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Currents News: Special Edition – Friday, 09/02/22

We’re looking back at the biggest stories of the summer, starting with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade in June.

Also in June, Catholics took to the streets for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

In July, The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel attracted thousands to Williamsburg.

And in August, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Cathedral Basilica of St James – the first church built on Long Island.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 09/01/22

The new Superintendent of Schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn has hit the ground running.

As New York deals with its own migrant crisis, the issue remains at the southern border.

If you’re headed out of town for the Labor Day weekend, you’re not alone.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday, 08/31/22

Times Square has now been deemed a “gun free zone.” New signs have gone up to alert gun owners to keep their firearms at home.

Buses filled with migrants continue to arrive in New York City from Texas.

Students in Uvalde, Texas will head back to the classroom next week.

Bishop DiMarzio: Migrants are ‘Christ in Disguise’; Says Influx is a ‘Political Act’

Walking with Migrants: Busing Migrants to States Another Reminder Reform Is ‘Long Overdue’

By Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio

Over the past five months, the governors of Texas and Arizona have spearheaded an effort to transport asylum seekers and other migrants, processed by federal immigration officials at the U.S.-Mexico border, to Washington, D.C., and the New York metropolitan area. In effect, the governors are using migrants and refugees as tools to try to punish political leaders and jurisdictions for their more supportive positions on migrants and asylum-seekers.

This new initiative has a historical precedent, and it is a negative one. It is reminiscent of the way some Southern states bought bus tickets for unwilling black “migrants” and sent them to the Northeast after World War II. Even today, it is a sad sight to see people getting off buses at all hours of the day and night, exhausted, disoriented, some temporarily homeless, and wondering where they should go.

Most of these migrants do not have relatives or connections in the communities to which they are being sent. Many wish to await adjudication of their cases or removal, but they have no choice in the matter.

In New York City, some migrants are being dropped off at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and some are sent to Catholic Charities offices without any notice to municipal authorities or to our agencies. Catholic Charities agencies in New York City are helping by providing food and other critical resources, as is happening around the country. Sharing the responsibility for migrants and others in need is always possible in critical situations, but it should be accomplished in a cooperative manner that respects the people being assisted. Certainly, the federal government could be more helpful to local officials who are concerned about added costs for social services and schools. Of course, local governments know how to influence the federal system, and some aid might be on the way.

This humanitarian problem, however, cannot be solved entirely on the local level. There are two potential solutions that can help stem the flow of asylum seekers. One would be to commit significantly to refugee processing in countries where this is possible. The second solution is greater international cooperation and focuses on the causes of

displacement. The root causes of these people leaving their home countries are poverty, violence, political repression, climate change, and political instability. None of these conditions can easily be changed or ameliorated, but they need far more serious attention.

The political rhetoric around this issue also needs to be addressed. One example is the baseless racist conspiracy theory that the government is trying to replace the white population with foreign-born people of color. Eventual votes from these imported persons are said to be the motivating factor for this conspiracy. However, migrants and refugees take core U.S. ideals very seriously, contribute significantly to our communities, and have a range of political views and affiliations.

To some, this theory sounds like a convenient explanation of the demographic shift that is occurring in our country, which is due to historically low rates of births. Another issue that needs to be addressed is the claim of adverse economic impact on American citizens and permanent residents. Reputable studies always find positives and negatives resulting from immigration in the labor market, but the overall impact is positive, especially when there are unfilled jobs in the labor market.

We need to keep ourselves focused on the real problem, which is that immigration reform is long overdue. Our political system at this time seems incapable of compromising, which truly is at the heart of lawmaking in a democracy. Immigration is in the national interest.

Our immigration policies should be reformed based on the principles of Catholic teaching on migration. They should not be based on the political stunts we are experiencing today.

Gorbachev, St. John Paul had Great Appreciation for Each Other

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who died Aug. 30 in Moscow after a long illness, met several times with St. John Paul II, and the two often exchanged words of appreciation for each other.

The two leaders met in 1989 and again in 1990, when Gorbachev was still president of the Soviet Union and was introducing political and economic reforms in his country, as well as on other occasions. Both men were key in the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who served as papal spokesman for St. John Paul II and often reported on their meetings, later called Gorbachev the most important figure in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the wall in an article published Nov. 5, 2009, in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Navarro-Valls cited Pope John Paul’s support for the Polish labor union Solidarity as a key development in the pro-democracy movement in the region. But he said Gorbachev saw that the political movement in Eastern Europe was popular and unstoppable, and the Soviet leader avoided military repression and even verbal opposition.

Navarro-Valls said that when Gorbachev first met with Pope John Paul in December 1989, less than a month after the wall’s collapse, the two leaders “understood each other immediately.”

“Both clearly understood the direction that history had begun to take. Both felt that freedom was not a political fact but a human dimension that was essential and not able to be suppressed,” Navarro-Valls said.

A transcript of that 1989 meeting showed St. John Paul and Gorbachev expressed broad agreement on the need for greater religious freedom in the Soviet Union, for a renewal of ethical and moral values, and for improved Catholic-Orthodox relations.

The two leaders also agreed that at a time of upheaval in Eastern Europe, the region should not be expected to simply import Western values wholesale.

“It would be wrong for someone to claim that changes in Europe and the world should follow the Western model. This goes against my deep convictions,” the late pope said.

“Europe, as a participant in world history, should breathe with two lungs,” the pope added, using one of his favorite metaphors for harmony between East and West on the continent.

“That is a very appropriate image,” Gorbachev replied.

Pope John Paul pressed Gorbachev on the possibility of the Vatican and the Soviet Union exchanging diplomatic representatives, which he felt would aid in resolving religious freedom problems and other issues. Gorbachev responded positively, saying that “we approve such an approach” while cautioning against acting too quickly.

In the year that followed the papal audience, Gorbachev followed through on several issues raised by the pope: The Soviet Union enacted a law to protect religious freedom, allowed the Ukrainian Catholic Church to come out from underground and welcomed a Vatican ambassador to Moscow.

After St. John Paul died in 2005, Gorbachev called him “the No. 1 humanist on the planet.”

Gorbachev, 91, was general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and Soviet president 1990-91. At its height, the Soviet bloc included 15 countries in Eastern and Central Europe, and in most countries, Catholicism was repressed.

But in 1988, Gorbachev welcomed a top-level church delegation to Moscow for ceremonies commemorating the millennium of Christianity in the region. Early 1989 saw the restoration of the Lithuanian Catholic hierarchy, the return of the Vilnius cathedral and the freeing of a Lithuanian archbishop from house arrest.

In that period, the then-Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, summed up what Gorbachev meant to the church: “We are always ready to dialogue. What was lacking was a partner. Now a partner exists.”

Under Gorbachev’s leadership, in 1990 the Soviet Union passed a freedom of religion law that rolled back decades of communist restrictions on churches, including those against religious instruction and freedom of association. It legalized the 5-million-member Ukrainian Catholic Church and restored some of its churches and other properties.

Several bishops were named in Soviet republics with no interference from the government. The government extended an invitation for a papal visit — which has never occurred — and policy statements by Soviet officials indicated growing recognition that religion represents a cultural strength.