A group of migrants from South America crosses the Rio Bravo border between Mexico and the United States to request asylum. / Credit: David Peinado Romero/Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, May 5, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Javier Acero of the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico expressed the Church’s profound concern over the “waves of migrants” crossing the country and stressed that those who suffer the most are “unaccompanied minors.”
Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Acero said that faced with the complexity of the drama of the migrants, “we are there as a Church accompanying them.”
The bishop pointed to the efforts of the Josephine Sisters who run the Home for Welcoming, Training, and Empowering Women and Migrant Families and Refugees (CAFEMIN) and praised the “commendable work of Sister Magdalena” and of the entire community, who receive migrant minors traveling alone and care for them.
Acero also noted that “during this time, which goes from a little before Easter up to now, the average number of the people who are cared for in all these homes goes from 600 to 900 daily.”
In addition, there are minors cared for by CAFEMIN who have been getting help with their schoolwork for two years. Working with lawyers, the ministry reunites the minors with the parents or relatives who live on the other side of the border.
Mexico is a country with a long history of migration, both of its citizens who go to the United States and of all the others who use its territory as a passageway to achieve the “American dream.”
According to the United States Customs and Border Protection, from July 2022 to March 2023 more than a million undocumented migrants have been detained at the southern border. Of these, 67,596 were unaccompanied minors.
In March alone, 191,900 undocumented migrants were apprehended at the border. More than 53% of them came from Mexico and Central American countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Three percent came from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
According to the nongovernmental organization Save the Children, the majority of unaccompanied minors attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border “are asylum seekers left with no choice but to flee their homes.” Many of them, the organization indicated, are fleeing “unimaginable violence” as well as “crushing poverty” in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that most unaccompanied minors are between 15-17 years old but some are only 6 or 7.
The auxiliary bishop expressed his desire to establish “a humanitarian corridor” between Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America.
“This is a little more complex, since it takes a process, many meetings, meetings between the responsible bishops to see how they can help with the Churches and between the Churches,” Acero said.
The prelate encouraged people not to engender fear or alarm against migrants, because “with these attitudes what we are doing is spreading xenophobia,” which causes a country with its “inhabitants to be closed in on themselves and withdrawn. This is what we must not tolerate.”
Faced with those who think that migrants aren’t “worthy enough,” the prelate urged that “we as Catholics must be protagonists of this rescue. Every person has human dignity” and “the right to love.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly speaks with EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado on Thursday, July 11, 2024, regarding the organization’s decision to cover mosaics by the accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik in chapels in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut. / Credit: EWTN News
Rome Newsroom, Jul 11, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
The Knights of Columbus announced Thursday they will cover mosaics by the accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut, a dramatic move that represents the strongest public stand yet by a major Catholic organization regarding the former Jesuit’s embattled art.
The 2.1-million-member lay Catholic fraternal order said July 11 it would use fabric to cover the floor-to-ceiling mosaics in the two chapels of the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and in the chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut — at least until the completion of a formal Vatican investigation into the Slovenian priest’s alleged abuse.
Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, told EWTN News Thursday the opaque material would be installed “very soon” but gave no firm timetable. The Knights said in a statement released Thursday afternoon that the artwork may later be more permanently hidden with a plaster covering after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues its ruling on Rupnik.
The decision by the Knights to cover the sprawling works, which envelop both spaces, was made at the end of a comprehensive, confidential review process that included consultations with sexual abuse victims and those who minister to them, art historians, pilgrims to the shrine, bishops, and moral theologians.
“The Knights of Columbus have decided to cover these mosaics because our first concern must be for victims of sexual abuse, who have already suffered immensely in the Church, and who may be further injured by the ongoing display of the mosaics at the shrine,” Kelly said in the statement.
“While opinions varied among those consulted,” he said, “there was a strong consensus to prioritize the needs of victims, especially because the allegations are current, unresolved, and horrific.”
Kelly reiterated that point in his interview with EWTN News.
“Our decision process really came down to multiple factors. But the No. 1 factor was compassion for victims,” Kelly said. “We needed to prioritize victims over anything, any material thing. So that was our primary consideration.”
