Year: 2020

CNA Staff, Sep 16, 2020 / 03:00 am (CNA).- A Vatican representative has said that the inclusion of a reference to “reproductive rights” in a United Nations resolution on combating the coronavirus is “deeply concerning and divisive.&rd… […]

Denver Newsroom, Sep 16, 2020 / 12:52 am (CNA).- A new podcast launched this month out of The Catholic University of America seeks to help laity and clergy better understand and address the problem of abuse within the Church.

The podcast, “Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church,” is produced by The Catholic Project, an initiative at CUA aimed at bringing healing and reform to the Church after the sex abuse crisis.

The first of 10 episodes was released September 9. Future episodes will be released weekly.

The podcast is hosted by Karna Lozoya, executive director of strategic communications at CUA, and Stephen White, the director of the Catholic Project. The hosts described the effort as a collaboration between clergy and laity to build up and renew the Church.

“The goal of the podcast is to help Catholics get their heads around what has happened in the Church in the last few years, how we got to this point, and hopefully where we might go from here,” White told CNA.

“The scourge of sexual abuse has afflicted the Catholic Church in a particular way, but it is a society-wide problem,” he said.

“Hopefully, the Church can learn from our many, many failures, but also from a few things we have gotten right. And hopefully other organizations can, too. If others can learn from the Church’s mistakes, that would be a great thing.”

The podcast was created in response to the anger and betrayal felt by many Catholics, as well as the division in the Church, especially after former nuncio Archbishop Carlo Viganò wrote an open letter accusing Church officials of complicity and cover-up in regards to McCarrick. White expressed hope that the podcast would offer a sober insight into the scandal.

“Catholics had a lot of questions and not too many answers. We thought that a sober, even-handed, but unvarnished look at what was going on might help people make sense of it all. And understanding what was going on in the Church and why is a necessary step in figuring out what the Church ought to do next,” he said.

The first episode covers the scandals of 2018, including discussion of the abuse of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, and Archbishop Vigano’s open letter. It also discusses the response by bishops in both the U.S. and Rome.

In subsequent episodes, White said, the podcast will dive into the scandals of 2002 and go back even farther to some of the earliest warnings the bishops received about clergy sexual abuse in the 1950s.

One episode discusses the case of Father Gilbert Gauthe, the first priest to face a publicized criminal trial for sexual abuse of minors. The hosts talk to Jason Berry, who pioneered investigative reporting into the clergy sex abuse, and Ray Mouton, the lawyer who defended Gauthe.

White said the podcast will not focus solely on stories of abuse, but seeks to offer a broader perspective.

“We explore the causes of the crisis and the stories of how victims are learning to live after abuse. We talk to bishops and priests about how the crisis has changed the way they see their ministries and affected their relationships,” he said. “We look at how the crisis has changed the way we think about the mission of the laity. We look closely at what the Church is doing to protect children now, and how the Church handles allegations against priests and bishops.”

The podcast will address cases of high-profile predatory priests. Lozoya said discussing these specific cases will help listeners understand the broad picture of the abuse crisis and the steps that need to be taken to address the problem.

“I think before the laity can respond adequately to the sex abuse crisis, we really have to understand it. So that’s what this podcast is. It’s a 10-part audio documentary on the sex abuse crisis, to help the laity understand the sex abuse crisis in an honest and transparent way,” she told CNA.

“We’re not here to vilify anyone…or to make the bishops or the institutional Church our enemy,” she said. “We say some tough things, and from the early feedback that I’ve gotten, mostly from people close to me, it’s been very helpful.”

“One of our inspirations for the podcast was [the Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium], where it talks about how the clergy and the laity are co-responsible in the mission of the church,” Lozoya said. “We really feel like the bishops can’t, nor should the bishops try, to solve this problem on their own. We have to be involved.”

White also stressed the importance of both clergy and laity addressing this issue. He said it is necessary for the entire body of the Church to take the problem seriously in order to prevent further abuse and restore trust in the Catholic Church.

