News from United States & Canada covering parishes, dioceses, religious orders, community groups, homelessness, moral & political issues and pilgrims.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, led more than 400 Catholic demonstrators on Wednesday, 4 September to protest against the inhumane treatment of child migrants and their families at detention centres across the US. In recent months at least seven children have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres. Many more are being separated from their families for ...
Cardinal Daniel N DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued the following statement regarding Hurricane Dorian that has left more than 20 people dead in the Bahamas and is moving closer to the southeast coast of the United States.
Cardinal DiNardo's full statement follows:
"As we continue to be vigilant for...
Catholic Charities USA have expressed grave concern over the Trump administration's plan to allow officials to detain migrant families indefinitely while judges consider whether to grant them asylum. At present, under1997 Flores agreement, immigration authorities cannot usually detain families with children longer than 20 days.
Catholic Charities said in a statement today: "The announceme...
The American Pax Christi Anti-Racism team is joining members of the Episcopal Church on 25 August to participate in a Healing Day of National Bell Ringing to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves from Africa.
Organisers are inviting Catholics to contact their parishes asking them to toll their church bells at 3pm this Sunday, to commemorate this tragic event and to...
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious has written a letter to President Trump calling on President Trump to end all divisive rhetoric The letter, affirmed by the 663 LCWR members, during their annual 2019 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on August 14 states: "We implore you to never use language that disrespects, dehumanises, or demonises others. We expect our president, and all who ser...
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has expressed concern and opposition to a new ruling that is expected to have negative consequences for families accessing critical public benefits.
The new rule, concerning who in the United States receives public benefits and who does not, was scheduled to be published today, Wednesday, 14 August, but could take another 60 days be...
A police operation in the State of Mississippi has left dozens of children without parents. Hundreds of adults were arrested across the state after more than 600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) agents launched a series of raids last Thursday.
Until yesterday, state officials, lawyers and defenders of migrants did not know where the children had been sent, after their par...
The following statement was issued by the United States Region of the Missionary Society of St Columban on 7 August.
The US Region of the Missionary Society of St Columban stands with the families and victims of the violence that left 31 persons dead and many more injured in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, and decries the culture of racial hatred promoted by our nation's lea...
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has become the first North American denomination to declare itself a sanctuary church body. The decision was voted on at their meeting in Milwaukee on Thursday,
As a sanctuary church the ELCA is committed to serving and supporting migrant children and families in communities across the country.
Earlier in the day, the Rev Elizabeth Eaton, p...
Bishops from three committees at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have expressed their deep concern about racism and xenophobia that apparently motivated this weekend's massacre in El Paso and that have motivated numerous other recent mass shootings in the United States. The Chairmen called on America's elected officials to exert leadership in seeking to heal the wounds...
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; The Very Rev Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of Washington National Cathedral and The Rev Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian of Washington National Cathedral have issued the following statement.
The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses fr...
In his first public statement since his installation, the new Catholic Archbishop of Washington - Archbishop Wilton Gregory - has called for an end to "divisive, disrespectful speech" and accused President Trump of "diminishing our national life" in his recent tweets. The Archbishop's comments were published in the Catholic Standard - the official weekly newspaper of the Archdio...
Bishop Frank J Dewane, Bishop of the Diocese of Venice and Chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development has issued a statement on the federal government's decision to resume the use of the death penalty.
The full statement follows:
"In his address to Congress during his 2015 Apostolic visit to the United States, Pope Francis, echoing the views...
Many of us are not fond of seeing animals in cages. But when desperate human beings - especially children - who have trekked the gruelling, dangerous journey mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras fleeing gang drug violence, forced gang recruitment, extortion and crushing poverty finally arrive at the US border pleading for safe asylum find themselves instead crammed into cages, it's t...
