and 2018 but not yet distributed.

He said it is Trump’s obligation to ensure secure U.S. borders of the United States, and that foreign aid programs have failed to deter immigration or asylum claims.  

“The President’s direction to end foreign assistance programs impacts approximately $450 million in Fiscal Year 2018 allocations. And the State Department along with the United States Agency for International Development currently are evaluating the impact on Fiscal Year 2017 funds.”

“These programs have not effectively prevented illegal immigration from coming to the United States, and they’ve not achieved the desired results,” he added.  

Catholic Relief Services, which expects to lose $38 million in program funding, said immigration will increase if funding is cut to the Northern Triangle of Central America.

“Such programs, implemented by agencies like CRS, have reduced poverty and food insecurity and helped address the underlying causes of violence and migration. Redirecting these funds will undermine long-term U.S. policy goals, lay waste to key progress gained, and exacerbate migration to our border,” CRS said.

Rick Jones, a policy adviser for CRS in El Salvador, told the Associated Press that the lack of funding would harm mental health and crime prevention programs.

The budget cut “will be sending the message, ‘Help is not on the way … and you’re going to be left on your own,’” Jones told the AP.

“And basically people left on their own are going to be more desperate and more people are going to leave,” he said.

Vicki Gass, Oxfam America senior policy adviser for Central America and Mexico, told reporters that the cutbacks would “foster the same instability that is making people flee in the first place,”

Dozens of other charity aid programs and political projects will also be impacted.

Foreign aid in Central America aims to fund violence prevention, economic growth, social development, human rights and good governance, and borders and drug control. In 2017 and 2018, Guatemala received the most funding, followed by Honduras, and then El Salvador.

“Our brothers and sisters in Central America are vulnerable to food insecurity, violence and unemployment. We must continue to work together to ensure all families and communities can reach their fullest potential,” said Callahan.

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Universidad Católica Inmaculada Concepción of the Archdiocese of Managua (UCICAM). / Credit: UCICAM official website

ACI Prensa Staff, May 18, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).
The Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior (Migob) announced in official media th… […]

A prolife memorial at St. Joseph’s church in Port Moody, Canada, that was vandalized June 13, 2021. Credit: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Vancouver, Canada, Jun 16, 2021 / 18:29 pm (CNA).

Two parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver were vandalized last weekend.

The incidents come shortly after the discovery of the remains of 215 indigenous children in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

At St. Augustine’s parish in Vancouver on June 12, vandals wrote ‘release the records’ and ‘killers’ on the front door of the church.

A parishioner at St. Augustine’s told Global News in an interview that the incident was sad. “We had nothing to do with what happened with those poor kids,” the parishioner said. 

St. Joseph’s Church in Port Moody, about 10 miles east of Vancouver, was also found vandalized the morning of June 13. A pro-life memorial gravestone was knocked to the ground, while the stone on which it was standing has been broken.

Fr. Mark McGuckin, pastor of St. Joseph’s, told CNA around the same time the memorial was knocked over, new building developments next to the parish had been burning down in what likely was an incident of arson. 

McGuckin considered himself and his church community “very fortunate and blessed” because of the damp weather conditions. “The fire was so hot that flying embers landed on our church roof,” he told CNA, “and had it been three weeks of real dry season that could have really caught on fire.”

“I think it’s unrelated,” Fr. McGuckin said, doubting the connection between the vandalism at St. Augustine’s and the vandalism at his church. “We would have had clearer messaging around the residential school if that was someone who wanted to express themselves that way.”

The pro-life gravestone has been temporarily fixed but lays at a 45 degree angle, while it awaits full refurbishment.

Fr. McGuckin told CNA that over the weekend, there had been peaceful protests at Catholic churches in the area.

On the weekend of May 22, the remains of 215 indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The discovery was made with ground-penetrating radar. It is unclear how the children died.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kamloops was vandalized following the discovery. Graffiti reading ‘banished’, ‘evicted’, and ‘crime scene’ was found spray painted on the walls of St. Joseph’s May 31. An ‘X’ was on the front doors.

The chief of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc, or Kamloops Indian Band, has condemned the vandalism of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kamloops shortly after the discovery of indigenous children’s graves at a nearby Church-run residential school.

“We are deeply disturbed to learn that the Saint Joseph’s church was vandalized. The church was built from the ground up by Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc members. We understand the many emotions connected to a Roman Catholic run residential school. At the same time, we respect the choices that Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc ancestors made, over a 100 years ago, to erect this church,” read a May 31 statement from Rosanne Casimir, the band’s chief.

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