This surfing school in Chile was created for kids with Down syndrome
By Giselle Vargas
Santiago, Chile, Feb 7, 2017 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - On Sundays, Felipe Pereira is full of enthusiasm. That’s because on Sundays, the 21-year-old goes to Paradise Beach to enjoy the sea along with his friends and to learn how to surf.
For children and young adults with mental disabilities, this is more than a sport. It is the Waves of Hope free surfing school, based in northern Chile’s Antofagasta region.
The school is directed by Chilean surfing enthusiasts Claudio Morales, Catalina Daniels and Pablo Marín. They launched the program five years ago.
After knocking on a lot of doors, running pilot projects, consulting with specialists, and coming up with financing, they began their first class with six surfboards and six wetsuits.
Each Sunday from December to February, the three directors and other volunteers welcome up to 15 children with Down syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome and autism, giving them completely personalized classes adapted to each person’s condition.
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Pereira is a very sociable young man who does folk dancing, goes swimming, and works in his school’s bake shop. He told CNA that what he likes most about the surfing classes is “getting on top of the surf board and catching the waves.”
“I like the sea. I really like to go,” he said. Pereira also liked his instructors, saying, “I like how nice they are to us, I love what they do.”
Instructor Catalina Daniels told CNA that her students “challenge you to change. You can’t go on being the same.”
“They are a tremendous example of how love is the driving force of the best things, the best times, the best efforts. Affectionate warmth is the best investment and with them it’s incredible,” she said.
Daniels also discussed the impact of faith, saying “the person who knows Christ, Jesus, who by his mercy came into your life, can’t be the same. You have to be better, more loving, more understanding, more tolerant, because they are.”
Surfing requires strength, balance, agility, and a lot of technique. But what is most important, the Waves of Hope founders recognize, is the relationship between the instructor and the student. This breaks down the barriers of discrimination to make way for integration.
Many Chileans have never spoken or shaken hands with a person with Down syndrome.
“So very motivated volunteers come, but the first day they don’t know what to say, they don’t know how to act, they try to help, but even they freeze up,” Daniels told CNA.
But the students laugh and tell jokes, and eventually, relationships are formed.
“They have an incredible time. They float, row, do group dynamics, take up the surfboard. They have demonstrated that they can do a lot, they have overcome many difficulties related to their condition,” Daniels said.
She explained that the problem is rooted in discrimination and the lack of proper integration.
“They were born struggling with frustration, they were born already disadvantaged,” she said of the students. “It was really hard getting support from the businesses. Why don’t we see girls with Down syndrome promoting products in advertising? Because the beauty of our students is an atypical beauty and no one wants it on their front page.”
“Chile is a country that creates handicaps,” she reflected, adding that trends to de-value family, school and the Church also cause problems for the disabled.
Daniels recommended that people draw closer to God: “to give love you have to be with the Creator of love…When you have love, you have to give it, you have to give it shape, make it real.”
Claudio Morales, another director, added that the volunteers are “the big winners” of Waves of Hope.
“Children with Down syndrome capture your heart in an incredible way,” he said. “I believe that all the volunteers have a changed way of looking at life.”
Is a meeting between Pope Francis and Donald Trump on the horizon?
Vatican City, Feb 7, 2017 / 12:55 pm (CNA) - Pope Francis could meet with President Donald Trump at the end of May.
The British newspaper The Tablet, citing diplomatic sources, said the two will meet during President Trump’s visit to Italy.
Trump will go to the G7 summit of world leaders meeting held May 26-27 in Taorima, Sicily.
The president and the Pope have sometimes been put at odds.
During a Feb. 18, 2016 in-flight press conference, Reuters reporter Philip Pullella asked the Pope to respond to Donald Trump’s immigration stand.
Pope Francis answered: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”
The pontiff added he would “give the benefit of the doubt” to the political candidate.
One week prior, Trump had bashed Pope Francis as a “pawn” for the Mexican government and “a very political person” who does not understand the problems of the United States.
Holy See spokesman Father Federico Lombardi on Feb. 19 told Vatican Radio that the Pope’s comment “was never intended to be, in any way, a personal attack or an indication of how to vote” and had repeated a longstanding theme of his papacy, bridge-building.