The first segment of Kelly’s interview with EWTN News will air on “EWTN News Nightly” Thursday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Additional comments will air on “EWTN News In Depth” on Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly speaks with EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado on Thursday, July 11, 2024, regarding the organization’s decision to cover mosaics by the accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik in chapels in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut. Credit: EWTN News
Once a renowned artist Rupnik, whose mosaics are featured in hundreds of Catholic shrines, churches, and chapels around the world, was expelled from the Jesuits in June 2023.
His expulsion followed a long review of what the society called “highly credible” accusations of serial spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse of as many as 30 religious sisters by the priest spanning decades. Some women allege Rupnik’s abuse sometimes happened as part of the process of creating his art at the Centro Aletti, an art school he founded in Rome.
The Vatican announced in late October 2023 that Pope Francis had waived the statute of limitations in the Rupnik case, allowing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to do a canonical investigation into the abuse allegations.
There has been no further communication from the Vatican about the inquiry, and it is unclear whether Rupnik may still be living in Rome despite having been given priestly faculties in a diocese of his home country of Slovenia last year.
Growing public outcry
What to do with Rupnik’s once widely-praised works, colorful mosaics characterized by grand, flowing figures and large eyes, has proven to be a divisive question in the wake of the numerous allegations against him, which first came to public attention in December 2022.
While some want to await Vatican judgment before dismantling and replacing Rupnik’s works, much of it made in collaboration with other artists of the Centro Aletti — a Rupnik-founded art school and theological center in Rome — the public outcry for the removal of his art has intensified.
The Knights also announced several immediate changes that would be enacted at the shrine in solidarity with abuse victims, including providing educational materials about the mosaics, making clear that their display during the consultation process “was not intended to ignore, deny, or diminish the allegations of abuse.”
Every Mass at the St. John Paul II National Shrine will now also include a prayer of the faithful for victims of sexual abuse, and saints with connections to abuse victims, such as St. Josephine Bakhita, will be specially commemorated.
The group said it became aware of the allegations against Rupnik in December 2022 — and noted that the artist, while under investigation, remains a priest in good standing in the Diocese of Koper, Slovenia.
“This decision is rooted in a foundational purpose of the Knights of Columbus, which is to protect families, especially women and children, and those who are vulnerable and voiceless,” Kelly said in the July 11 statement.
The “Redemptor Hominis” chapel of the National Shrine of St John Paul II in Washington, DC, is decorated with mosaics by Fatherr Marko Rupnik. Credit: Lawrence OP|Flickr|CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The St. John Paul II National Shrine is a pastoral initiative of the Knights of Columbus, established in 2011, and designated a national shrine by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2014.
Rupnik’s mosaics were installed at the shrine in 2015. The Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ headquarters has featured Rupnik’s art since 2005.
Highlighting the John Paul II shrine’s mission of evangelization, the supreme knight said, “the art we sponsor must therefore serve as a stepping stone — not a stumbling block — to faith in Jesus Christ and his Church.”
Rupnik has not made any statements since the allegations came to light.
An eye on Lourdes
The Knights’ move to conceal the mosaics follows just a week after the bishop of Lourdes, France, said that despite his personal feelings that Rupnik’s artwork at the renowned Marian shrine there should be removed, he has decided to wait to make a final decision due to “strong opposition on the part of some.”
After forming a special commission in May 2023, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes announced July 2 that more time was needed “to discern what should be done” about Rupnik’s mosaics at the Marian apparition site, because his belief that they should be torn down “would not be sufficiently understood” and “would add even more division and violence” at this time.
As a “first step,” the French bishop said he had decided the mosaics will no longer be lit up at night during the shrine’s nightly candlelight rosary processions.
In his interview with EWTN News, Kelly said the Lourdes bishop’s intent to make a decision of some kind this spring galvanized the Knights to act at this time.
In his July 11 statement, Kelly thanked the Lourdes bishop for his “thoughtful decision” and said it “both informed and confirmed us in our own decision-making. Shrines are places of healing, prayer, and reconciliation. They should not cause victims further suffering.”
Emphasizing the importance of discernment based on mission and context, the supreme knight said: “Every situation is different. In the United States, Catholics continue to suffer in a unique way from the revelations of sexual abuse and, at times, from the response of the Church. It is clear to us that, as a national shrine, our decision must respect this country’s special need for healing.”