“This crisis puts souls in peril by separating people from the Church and destroying the trust of the faithful. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a Church that has earned a reputation for lying, is not a Church that can credibly proclaim the Good News,” he said.

“As I mentioned before, the scourge of sexual abuse has afflicted the Catholic Church in a particular way, but it is a society-wide problem. Hopefully, we can learn from our many, many failures, but also from a few things we have gotten right. And hopefully, other groups and organizations outside the Church can, too.”

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Sep 15, 2020 / 05:11 pm (CNA).- “Level one, which is get ready. Level two, get set. And level three – go, get out of there,” Bishop Peter Smith, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, told CNA.

The people of Oregon and California are now all too familiar with those warning levels, as wildfires in both states continue to rage, burning millions of acres and killing at least 36 people, with dozens more missing.

Smith said while he was not yet aware of a Catholic church that had burned to the ground, there were several that reached level three evacuations, leaving some pastors hop-scotching to avoid the next blaze.

“We’ve had cases where pastors have had to pack what they immediately need and then take the Blessed Sacrament and the sacred vessels with them and leave, and move to another location,” Smith said. “I believe we have one pastor that is now in the process of a second move from one location to another, and then from that location to another location, in southern Oregon.

The blazes choked the air with so much ash and smoke that the skies turned orange, and the clouds of smoke were visible on satellite images.

“It’s just weird. Occasionally in winter, you’ll have days with this cool thick fog that comes on the city, and you get used to driving in fog,” Smith said. “But this isn’t fog, it’s smoke.”

Catholics in both Oregon and California are facing the loss of homes, property, and possibly loved ones to the fires, Smith said, while Church-sponsored charities gear up to assist both with immediate needs and in the long-haul recovery to come.

“I do know that there’s been some wonderful charity in some of our parishes where they’re organizing to take people in, to care for people, to provide a place for them to evacuate,” Smith said.

“As always in a major tragedy or crisis like this, you sometimes see the worst in people (like looters), and then you see the best in people,” Smith said. “Suddenly the neighbor who you just sort of said hi to you, now you’re trying to help them in a way that you wouldn’t have done before. These things bring out a lot of the inherent goodness in people to help support one another in moments of crisis.” Deacon Rick Birkel, executive director of Catholic Charities of Oregon, told CNA that it was too soon to know the full extent of the damage of the fires, as some of the worst-hit areas were still inaccessible by government agencies.

“In some of the worst impacted communities we haven’t even been able to get in,” he said. “The National Guard, Red Cross, no one has been able to even get into those locations yet, it’s still too hot.” “There is this grave concern that we’re going to find mass casualties and we’re preparing for that possibility,” he added.
Birkel said as with most crises, the wildfires were going to have the worst impact on the poor and the vulnerable.

“The people who are being impacted by the fires are very diverse, of course, but you still have the farm workers out working in this weather…they’re some of the most vulnerable people not able to shelter, they’re out working,” he said. Prior to the fires, Catholic Charities had been working on the streets to serve the homeless, “which now is just so much harder, but also so much more urgent because all these people sleeping outside are already vulnerable and now…the only way they’re going to get off the street is through the emergency room,” Birkel said. Catholic Charities has been partnering with agencies such as the Red Cross as well as local parishes to provide food and shelter during the fires, Birkel said. In both the short and long term, one of the biggest needs is going to be housing, he added, and so they are raising funds for a privately-funded emergency shelter as well as for longer-term housing solutions. “Housing is the critical, fundamental intervention that people need when things get really bad, whether it’s COVID or fires or whatever,” he said.

