Open the Borders!

 Oaxaca, Mexico, Mar 8, 2021 / 11:41 am MT (CNA).- A group of feminists taking part in a women’s rights march in Oaxaca City on Sunday attacked Ss. Cosmas and Damian parish, as well as other buildings, both public and private.

As part of the protests organized in Mexico for International Women's Day, masked women armed with stout sticks broke open the outer doors of Ss. Cosmas and Damian March 7, smashed the windows of the inner doors, gained entry and stormed inside to tag the interior with graffiti, destroy glass cases, windows, pews, and a confessional.

A statue of Saint Jude was also destroyed, and one of the pews was damaged and thrown out onto the street.

As they passed through the city, they also damaged the Oaxaca Cathedral, the state Ministry of Health, and other private and public buildings.

According to the Mexican news agency Quadratín, the women were protesting commonplace sexual harassment, rapes, killings, and disappeared women, and called for "an end to femicide and transfemicide."

Mexico is 85% "Catholic"

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 22, 2020 / 01:31 pm (CNA).- Pro-life advocates in Mexico are speaking out against a leaked draft copy of Mexico’s revised National Criminal Code, which would legalize abortion throughout the country at all stages of pregnancy.

The draft copy, which was leaked to the press in recent days, is expected to be presented to Mexico’s federal congress in the coming weeks. The new criminal code is one of 14 reforms announced recently by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The document omits the entire section of the current code that criminalizes abortion and establishes the penalties for the practitioner and pregnant woman involved.

They Can Stay at Your House! Or at Least in Your Neighborhood!

 Pretty sure illegal immigrants don't have Constitutional Rights.

Washington D.C., Sep 10, 2019 / 12:08 pm (CNA).- A Catholic group is suing the Trump administration over the restriction of protections granted to asylum seekers in the U.S.
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), Democracy Forward, and Proskauer Rose LLP filed a lawsuit Sept. 6 arguing that the Trump administration’s new policies violate the statutory rights of asylum seekers and were issued without notice.
 

Mexican women and babies apply for visas.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for D.C., also argues that the new policies were issued invalidly by Ken Cuccinnelli, who the groups claim was appointed unlawfully as head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Cuccinnelli as “acting director” of USCIS after it became clear that the Senate was unlikely to confirm him as permanent director.

 Who We Are

Embracing the Gospel value of welcoming the stranger, CLINIC promotes the dignity and protects the rights of immigrants in partnership with a dedicated network of Catholic and community immigration legal programs.

So...blah, blah blah, blah blah. I think it's a front for the USCCB.

Welll, THAT'S One Less Envelope I'll Have To Deal With

Pope Francis has donated 500,000 dollars to assist migrants in Mexico. The funds, from the Peter’s Pence collections, will be distributed among 27 projects promoted by sixteen Mexican dioceses and religious congregations, which requested assistance in continuing to provide food, lodging, and basic necessities to the migrants.

According to a statement from Peter’s Pence, “In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometres on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them.”

 In particular, the aid is intended to assist the more than 75,000 people who arrived in Mexico in 2018, in six migrant caravans. “All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood”, the statement reads. “The Catholic Church hosts thousands of them in hotels within the dioceses or religious congregations, providing basic necessities, from housing to clothing”.

Instead of funding the Vatican's meddling in America, I suggest you send your donation to :

http://norbertinesisters.org/donate/

Shut Up, I Explained

 

ROME, Italy, April 1, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis criticized governments who make border walls, saying, “He who builds a wall will become a prisoner of the wall he built.”
The comment came in response to a question at the Vatican from Spanish journalist Jordi Evole. After thanking the Pope for the “privilege” of the interview, Evole asked, "What do you think of the proposals of some presidents, such as Donald Trump, to raise up a wall between the United States and Mexico to avoid the wave of migrants?"
The pope answered, “He who builds a wall ends up a prisoner of the wall he built. That’s a universal law. That is what happens on the social and the personal levels. If you build up a wall between people, you will end up a prisoner of the wall you raised up.”
Apparently responding to critics advocating for national sovereignty who say “‘Yes, but I am defending my autonomy,’” the Pope answered, “‘You’re defining yourself as mushroom.’ He’s a prisoner.”