The U.S. bishops have responded critically to the Trump administration’s recent executive orders. One bars refugee admissions for 120 days and places an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. It bars visa permissions for seven predominantly Muslim countries on the terror watch list and restrictions on refugees for 90 days.
The executive orders, which are facing legal challenges, also cap refugees at 50,000, compared to the 2016 cap of 117,000 and actual admitted refugees, who numbered 85,000 last year.
The Pope has made refugee assistance a key focus of his papacy and has temporarily named himself head of the refugee and migration section of the new Vatican Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.
Father Michael Czerny, secretary of the dicastery, told CNA that the Holy See plans for the U.S. bishops to be its first line of communication and engagement with the U.S. government on immigration and refugee issues.
“They’re responding very well,” Fr. Czerny said of the bishops. “And for the moment, they’re the people to listen to on this issue.”
Other positions of the new president could have a bearing on U.S. relations with the Holy See.
While President Trump previously favored legal abortion, as a candidate he campaigned on promises he would support pro-life policy goals and he re-instated a policy barring federal funds for overseas organizations that promote or perform abortion.
Although President Trump was a deeply controversial presidential candidate, his surprise victory in November took place with significant Catholic support.
According to the Pew Research Center’s analysis of exit polls by NBCnews.com and CNN.com, Trump secured 52 percent of Catholic voters, including 60 percent of non-Hispanic white Catholics. He lost Hispanic Catholic voters to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a margin of 67-26, though this was an improvement over 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s performance among the same demographic.
Vatican official: The bishops 'are speaking clearly' on refugees
By Hannah Brockhaus
Vatican City, Feb 6, 2017 / 06:45 pm (CNA) - In the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent policy on refugees, U.S. Catholics should stay close to their bishops, who are providing a clear, correct and unified response to the issue, a Vatican official said.
Jesuit Fr. Michael Czerny is secretary of the new Vatican Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, which includes an office for refugees and migrants, currently headed by the Pope himself.
Fr. Czerny told CNA that right now, the U.S. bishops are doing a good job responding to the policy. “I think the key is for Catholics to stay close to their bishops. Dialogue and unity are the two keys to a moment like this,” he said.
“And the bishops are speaking clearly, they’re speaking loudly, they’re speaking with a great deal of unity. Those who are concerned should listen to them, and also should reach out to help them.”
Earlier this week, Cardinal Joseph Tobin told CNA that according to Fr. Czerny, Pope Francis has confidence that the U.S. bishops are giving the issue “a Gospel response.”
“The bishops in the United States are responding as their vocation calls them to, as their mission calls them to,” Fr. Czerny said. “They are acting as real shepherds of the people…not just of the people in their own flock, but they are really shepherds to all people.”
Asked what the Holy See’s plan is for engaging with the U.S. government on immigration policies, he said that they plan to use the U.S. bishops as their first line of communication and engagement, watching them and supporting them in whatever way they need.
“They’re responding very well,” he said. “And for the moment, they’re the people to listen to on this issue.” For the average Catholic, if they have something to offer, suggest or contribute to their bishops, they should do so, he said. “I think a Church united around its bishops will respond really well.”
United with the bishops, U.S. Catholics can help influence political leaders to enact policies that support and uphold the dignity of all human persons.
“As citizens and as Christians,” Fr. Czerny said, “we need to help our leaders to reflect and enact our real values.” If, for whatever reason, they start to push policies that “are violating our basic principles and our own fundamental history, then it’s up to us to se them straight.”
“There’s no justification for whipping up fear and hysteria when a calm approach can certainly find good solutions and can promote the common good.”
In response to the argument that accepting refugees into a country will endanger its citizens by increasing the likelihood of acts of terrorism, he said that this is something it is easy to be “tricked into” believing through imagery or misleading reporting.
But, he pointed out, if governments are honest, and they look at how they may have actually contributed, or are contributing, to the current situation, they’ll “find more useful things to do with their energy than scapegoat refugees.”
“There are other ways in which governments in their foreign policy, in their trade policy, in their security policies, have done a lot to promote and provoke the very terrorism that they are now regretting,” he said.
The solution is not victimizing refugees, the solution is solving problems at their roots, he said. “That’s the job of governments, that’s why they are instituted and that’s what they should be spending their time and energy doing.”