Catholic Charities USA also has a wildfire relief fund accessible online, while the Knights of Columbus in Oregon are also taking donations for relief, The Catholic Sentinel, a local publication, reported. In California, where wildfires have been burning since August, relief efforts are still “just barely scratching the surface” as more needs arise and the level of damage is assessed, Ashlee Wolf, development director for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fresno, told CNA. Through partnerships with The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities has helped with both food and clothing distributions for these fires, Wolf said, though one of their current needs is for more volunteers to help organize the donations.
In an email to the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities of Fresno, shared with CNA, Wolfe noted multiple ways the charity has already responded to the immediate needs of those affected by the fires, including a call they received about the La Quinta Inn in nearby Clovis, which has become a shelter for numerous survivors and firefighters. “After speaking with the hotel manager, we learned that the hotel was housing 23 families displaced by the fires, as well as 20 firefighters who are staying there in between shifts. Many of the families were brought there by (a local) bus and had no transportation to be able to get to any of the other resource centers with access to food. Each room had a refrigerator and microwave, so Jeff and I called one of our most reliable food vendors, purchased two car loads full of microwavable and non-perishable food, and personally delivered it to the hotel for those evacuees and firefighters staying there,” Wolf shared in the email.

Judy Dietlein, President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Sacramento council, told CNA that while she has experience working in wildfire disaster relief, this year has been a “unique disaster” in that the fires are so spread out, making relief difficult to centralize.

“In the (2018) Camp Fire, there was a disaster recovery center in Chico. Everybody went there and found out what they needed to do and FEMA was there and we were there. And it’s not the case now. There are these little offices here and there,” she said.
“These are so spread out that it’s really hard to find the people to get them the help that they need. They are being evacuated to hotels versus shelters, as they would be in the past,” she added. Dietlein said the council is “doing what they can” right now, including handing out gift cards, helping with resource referrals, and taking down contact information of the displaced. She said while St. Vincent de Paul isn’t necessarily equipped to be a first responder agency, they are gearing up to help people in the long-term, in the months and years after the fires when they are trying to rebuild their lives. Something the case workers of St. Vincent de Paul have learned from working with previous wildfire survivors is that they need a way to keep all of their paperwork organized, Deitlein said, and so they have been handing out binders to the survivors. “(Wildfire survivors) talk to so many people. They get names of people, they get forms to fill out from insurance…so they’re handing out these binders so they can put all of their important papers in one place. And that came out of experience from the Camp Fire,” she said.

When asked how Catholics can help, Dietlein said that prayers are always welcome. She said when it comes to donations, money is usually the best, because it can be difficult to organize donations of physical items like food and clothing. Bishop Smith asked Catholics to specifically pray that the weather would change in Oregon to be more favorable for the firefighters. The area was expecting rain Sept. 15, but then that got pushed back a few days. “Pray for the weather to change. Oregonians complain about the rain, but we could do with a bunch of it right now. And pray for the winds to die down to help the firefighters,” he said. “And pray for people affected by the fires, for their wellbeing and consolation. And then there are also other ways that you can support folks financially or with other resources…we will need to get a better sense of what the needs are and what people have lost through all this to help them move forward,” he said. He also encouraged Catholics not to despair, even though things may seem heavy right now. “We’ll get through this,” he said. “The Church has been through a whole lot worse than this, but the thing is when you’re in the middle of the storm, most of the time, all you comprehend is the storm. And when you’re in that storm, it’s like, when will this ever end? Because all your energy is focused on getting out of the storm and getting through the storm alive.” 

“You lose sense that it was calm before the storm, and there’ll be calm afterwards and life will go on. There is a bigger picture, but we have to get through the storm first, and help people get through the storm and serve them as best we can.”

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Sep 15, 2020 / 04:54 pm (CNA).- Catholic aid groups are expressing disappointment at a recent court decision that furthers the end of temporary protected status for immigrants from certain countries, saying that ending TPS will likely lead to the separation of thousands of families.

The 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruled Sept. 14 that the Trump administration can end the TPS program, which affects several hundred thousand immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, many of whom have children who are American citizens.

TPS is an immigration benefit that allows persons who are unable to return safely to their home countries because of armed conflict, other violence, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to remain in the United States while the situation in their home country resolves. It protects them from deportation and grants them permission to work.