 MEANWHILE TO THE SOUTH...


Cuernavaca, Mexico, Apr 2, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The Bishop of Cuernavaca, Mexico has encouraged Catholics to intensify their prayers for peace, after the publication of a report that 15 Mexican cities figure among the most violent in the world.
Mexico’s Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice prepares each year a list of the 50 most violent cities in the world, on the basis of the number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The March 12 report said that during 2018 the most dangerous global cities were Tijuana and Acapulco.

Victoria, Juárez and  Irapuato hold fourth, fifth and sixth place. Further down the list are Cancún, Culiacán, Uruapan, Obregón, Coatzacoalcos, Celaya, Ensenada, Tepic, Reynosa and Chihuahua.

Caracas, Venezuela, holds third place. Only eight cities are not in Latin America. 

What? During the USCCB "Building Communities of Welcome" Week?

Mexican President Obrador Calls For Border Wall To Help Keep Out Drunk College Students From Entering Country During Spring Break

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took to national television Tuesday night in his battle over his proposed border wall to keep out drunk college students from the country during spring break.

Describing the situation at places like Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta during the months of February and April as a “growing crisis,” Obrador urged Congress to give him close to $97 billion pesos to keep out “undesirables.”

“This is a crisis of debauchery—a crisis of the heart and of the liver,” Obrador said. “For the Mexican people, it is a mental crisis. Yes, we make money during these months, but at what cost?”

Obrador went on to say that every year, “hundreds of thousands of Katlyns, Brittanys, Tiffanys, Taylors, and Kaitlyns pour into this country from different sororities every year, endangering the mental security of the Mexican people.”

“That’s not even counting the wolves that accompany many of these women—the Brads, Chads, Dillons, Zachs, and, of course, Connors,” the President went on to say.

In a brief joint response from Southern California, Fraternity and Sorority leaders Chelsea and Dax accused Obrador of being lame.

The USCCB Zigs; Mexico Zags

 In June 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration and The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, INC. (CLINIC) Board of Directors resolved to make comprehensive immigration reform, with special emphasis on legalization, a major public policy priority within the Church. Many other national Catholic institutions have also made legalization a policy priority.

Meanwhile.....

Tijuana, Mexico, Oct 16, 2018 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Tijuana in northern Mexico has confirmed the death of Fr. Ímar Arturo Orta, who was allegedly murdered on Oct. 12.

According to local press, the priest had been missing for three days when his body was found by authorities in an abandoned car with several bullet wounds.

An anonymous official from the state prosecutor's office who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident has said that the priest’s death is being investigated as a homicide, according to the Associated Press.

 

Fr. Arturo is one of at least 26 priests who have been killed in Mexico since 2012, when President Enrique Pena Nieto first took office, and the seventh priest killed this year, according to reports from the Catholic Multimedia Center. Two priests in Mexico are also currently reported missing.

There Seems To Be A Trend Developing Here...

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 30, 2018 / 11:20 am (ACI Prensa).- An 84-year-old priest of the Archdiocese of Mexico City was found dead in Cuernavaca, the capital of Mexico’s Morelos state, April 25.
Fr. Moisés Fabila Reyes had been kidnapped April 3. According to local media, his family had decided not to publicize the kidnapping, and to keep the Church out of the negotiations to free him.

 The announcement comes amid a wave of violence against priests in Mexico. Fr. Rubén Alcántara Díaz was found murdered April 18, and Fr. Juan Miguel Contreras was shot to death in his church April 20.


 I wonder what the USCCB has to say.... 

The Catholic Church in the United States is an immigrant Church with a long history of embracing diverse newcomers and providing assistance and pastoral care to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and people on the move.  Our Church has responded to Christ’s call for us to “welcome the stranger among us,” for in this encounter with the immigrant, the migrant, and the refugee in our midst, we encounter Christ.