The Knights of Columbus was founded in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882 by Blessed Michael McGivney, a parish priest. Dedicated to the advancement of the group’s key principles — charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism — its members in 2022 provided 50 million service hours and nearly $185 million to charitable causes in their communities.
National Catholic Register Editor-in-Chief Shannon Mullen contributed to this story.
Caracas, Venezuela, Jan 29, 2018 / 04:34 pm (ACI Prensa).- Archbishop Diego Padrón of Cumaná, former president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference, denounced plans to advance presidential elections in the country by more than seven months.
“In any country in the world, democracy operates with clarity, with transparency. Instead, [this] is a midnight ambush,” the archbishop told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language sister agency, Jan 24.
The country’s National Constituent Assembly issued a decree on Jan. 23 to move up the elections that are usually held in December to no later than April 30, a measure that was “approved by acclamation” according to Delcy Rodriguez, the president of the assembly.
The Archbishop of Cumaná said that “as a Venezuelan, it is my opinion that moving up the date for elections has no legal basis.”
He added that the National Constituent Assembly “is very discredited because it is fraudulent in its origin and how it is run.”
Venezuela is currently in the midst of a severe economic crisis, with hyperinflation and chronic shortages of food and medicine.
The country’s socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap and flour, have meant that while the items are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates. The International Monetary Fund has forecasted an inflation rate of 2,300 percent in Venezuela in 2018.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is due to run for re-election this year, as his term ends in 2019.
Last July, contested elections led to the formation of a National Constituent Assembly, which has superseded the authority of the National Assembly, Venezuela’s opposition-controlled legislature.
Mass protests against the Constituent Assembly were held, in which more than 120 people were killed by security forces.
Following the decree from the National Constituent Assembly, President Maduro asked the Board of Elections to set the closest day possible for voting, saying, “We’re going to get this over with as soon as possible.”
Maduro also said that the elections will be held with or without the opposition.
According to the BBC, it is unknown whether any opposition candidate will run since the main leaders, Henrique Capriles and Leopoldo Lopez, have been disqualified from running for office.
Capriles was banned from running for office for 15 years by the Comptroller General’s Office for alleged irregularities in the state of Miranda where he was governor, the Associated Press reported last April.
In September 2015, El Confidencial news reported that Lopez was sentenced to 14 years in military prison for allegedly inciting violence at an anti-government demonstration the previous year.
Moving up the date of the election has been rejected by the Venezuelan opposition and the “Lima Group,” a coalition which is comprised of representatives from 14 countries of the Americas.
Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz read a statement on the matter emphasizing that “this decision makes it impossible to hold democratic, transparent and credible presidential elections.”
The text of the statement was approved by delegates from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Santa Lucía.
“We demand that the presidential elections be held with enough time to properly prepare for participation by all Venezuelan political actors and with all the corresponding guarantees,” the text adds.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Washington D.C., Feb 15, 2022 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
A group of healthcare workers once again petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to block New York’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for healthcare employees, and allow r… […]
1 Comment
Our well-fed prelates are far too removed from the horrific reality of the open border policies they promote. People on all sides are being killed. Nations, families, and cultures are being destroyed, all for the benefit of a rapacious oligarchy that hates the Catholic Church as much as the Western nations it is wrecking with this engineered onslaught. In response, the bishops and their functionaries simply affirm their ongoing cooperation with Marxist NGOs and lawyers, not to mention drug cartels and human traffickers. In their ignorance or mendacity, they peddle platitudes and easily debunked falsehoods. Someone should tell His Excellency that crime in El Salvador has plummeted because of the tough policing measures implemented by President Bukele.
Our well-fed prelates are far too removed from the horrific reality of the open border policies they promote. People on all sides are being killed. Nations, families, and cultures are being destroyed, all for the benefit of a rapacious oligarchy that hates the Catholic Church as much as the Western nations it is wrecking with this engineered onslaught. In response, the bishops and their functionaries simply affirm their ongoing cooperation with Marxist NGOs and lawyers, not to mention drug cartels and human traffickers. In their ignorance or mendacity, they peddle platitudes and easily debunked falsehoods. Someone should tell His Excellency that crime in El Salvador has plummeted because of the tough policing measures implemented by President Bukele.