Year: 2018

Washington D.C., Aug 7, 2018 / 03:14 am (CNA).- The largest global Christian prison ministry is applauding reports that U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to include sentencing reform measures in a pending prison bill.

“We&rs… […]

Washington D.C., Aug 7, 2018 / 12:20 am (CNA).- Amid a renewed public conversation about what can be done to keep children safe from abuse, studies show that unstable family structure is a major risk factor for abuse.

When looking at overall trends in… […]

Albany, N.Y., Aug 6, 2018 / 04:45 pm (CNA).- The Bishop of Albany said Monday that a commission of lay Catholics should be formed to investigate claims of abuse or misconduct made against bishops.

“What is needed now is an independent commission led by well-respected, faithful lay leaders who are beyond reproach, people whose role on such a panel will not serve to benefit them financially, politically, or personally,” Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany wrote in a statement released Aug. 6.

“I think we have reached a point where bishops alone investigating bishops is not the answer. To have credibility, a panel would have to be separated from any source of power whose trustworthiness might potentially be compromised,” he added.

The statement was Scharfenberger’s second public comment on the scandal in the U.S. Church that began when the Archdiocese of New York announced June 20 that it had concluded an investigation into an allegation that then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused a teenager, finding the claim to be “credible and substantiated.”

Since that time, media reports have detailed additional allegations, charging that McCarrick sexually abused, assaulted, or coerced seminarians and young priests during his time as a bishop. McCarrick’s resignation from the college of cardinals was eventually accepted by Pope Francis.

“Let me be clear in stating my firm conviction that this is, at heart, much more than a crisis of policies and procedures. We can – and I am confident that we will – strengthen the rules and regulations and sanctions against any trying to fly under the radar or to ‘get away with’ such evil and destructive behaviors. But, at its heart, this is much more than a challenge of law enforcement; it is a profoundly spiritual crisis,” the bishop wrote in a July 29 letter to priests and deacons of his diocese.

In his Aug. 6 statement, Scharfenberger wrote that “it is time for us, I believe, to call forth the talents and charisms of our lay faithful, by virtue of their baptismal priesthood. Our lay people are not only willing to take on this much-needed role, but they are eager to help us make lasting reforms that will restore a level of trust that has been shattered yet again. In speaking with them, we all hear their passion for our universal Church, their devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and their hunger for the truth. They are essential to the solution we seek.”

“We bishops want to rise to this challenge, which may well be our last opportunity considering all that has happened. We must get this right. I am confident we can find a way to look outside ourselves, to put this in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and to entrust our very capable lay people, who have stood with us through very difficult times, to help us do the right thing. We need an investigation — the scope of which is not yet defined but must be defined — and it must be timely, transparent and credible.”

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Anchorage, Alaska, Aug 6, 2018 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An Alaskan man is using his Anchorage-based ice cream shop as an extension of the Catholic faith, supporting the local community’s spiritual and economic needs as well as its sweet tooth… […]

Dallas, Texas, Aug 6, 2018 / 04:05 pm (CNA).- Every single mother or father arriving at Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas was able to tell Pio del Castillo exactly how long they had been separated from their child at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“One month and 13 days.”

“One month and 27 days.”

“Two months and 3 days.”

“They were counting the days and hours,” Castillo told CNA, “For me, to be able to cry with them was the most satisfying job that I have ever done.”

Castillo, from Dallas, Texas, is one of many volunteers from Catholic Charities who traveled from all over the country to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid with the surge of families released from detention centers and in need of assistance.

As the U.S. government worked to a tight-deadline in July to reunite the more than 2,000 separated families, Catholic Charities USA put out a call for more staff and volunteers.

Castillo was between jobs in Dallas when he heard his pastor talking about going to the border to help.

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I’m bilingual, trilingual actually, and I am able to help,” Castillo told CNA. He immediately emailed the person in charge of volunteer opportunities at his church, and they put him in touch with Catholic Charities of Dallas.

Not long after, Castillo was working 12-15 hour days at the humanitarian respite center. He conducted intake interviews with the newly released and reunited families as they arrived at the center, where Sister Norma Pimentel and her staff served hot meals and helped connect the migrants with their relatives.

To begin his intake interview, Castillo would say in Spanish, “We are here to help,” but he quickly realized that his small word of kindness would lead many of the migrants to break down crying.

“You don’t know what we have been through. It was horrible not knowing where my kid was,” one parent told Castillo.

Another mother asked him, “Does your organization offer psychological help? My daughter has this separation anxiety and I don’t know how to deal with this.”

“A lot of the kids had this psychological trauma of being separated from their parents,” explained Castillo, who saw the results at firsthand with the newly reunited families who arrived at the center.

Castillo was accompanying a mother and daughter when they passed two immigration officers wearing green uniforms. “As soon as she saw these men dressed in green, she [the daughter]  started shaking and hiding behind her mom … the kid was so nervous that she dropped her coloring book and all of her crayons on the floor.”

“Then something beautiful happened,” said Castillo, “One of the officers helped her so delicately to pick up every single crayon and put it in the box and you could see the kid relaxing a little bit. That was a beautiful moment that I will never forget.”

“I feel that our duty was to help alleviate a little bit of the trauma of these families being separated,” said Castillo.

“Our entire goal at Catholic Charities, throughout this entire border crisis issue, has been families first,” said Carla Goss of Catholic Charities of Dallas, “We need to remember that everyone involved is a human first and foremost.”

Catholic Social Services in Columbus, Ohio, also answered Sister Norma’s call for assistance at the border, sending professional staff members to help coordinate volunteers and the other logistics involved in serving 1,800 families at the respite center.

“We had an opportunity to see in a different way what for most people was just a news story that was far away and on the border,” Catholic Social Services President and CEO Rachel Lustig told CNA.

Lustig had the opportunity to meet with one woman from Honduras who had been recently reunited with her daughter. Most of the migrants her Ohio team served in Texas came from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Speaking to CNA, she recalled one such encounter.

“One woman had left Honduras because of domestic violence in her home and because she couldn’t find a way to get recourse and safety with the local government. She was afraid for her life and the life of her daughter, who is only five years old.”

Over the course of four weeks in a detention center, the mother only had two phone calls with her daughter, who wouldn’t talk to her on the other end of the line. “All she would do was cry. It was heartbreaking for her,” Lustig explained.

Lustig said that the their experiences at the border has inspired her team to put more time and energy into their local Our Lady of Guadalupe Center, which serves the new immigrant population of Columbus.

“We have a very deep sense of connection and solidarity to what was going on at the border,” said Lustig.

Although the majority of separated families were reunited by the July 26 deadline, some 463 families remain apart because the accompanying parent was deported from the U.S.

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