In the end, immigration is an issue that is affecting the entire world right now, not just one or two countries. And the challenges and difficulties are real, he acknowledged. “But I can’t imagine a situation where one would say afterwards that it was too bad that we let them in, we wish we hadn’t.”
“So I think we need to have some faith and hope, and use our considerable resources and our ingenuity to find solutions. And the solutions are waiting to be found, and everyone of good will is ready to give a hand, and that will make us all a better people.”
The spirited response of Mexico's bishops to Trump's border wall
Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 27, 2017 / 05:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - The bishops of Mexico on Thursday reacted to United States' president Donald Trump's executive order to build a wall on the nations' border by urging a more thoughtful response to legitimate security concerns.
“We express our pain and rejection over the construction of this wall, and we respectfully invite you to reflect more deeply about the ways security, development, growth in employment, and other measures, necessary and just, can be procured without causing further harm to those already suffering, the poorest and most vulnerable,” the Mexican bishops' conference said Jan. 26 in a message titled "Value and Respect for Migrants".
Trump had Jan. 25 ordered a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border. An estimated 650 miles of the 1,900 mile-long U.S.-Mexico border have a wall constructed currently.
The Mexican bishops noted that for more than 20 years, the prelates of “the northern border of Mexico and the southern border of the United States have been working” to achieve “the best care for the faithful that live in the sister countries, properly seen as a single city (from a faith perspective); communities of faith served by two dioceses (such as Matamoros and Brownsville, or Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, for example).”
“What pains us foremost is that many people who live out their family relationships, their faith, work or friendships will be shut out even more by this inhuman interference,” they lamented.
The bishops recalled the statement of Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, head of the United States bishops' committee on immigration, that “this action will put immigrant lives needlessly in harm's way. Construction of such a wall will only make migrants, especially vulnerable women and children, more susceptible to traffickers and smugglers. Additionally, the construction of such a wall destabilizes the many vibrant and beautifully interconnected communities that live peacefully along the border.”
The bishops of Mexico said that “we will continue to be close to and support with solidarity so many of our brothers coming from Central and South America, who come in transit through our country to the United States”
The prelates also encouraged Mexico's authorities “in talks and seeking agreements with the United States, to advocate for just ways, which safeguard dignity and respect for persons, regardless of nationality, creed, and above all, appreciating the richness they bring in their quest for better opportunities in life. Each person has an intrinsic and invaluable worth as a child of God.”
The bishops expressed their respect for the right of the U.S. government to have its border respected, but said they do not consider “a rigorous and intense application of the law to be the way to achieve its goals, and that on the contrary these actions create alarm and fear among immigrants, breaking up families without further consideration.”
The prelates concluded their statement asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to “accompany those in both countries who are responsible for negotiations” and to “bring consolation and provide protection for our brother migrants.”
Pope Francis condemns shooting at Quebec mosque
By Hannah Brockhaus
Vatican City, Jan 30, 2017 / 09:34 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis met Monday with Cardinal Gérald Lacroix of Quebec, conveying his sorrow for the victims of a shooting the night before in a mosque in Quebec City. He condemned the attack, saying Christians and Muslims should unite in prayer over the tragedy.
According to a Vatican communique, Pope Francis met with Cardinal Lacroix Jan. 30 following his morning Mass in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta.
The Pope’s condolences were also communicated in a message to the cardinal sent by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, which said that the Pope “entrusts to the mercy of God the people who have lost their lives and he unites himself in prayer to the sorrow of those close to them.”
Six people were killed and 17 injured after gunmen opened fire inside the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec during evening prayers Jan. 29.
In his message the Pope expressed “his deep sympathy to the wounded and their families, and to all those who have contributed to the aid, asking the Lord to bring comfort and consolation to the trial.”
“The Holy Father strongly condemns the violence that engenders so much suffering,” the message continues, “and imploring God for the gift of mutual respect and peace, he invokes upon the families and the people affected by this tragedy as well as all Quebecois the benefit of the Divine Blessings.”
The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue also sent a communique, stating that the council learned of the “brutal attack perpetrated against Muslims gathered in prayer … in their place of worship” with “deep sadness and outrage.”
“With this senseless act were violated the sanctity of human life and respect due to a community in prayer and a place of worship that welcomes,” it continued.