“We urge the administration and Congress to find solutions that help families affected by TPS to remain together in the United States,” Catholic Charities USA said in a Sept. 15 statement.

“More than 270,000 U.S citizens have parents with TPS. If appeals are not granted, this decision will likely lead to more family separations within our borders.”

Since Congress established temporary protected status in 1990, U.S. immigrants with the designation from countries suffering natural disasters, armed conflict, or other major problems are not deported. There are about 200,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Haitians, 2,500 Nicaraguans and 1,000 Sudanese in the United States who have temporary protected status.

The Trump administration had terminated the TPS designations of El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan in 2017 and 2018. The administration said the residents from the four countries no longer merited TPS, arguing that natural disasters from years previously should not continue to justify irregular residency.

At the time, U.S. bishops from California and Texas spoke out about the DHS decision. Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, called the decision “heartbreaking.” Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles called for a permanent path to residency and citizenship for the affected families.

The Haitian population with protected status arrived in the U.S. after a 2010 earthquake killed 200,000 and displaced 1 million people. In addition, the landfall of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 destroyed much of the island’s infrastructure.

Beth Caroll, Head of Programs for Catholic Relief Services in Haiti, told CNA that conditions in Haiti remain dire, and the country’s problems would be greatly compounded if 50,000 people return there from the US.

Hurricane Laura, which passed over Haiti as a tropical storm in late August, caused extensive damage and loss of life on the island, and recovery efforts are still underway.

Compounding Haiti’s already poor economy, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a major economic hit to the country.

Catholic leaders in Haiti have been warning that the combination of economic woes, the pandemic, and natural disasters make this a “terrible time” to be considering an influx of 50,000 Haitians back to the island, Carroll said, especially since so many of those immigrants now consider the United States their home.

Another effect of so many Haitians leaving the US would be a loss of remittances from the US to families in Haiti, which by some estimates makes up nearly 34% of Haiti’s income, one of the highest percentages in the world.

A large influx of returning Haitians would likely frustrate the country’s efforts to manage the coronavirus pandemic, Carroll said. In addition, many of those returning would likely have difficulty finding work.

Nobody wants to leave their family or home, Carroll noted, and the Haitians who left the island in 2010 left out of necessity, because of root causes— in this case the earthquake— in Haiti.

Carroll said CRS remains committed to addressing those root causes in Haiti through humanitarian aid, with the goal of keeping Haitians from having to leave their home again.

The rejection of TPS for Haitians was “a sad decision,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told CNA in November 2017. Haitians “cannot go back to a situation that still is very difficult,” said Tomasi, who has served as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva and as a counselor for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

In April 2018 a group of Salvadoran bishops and other Church officials visited the U.S. and asked the Trump administration to reconsider its decision ending the protected status for Salvadorans, who received TPS status after a massive earthquake in 2001.

The situation in El Salvador is still dangerous due to gang violence and severe poverty, they said. It is unsafe for people to live in the country and there are very few employment opportunities.

The influx of people returning to El Salvador from the United States could overwhelm the already-fragile economy, they warned. Additionally, many Salvadorans living in the United States send remittances to El Salvador, which provides a boost to their economy. These remittances would end if they were forced to leave.

The administration has extended the validity of work permits for El Salvadorans with TPS through Jan. 4, 2021, and has said that Salvadorans will have one additional year after the end of TPS-related lawsuits to return to their home country.

[…]

CNA Staff, Sep 15, 2020 / 03:15 pm (CNA).-  

The Biden campaign announced on Monday a panel of co-chairs for its “Catholics for Biden” outreach. Among the Catholics chairing Biden’s Catholic coalition are several politicians who… […]

CNA Staff, Sep 15, 2020 / 02:21 pm (CNA).- The California bishops met Wednesday African American Catholic leaders to begin a year-long initiative meant better to understand and combat racism.

The Sept. 9 meeting occurred on the feast of St. Peter Clav… […]