Maybe this is the USCCB's plan to get rid of all our excess priests.

Another Murdered Mexican Priest

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 20, 2018 / 03:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Catholic priest in the Diocese of Cuautitlán Izcalli, México, was stabbed to death inside a church Wednesday, local reports said.
The death of Fr. Rubén Alcántara Díaz, judicial vicar of the diocese, makes 22 priests who have been murdered since 2012, the Catholic Multimedia Center reported. 

 I wonder what the USCCB has to say.... 

The Catholic Church in the United States is an immigrant Church with a long history of embracing diverse newcomers and providing assistance and pastoral care to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and people on the move.  Our Church has responded to Christ’s call for us to “welcome the stranger among us,” for in this encounter with the immigrant, the migrant, and the refugee in our midst, we encounter Christ.

Maybe this is the USCCB's plan to get rid of all our excess priests.

"Open the Borders", Demands the USCCB

From the "Be Careful What You Wish For" Department:

Acapulco, Mexico, Feb 6, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Acapulco, Mexico, reported that two priests were murdered early Monday morning, Feb 5.

Fr. Iván Añorve Jaimes, pastor of Holy Family Parish in the town of Las Vigas, and Fr.  Germain Muñiz Garcia, the pastor of Mezcala; were killed in an attack by unidentified individuals in Taxco township.
According to a press release from the Guerrero State Attorney General's Office, the victims were traveling on the Iguala-Taxco highway when they were suddenly cut off by another vehicle, from which shots were fired. The assailants fled the scene.

Father ván Añorve Jaimes and Father Germain Muñiz García.

I Understand the USCCB Better Now

I was on the St. Sylvester Church website (In Brooklyn, NY...I was baptized there) and came across this photo:

It made no sense until I saw this:

 

Clowns carry a portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe as they pay homage to Mexico's patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, December 14, 2017. The streets of Mexico City burst with sound and color as hundreds of clowns went on their annual pilgrimage. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/slideshows/pilgrimage-clowns-mexico-city-guadalupe#1

You Use That Term A Lot...I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means

Washington D.C., Dec 9, 2017 / 03:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops are encouraging Catholics to observe the upcoming Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a day of solidarity with immigrants.
In the nation’s capital, a 12:10 p.m. Mass at St. Peter's Church will mark the Dec. 12 feast day. The Mass will be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, D.C.
Additionally, more than 55 events – including prayers services, Masses, and processions – will be held throughout the U.S. this month. These events, the bishops’ conference said, will honor Our Lady of Guadalupe and will “seek to honor the accomplishments, hopes, fears, and needs of all families who have come to the U.S. seeking a better life.”
“As we enter the Advent season and Christmas approaches, we are reminded of the unique role and importance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a unifier and peacebuilder for communities,” said Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the migration committee at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

MEANWHILE.... how's that whole "peacebuilder for communities" working for our neighbors to the south?

Cathedral of the Lord in Villahermosa

Villahermosa, Mexico, Dec 9, 2017 / 06:08 am (ACI Prensa).- A diocese in one of Mexico's most violence-ridden states has indicated it will avoid scheduling Masses for Christmas and its octave at “high risk” times. It has also asked the state's police to protect parishioners.
“With respect to the problem of insecurity, for the most part the established schedule has been kept, but we are trying to avoid scheduling certain times that could be high risk,” Fr. José Luis Compeán Rueda, vicar general of the Diocese of Tabasco, said at a Dec. 3 press conference in Villahermosa, capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco.
 The Catholic Multimedia Center released a report in August showing that Tabasco is one of the most dangerous states for priests, and that Mexico is the most violent country for priests in Latin America.

Priests for Trump

Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 11, 2017 / 11:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For the ninth year in a row, Mexico is the most violent country in Latin America for priests, said a report from the Catholic Multimedia Center.

The report covers 2012 to 2017, which aligns with the presidency of current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. During this time, 19 priests and two lay persons were murdered, and two priests reported as missing.  