“The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue strongly condemns this act of unprecedented violence and wishes to submit its full solidarity with the Muslims of Canada, ensuring its fervent prayers for the victims and their families.”
Both suspects in the shooting have been arrested, Quebec police have confirmed. The police have refused to comment on a motive for the attack.
On Trump presidency, Pope says we must ‘wait and see’
Vatican City, Jan 22, 2017 / 08:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a new interview published Saturday, Pope Francis said he will wait to see what U.S. President Donald J. Trump does before making any judgments, emphasizing God’s own patience with him and his faults.
In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais Jan. 20, the same day as the U.S. presidential inauguration, Pope Francis said he doesn’t like to get ahead of himself “or judge people prematurely.”
“We will see how he acts, what he does, and then I will have an opinion. But being afraid or rejoicing beforehand because of something that might happen is, in my view, quite unwise. It would be like prophets predicting calamities or windfalls that will not be either,” he said.
“We will see. We will see what he does and will judge.” The world is so upside down, that it needs a fixed point, grounded firmly in reality: “what did you do, what did you decide, how do you move. That is what I prefer to wait and see.”
Asked if he wasn’t worried about things he had heard about Trump, Francis responded again that he is waiting. “God waited so long for me, with all my sins…” he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, the Pope was questioned about issues ranging from immigration to economics to Vatican diplomacy to the Gospel, among other things.
On the issue of immigration Francis was clear about his position, that “everyone does what they can or what they want. It is a very hard judgment.”
The most important thing is that those in dire need are helped and rescued, he said. After that we should welcome migrants and refugees and help them to integrate into their new country.
In the context of 1930s Germany, where the people were “in crisis” and looking for a charismatic leader, someone who could give them a clear identity, “we all know what happened,” he said. But what is important is that people did not talk to one another, there was no conversation.
“Yes,” borders can be controlled, he said. Countries have a right to control “who comes and who goes, and those countries at risk – from terrorism or such things – have even more the right to control them more, but no country has the right to deprive its citizens of the possibility to talk with their neighbors.”
Asked about Vatican diplomacy and its image, including the public thanks of Barack Obama and Raúl Castro on the one hand, and the parties that criticize the Vatican’s interference, on the other, the Pope said that he asks the Lord “that he give me the grace of not taking any measure for the sake of image.”
“Honesty, service, those are the criteria.” Mistakes are sometimes made, your image suffers, “but it doesn’t matter if there was goodwill. History will judge afterwards,” he said.
For him, he said, the clear, guiding principle for both pastoral action and Vatican diplomacy is that they are “mediators, rather than intermediaries.”
“We build bridges, not walls. What is the difference between a mediator and an intermediary?” he said. An intermediary is someone who enters a business agreement, renders a service and then is compensated, “and rightly so, because it is his job.”
The mediator, on the other hand, “is the one who wants to serve both parties and wants both parties to win even if he loses,” the Pope said. “Vatican diplomacy must be a mediator, not an intermediary. If, throughout history, it has sometimes maneuvered or managed a meeting that filled its pockets, that was a very serious sin.”
“The mediator builds bridges that are not for him, but rather for others to cross.”
Asked if his changes to the Vatican, sometimes criticized both by the more traditional sectors of the church and by the more progressive, are a “revolution of normalcy,” or already contained in the “Gospel’s essence,” as he has said, Pope Francis responded simply that he is a “sinner and not always successful.”
“I try – I don’t know if I succeed – to do what the Gospel says. That is what I try,” he said.
“The true heroes of the Church are the saints. That is, those men and women that devoted their lives to make the Gospel a reality,” he said. “The saints are the specific examples of the Gospel in daily life!”
With the emphasis on going out to the peripheries, how would Francis respond to those Catholics that feel that he ignores the people who have remained faithful to the Church and her teachings, was also questioned.
“I know that those who feel comfortable within a Church structure that doesn’t ask too much of them or who have attitudes that protect them from too much contact are going to feel uneasy with any change, with any proposal coming from the Gospel,” he said.
“The novelty of the Gospel however astonishes because it is essentially scandalous,” he continued. “Saint Paul tells us about the scandal of the cross, the scandal of the Son of God become man. But the evangelical essence is scandalous by those days’ criteria. By any worldly criteria, it is an outrageous essence.”
