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Weekly updates on Christian persecution around the globe. Keep a prayerful watch on what is happening with your brothers and sisters!

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Sister Patricia Rogucki, a Baltimore Archdiocese nun, appeals to Speaker of the House, John Boehner to use his "power and influence to bring about a more humane and Gospel-centered solution" to the intense suffering of the youth of Central America who opt to leave their countries for the United States because of the wide-spread, gang-related violence in their own nations. 

 

THE ON-GOING IMMIGRATION CRISIS AND A LETTER FROM CENTRAL AMERICA

 

My Dear Sisters and Brothers:

 

 The critical situation along our southern border with Mexico does not appear to have abated. Young, unaccompanied children continue to try to cross over with the hope of uniting with a family member already living in the United States. Unfortunately, in spite of the challenge facing our nation, our government in Washington has been unsuccessful in passing legislation to increase the funding needed not only to provide proper security at the border but more importantly to offer adequate care for those who are arriving inside our country and require the basic needs of life: food, clothing, shelter and medical assistance.

 

Recently, Sister Patricia (Patti Ann) Rogucki, S.F.C.C.  who is spending her 25th summer working in Central America sent me a copy of the letter she wrote to Congressman John Boehner, Speaker of the House. She pleads with him to use his "power and influence to bring about a more humane and Gospel-centered solution" to the intense suffering of the youth of Central America who opt to leave their countries for the United States because of the wide-spread, gang-related violence in their own nations. Their hope is to find safety and security with a family member in our country.

 

In her letter, Sister Patti Ann gives examples from each of the three nations she has visited this summer. In June, when she arrived in El Salvador, the homicide average was ten deaths a day. By the end of the month it had risen to 12 per day in a state the size of Massachusetts and a population of six-and-a-half million people. She then describes a picture of life in the parish where she had been working:

 

"The Catholic parish where I work is divided between two notorious gangs. There is constant insecurity due to growing violence, especially for the youth as they are targets for recruitment by the gangs and threatened with death if they do not join. Just going from one territory to another could be fatal. A single working mother desperately prays daily for the safety of her teen age daughter who attends the parish Catholic school. She is too poor to qualify for a U.S. visa and has no family in the States to sponsor her. There has been a decline in patients at the parish clinic and in the students at the parish night school."

 

Moving from El Salvador in early July, she records the following experience in Guatemala. "In mid-July, I went to Guatemala to visit the Sisters in my Community who have been working there for four decades. They do family ministry among those internally displaced during 36 years of war in Guatemala, in a community plagued by the gangs. The Sisters live in another part of the town near the end of a bus line. One (of the buses) was recently set on fire and a man was shot near the Sisters' driveway entrance. The army set up a small post there."

 

After two weeks in Guatemala, Sister Patti Ann entered Honduras and shared this experience with Congressman Boehner. "A woman, trained by the Franciscans to be a Delegate of the Word in her parish, explained that once children become adolescents, they can no longer go to school without risk...Attending outside activities can be fatal. The problem is gang recruitment. There is only confidence in God as they pray daily for protection for their families. If their children do study and graduate, at great sacrifice, there are no jobs for them, only for the politically connected. One of the men, also a Delegate of the Word, said that it feels like the government is trying to suffocate the poor as the rich get more. He wrote, 'To Hondurans alone remains the violence and bloodshed and deaths, to the United States, the dollars and the drugs. If they did not consume so much in drugs, there would not be such bloodshed in Honduras'."

 

The picture Sister Patti Ann paints for Congressman Boehner is grim. 

 In reading these stories, many of our parishioners ask, "What can we do?" A clear response to that query is BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE PARISH JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMITTEE'S IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE.  The next meeting of the Justice and Peace Committee will be Thursday, September 11th, at 7:30 pm in Ignatian Hall. The Immigration Subcommittee will be giving a presentation at that meeting. The subcommittee is considering a number of steps, including a time for Sister Patti Ann to address the parish about her summer in Central America when she returns to the USA. 

 

If you are interested in the Justice and Peace Committee's work, please contact the chairperson, Candra Healy at: chealy@loyola.edu. You also may contact Dr. Augusto at: afrisper@gmail.com who chairs the subcommittee on immigration. 

 

 Gratefully in Christ,