“This year, 2017 specifically, has been disastrous for the priesthood in Mexico,” the Catholic Multimedia Center reported. “Four murders, two thwarted kidnappings, two iconic attacks, one at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City and the other at the Offices of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, as well as hundreds of threats and extortions of priests and bishops.”

Shut Up, He Explained

I'm no expert, but I am pretty sure Jesus never mentioned anything about illegal immigration. I am getting tired of Bishops in the United States (and the Pope) lecturing to me about what an awful person I am for thinking a secure border makes good sense.

El Paso, Texas, Jul 19, 2017 / 03:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A U.S. bishop (Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso) on the border of Mexico hopes his new pastoral letter on migration will turn the hearts of Catholics to encounter their migrant brothers and sisters in a concrete way.

"What does Jesus have to say about the poor, about the marginalized, about what they can actually teach us and how they are the really important ones in the Kingdom of God?” he reflected.

Bishop Seitz began his letter by stating some of the great challenges facing migrant communities in the U.S., and how the Church should respond to them.

“Since Jesus announced Good News to the poor, our Church has been called to stand with the suffering,” he wrote, saying that “migrants are living through a dark night of fear and uncertainty.”

“Recently we have witnessed indefensible, hateful words towards our neighbors in Mexico, the demonization of migrants, even of those children known as Dreamers, and destructive language about our border,” he said.

He also pointed to other problems – the breaking up of families by deportations, an increase in deportations of those without criminal records, and the detention of asylum seekers.

The journey north to the U.S. through Mexico is a dangerous one, Bishop Seitz said, with harsh desert conditions, drug trafficking, and smugglers all posing a danger to migrants. Yet once they reach the border, “increased militarization and more walls will only make this journey even more dangerous.”

“As God’s people here on the border, we are called to transform this desert, making refreshing pools of the burning sands of injustice and quenching the thirst of the oppressed,” he wrote.

Mexico...the new Spain!

Over the past nine years, Spain has been hit particularly hard by the worldwide economic crisis.

It was in recession from 2008-2009 and 2011-2013, and unemployment in the country is at about 19 percent, with unemployment rates twice as high for people under the age of 25, forcing younger generations to leave the country to find work.

Spaniards are cutting back on expenses everywhere, including opting for smaller, civil wedding ceremonies and celebrations rather than large church weddings, which are down 50 percent since the crisis began.

But there is one thing for which Spaniards are still willing to splurge: First Communion parties.

Parties include fancy, wedding-like dresses for girls, cake, food, photoshoots, and entertainment. Sometimes families will even borrow money or take out a loan in order to “have the communion that God demands,” Francesc Nuñez, sociologist at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, told Marketplace.

It’s a distinctly religious phenomenon too, he noted, as there is no secular “proxy” for a First Communion party, as there are for events like wedding ceremonies. Despite waning numbers of active churchgoers, approximately 70 percent of Spaniards still self-identify as Catholic.

Which explains my having to vacuum the Church - again - last Friday.

Next...Pigs Fly!

Believe it or not, there's good news from Mexico!

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 30, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA).- Esmeralda Solís Gonzáles is a young Mexican woman who was crowned last year as a beauty queen in her native town – and now she's joined the Poor Clare Missiries of the Blessed Sacrament.

Esmeralda was born April 12, 1997 in Valle de Guadalupe, Jalisco State, to a Catholic family. She currently resides at the convent of the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament of Cuernavaca in Morelos State, after leaving her career as a nutritionist.

“You really don't know what religious life is until you're within it. So far I have been able to see from another perspective what the world is and what it offers you,” Esmeralda told CNA.

The Poor Clare's website is here.

Bishop Gomez Channels Noted Theologian Nancy Pelosi

When I become Pope, I am making it mandatory that all Bishops be required to take a course in Constitutional Law and Macroeconomics.

Washington D.C., Mar 30, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In recent months, national debates over immigration and deportation have reached a fever pitch in the wake of President Trump's election.