Once questioned by a German journalist about why he never talks about the middle class, “those who pay their taxes…” Francis said he thinks that maybe he is always talking about the middle class, just without calling it that.
“I use a term coined by the French novelist Malègue, who talks about ‘the middle class of sanctity,’” he said.
“I am always talking about parents, grandparents, nurses, the people who live to serve others, who raise their kids, who work... Those people are tremendously saintly!” he said.
“And they are also the ones who carry the Church onward: the ones that earn their living with dignity, that raise their children, that bury their dead, that care for their elders, instead of putting them into an old people’s home: that is our saintly middle class.”
From an economic point of view, the middle class is vanishing more and more, he said. But “the father, the mother, who celebrate their family, with their sins and their virtues, the grandfather, the grandmother,” he continued. “The family. At the center. That is ‘the middle class of sanctity.’”
A final comment reflected that Francis seems to be a very happy Pope. “The Lord is good and hasn’t taken away my good humor,” he said.
President Trump restores pro-life Mexico City Policy
Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2017 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News) - On Monday, President Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, an international pro-life regulation that is generally seen as an indicator of an incoming president’s views on abortion.
The executive order was signed January 23, one day after the anniversary of the far-reaching Roe v. Wade decision that mandated legal abortion throughout the U.S.
Originally instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Mexico City Policy states that foreign non-governmental organizations may not receive federal funding if they perform or promote abortions as a method of family planning.
In the years that followed, the Mexico City Policy has become emblematic of a new president’s stance on abortion. Incoming presidents generally overturn or reinstate the policy within their first week of office, symbolizing the stance that they will take on abortion issues over the course of their presidency.
President Bill Clinton overturned the policy on January 22, 1993. President George W. Bush reinstated it January 22, 2001. President Barack Obama once again rescinded it on January 23, 2009, drawing swift criticism from the Vatican.
Restoring the policy was not among Trump’s campaign promises, leading to some concern over whether he would institute the policy if elected.
Trump did make other pro-life campaign promises, including pledges to nominate pro-life Supreme Court justices; sign into law a ban on late-term abortions; defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate funding to community health centers that do not perform abortions; and make permanent a ban taxpayer funding of abortion.
Trump wants to halt refugee intake – and Catholic leaders are worried
Washington D.C., Jan 25, 2017 / 04:32 pm (CNA).- Amid reports of an imminent executive order to halt most refugee resettlement in the U.S., one international Catholic charitable group is speaking out.
“When we look at what’s happening in Syria and the needs of 21 million refugees around the world, we think that this is our time as Catholics to be the Good Samaritan, regardless of what is expected of us from countries overseas,” Jill Maria Gershutz-Bell, senior legislative specialist at Catholic Relief Services, told CNA of the proposed order.
“It’s our turn to show – or really, to maintain – our leadership in welcoming the lost and the least,” she continued, saying CRS was “very concerned” about the reported executive order.
President Donald Trump will reportedly sign an executive order this week halting the influx of refugees into the U.S., except in the cases of religious minorities fleeing persecution. He could also be suspending visas issued to persons from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya.
The temporary ban could last four months, and presidential approval could be required to renew refugee resettlement from Syria.
The reports came the same day as Trump signed executive orders directing that a wall be built on the U.S.-Mexico border, “sanctuary cities” harboring undocumented immigrants be barred from federal funds, and deportations be sped up.
Americans must remember that refugees “are victims” themselves, Gershutz-Bell insisted.
The number of persons worldwide displaced from their homes is at its highest ever recorded at over 65 million, including over 21 million refugees, according to the United Nations’ refugee office in a 2016 report.
“Wars and persecution” have caused massive numbers of people to flee their homes, including a years-long civil war in Syria, and conflicts in the South Sudan, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Yemen.
Three countries have produced half the world’s refugees, the UN noted: Syria (4.9 million), Somalia (1.1 million), and Afghanistan (2.7 million). Two of those countries, Syria and Somalia, would be on Trump’s reported visa ban list.
Refugees “need to have the opportunity to demonstrate that they don’t intend any harm to the United Sates, but in fact they’re fleeing the same kind of violence that we’re trying to protect ourselves from,” Gershutz-Bell said.
Accepting and resettling refugees is part of the Catholic mission, she added.
“Pope Francis has been unequivocal about this, and the Catholic Church in the United States has been a leader in responding to refugees for really decades now. It’s part of what it means to be Catholic,” Gershutz-Bell told CNA.
Catholic University of America president John Garvey also spoke out against policies restricting immigration in an op-ed on Tuesday, calling for “an immigration policy rooted in charity and hospitality.”
“We should ‘welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin,’” he said, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2241. “And nations should respect the natural right ‘that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him’,” he continued.
“This generous approach to immigration is neither politically expedient nor free of risk,” he noted. “Many citizens have argued in good faith for a more restrictive policy. But would you not love and admire a country that opened its doors to the tired, the poor, the wretched and the homeless, even if they could not promise it a fair return for its hospitality?”
CRS also reported “indications” that another executive order might direct the State Department and the Defense Department to set up “safe zones” for refugees in and around the Syrian conflict.
“We have really serious concerns about that. The details of a safe zone and how that would be implemented would be critical,” Gershutz-Bell said. “They can actually end up putting targets on the backs of civilians if they’re not carefully executed.”
US bishops dismayed as Trump vows to build border wall
By Matt Hadro
Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2017 / 09:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A leading bishop expressed alarm and dismay on Wednesday following President Donald Trump’s executive orders to increase immigrant detention centers and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Every day, my brother bishops and I witness the harmful effects of immigrant detention in our ministries. We experience the pain of severed families that struggle to maintain a semblance of normal family life. We see traumatized children in our schools and in our churches,” said Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration.
“The policies announced today will only further upend immigrant families.”
President Trump issued multiple executive orders Wednesday on immigration.
He ordered a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border. An estimated 650 miles of the 1,900 mile-long U.S.-Mexico border have a wall constructed currently.
“The purpose of this order is to direct executive departments and agencies to deploy all lawful means to secure the Nation's southern border, to prevent further illegal immigration into the United States, and to repatriate illegal aliens swiftly, consistently, and humanely,” he said.
Saying that he is disheartened by Trump’s decision to prioritize the wall, Bishop Vasquez added that it will “put immigrant lives needlessly in harm’s way,” could increase the risk of women and child migrants being trafficked, and “destabilizes the many vibrant and beautifully interconnected communities that live peacefully along the border.”
Trump also ordered the construction of more immigrant detention facilities staffed with more lawyers and personnel to determine asylum claims, and said deportations and asylum hearings should be expedited.
The bishops have already spoken out about abuses of immigrants at detention centers, and Bishop Vasquez expressed “alarm” at Trump’s proposals to build more detention centers and step up deportations.
“It will tear families apart and spark fear and panic in communities,” he said.
“While we respect the right of the federal government to control our borders and ensure security for all Americans, we do not believe that a large scale escalation of immigrant detention and intensive increased use of enforcement in immigrant communities is the way to achieve those goals.”
President Obama had previously set records for the number of deportations during his presidency, with over 2.5 million deportations of immigrants.
On Wednesday, Trump also called for “sanctuary cities” that harbor undocumented immigrants to be barred from federal funding.
“Aliens who illegally enter the United States without inspection or admission present a significant threat to national security and public safety,” he stated.
“The recent surge of illegal immigration at the southern border with Mexico has placed a significant strain on Federal resources and overwhelmed agencies charged with border security and immigration enforcement, as well as the local communities into which many of the aliens are placed.”
Responding to the announcement, Bishop Vasquez said, “We fear that the policies announced today will make it much more difficult for the vulnerable to access protection in our country.”
“We will continue to support and stand in solidarity with immigrant families,” he continued. “We remind our communities and our nation that these families have intrinsic value as children of God.”
One Congressman's plea to the US: Don't abandon Iraq's Christians
Washington D.C., Jan 6, 2017 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - Christian survivors of the ISIS genocide have serious humanitarian needs, but their faith remains strong, one congressman said after his visit to displaced Christians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The faith of Christians, “every one of them,” has grown “stronger” since ISIS militants forced them from their homes in Northern Iraq and in and around Erbil where they have been living for over two years, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) told CNA in an interview.
Rep. Smith, chair of the House global human rights subcommittee, recently traveled to Erbil, Iraq to visit with survivors of the ISIS genocide there, most of them Christian. He also met with religious leaders and U.S. and United Nations officials.