But for Archbishop Jose Gomez, both Catholic principles and the history of America as a home to people from a variety of backgrounds means that the immigration debate has higher stakes than just law enforcement or national sovereignty.

“For me, and for the Catholic Church in this country, immigration is about people. It is about families,” the archbishop said in a March 23 talk at the Catholic University of America.

“We are talking about souls, not statistics.”

How about this statistic? Mexico deports more illegal aliens per year than the United States. Not only that, it is a FELONY to be an illegal alien in Mexico.

 “These are just ordinary moms and dads – just like your parents – who want to give their kids a better life.”

Yup. Just like my parents. Except for the whole braking the law thing.

The archbishop noted that almost all Americans are of immigrant heritage. “But immigration to this country has never been easy.” He pointed out that immigrant groups like the Irish have faced discrimination and hardship.

The Archbishop is right - it wasn't easy to leave the home country for a new life in America. But they did it anyway. LEGALLY.

We 'benefit' and depend every day on an economy that is built on the backs of undocumented workers. It is just a fact. 

Supply and demand, Bishop. Increased numbers of unskilled workers drives down the price paid for workers. Somebody suffers - poor citizens, especially young Black men.

“Something we should think about: the first non-indigenous language spoken in this country was not English. It was Spanish. We need to really think about what the means,” he said.

I've thought about it and have one question - so what? There are no states that are predominantly Spanish speaking. None of the original states had a lot of Spanish speakers. The Roman invaders of England spoke Latin, which means it was spoken in England before English (which is Germanic anyway).

Mexican Bishop Logic

Mexico’s biggest Catholic archdiocese says that any of the country’s citizens who help build President Trump’s planned border wall will be immoral traitors.

A blistering editorial in Desde la fe, the archdiocese’s weekly publication published, urged the government on Sunday to push back  is against companies looking to profit from the wall, Reuters reported.

“Any company intending to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland,” the editorial said.

Got that? It is IMMORAL to try to stop someone from doing something illegal. Ergo, it is MORAL is you DON'T try to stop them. And black is white. I get a feeling the bishops of Mexico are trying to reduce their work loads.

Thankfully, Pope Francis Was Unavailable For Comment

I Think That is Mexican for "You Bastards".

Another Catholic priest in Mexico kidnapped, remains missing

Coming on the heels of the kidnapping and murder of two Catholic priests in Mexico over the weekend, a third one was reportedly taken from his church on Monday and remains missing.
Father José Alfredo López Guillen of the state of Michoacán, one of the most violent zones in the country, reportedly was taken on Monday by people who remain unknown. Items from the parochial house and his car are also missing.
The news about the kidnapping was shared by Cardinal Alberto Suárez Inda of the diocese of Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. His diocese published a video through YouTube and Twitter, where the cardinal says: “We ask God that his integrity, his life, are respected, so that he can soon go back to his ministry.”
Suárez Inda, created cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015, also prayed for peace, respect for life and the conversion of those who spend their lives doing wrong to others.
“This barbarity is in no way justified,” he said.
Michoacán has long suffered the consequences of organized crime and drug trade, and the disappearance of López Guillen is far from being an isolated case.
Fathers Alejo Nabor Jimenez Juarez and Jose Alfredo Suarez de la Cruz had been kidnapped last week in Veracruz, a region also marred by drug trade and organized crime, and found murdered on Monday, the same day the priest from Michoacán went missing.

They Kept the Barbarians Out, Didn't They?

The new archbishop of Tijuana, Mexico, visited the US-Mexican border on August 11, leaned on the border fence, and said, “We need to build bridges, and tear down walls.”
Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón also said that he hoped that US presidential candidate Donald Trump “will always have people near him who will help him make a profound reflection that would allow him to re-orient his convictions ... for the benefit of the entire human community beyond the interests of one single country,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Father Patrick Murphy, who operates a shelter on the border, said that the archbishop has “worked in Michoacan, where a lot of deportees are from, and where a lot of people are coming from to ask for political asylum. He knows the reality.”

 Pope Francis was unavailable for comment.