The faith of the Christians, he said, “has been tested in fire, and they are not capitulating, just the opposite. They love the Lord, and they love the Blessed Mother.”
Currently around 70,000 displaced Christians are living in and around Erbil in the Kurdistan Region, some of them waiting to return to their homes in Mosul or the Nineveh Plain but others looking to depart the region.
Rep. Smith said the “biggest takeaway” from his trip to Iraq just before Christmas was “the unmet need” for humanitarian aid of the tens of thousands of Christians who are relying largely upon charities like the Knights of Columbus for their needs, which include food, blankets, and medical care.
In March of 2016, the U.S. had declared that ISIS was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims.
Despite Christians being recognized as genocide victims, which should provide them with special humanitarian relief and refugee status, that has not happened, Rep. Smith said.
Displaced Christians in the region had not received any aid from U.S. aid agencies or the United Nations in two years, said Steve Rasche, the legal counsel and director of IDP resettlement programs for the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil. Rasche gave a testimony before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe in September of 2016.
“Humanitarian aid has not flowed to these individuals,” Rep. Smith said, and neither do they have “access to an asylum interview, so if they can’t go back, they can come here.”
“It is winter. It is cold,” he warned of the situation the refugees face, in danger of sickness during the wet winter. “Disease has been mitigated to a large extent, but that can change.”
During his visit, Smith said, he saw the camp of about 6,000 displaced persons was “clean” and “run by selfless Christian leaders” including Archbishop Bashar Wada of the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil.
The leaders, who serve displaced persons of all faiths – including Yazidis and Muslims – “want nothing more than to help those who have been hurt by this genocide. It is absolutely Matthew 25.”
“The diocese is doing an unbelievable job with almost nothing,” he added, but the U.S. needs to step up its humanitarian assistance. Poland and Hungary already have, he pointed out, with the Hungarian government opening an office with a budget of over $3 million euros to aid persecuted Christians.
Rep. Smith related how displaced persons and one bishop – the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf – told him they felt abandoned by the U.S. “No one’s come to any of these places and just asking, ‘How are the Christians doing?’” Smith noted, saying his delegation “did just that.”
Furthermore, he added that the UN Office on the Prevention of Genocide is reportedly considering leaving Christians out of their list of recognized victims of genocide by ISIS.
And yet the faith of the Christians and their leaders remains strong.
The bishops in the region are “true leaders of the faith,” Rep. Smith said, with each bishop acting not only as the “spiritual leader” of the people but also obtaining “the material support to help people live.”
Smith related one instance where he met with a group of internally-displaced families and asked the priest present to lead a group prayer. The priest prayed the “Our Father” in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
“It was moving, and I think all of us were moved by that when he prayed,” he said.
To deal with the pressing humanitarian problem and better ensure that genocide perpetrators are punished, Smith and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) have introduced the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act in Congress.
Among other things, the bill would ensure that the genocide victims receive what is due them – humanitarian relief, asylum interviews if they wish to leave the country, and punishment for the perpetrators of genocide so that people feel secure enough to return to their homes.
It would provide a “P-2” designation for the victims of ISIS genocide, expediting their refugee resettlement process if they wished to leave the region.
It would also strengthen the “prosecutorial” case against the genocide perpetrators, broadening the ability of the U.S. to prosecute genocide perpetrators living in the country. The bill has been endorsed by all former U.S. Ambassadors-at-Large for War Crimes, Smith said.
He has also sponsored a resolution to set up an ad hoc war crimes tribunal in the region, which he says could be far more effective than the International Criminal Court which has made only two convictions in over a dozen years, both of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
Two Iraqi Christian leaders, Sister Diana Momeka and Fr. Benham Benoka, told CNA previously that some Christian homes in the Nineveh Plain region were liberated from ISIS control, but when Christian residents returned to their homes, they found destruction, vandalism, booby traps, betrayal by their neighbors, and threats telling them they had no place anymore in the region.
Rep. Smith said that in Erbil, the bishops told him many Christians have not yet returned home because they are not convinced that it is secure yet.
“And I think that dashed a ‘maybe we return in a year, in half a year,’” he said of the previous optimism that Christians could return home soon.