Deporting Guatemalans has spread Covid-19 report says
WASHINGTON (CNS): A report by the Washington-based Refugees International organisation charges the immigration policy of the United States (US) with helping the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Guatemala, as federal agencies in the US and Mexico have repatriated infected Guatemalans through deportations.
In Harmful Returns: The Compounded Vulnerabilities of Returned Guatemalans in the Time of Covid-19, a report released on June 23, Refugees International urges that Guatemalans seeking refuge be allowed to apply for asylum in the US instead of being turned over to Mexican authorities or repatriated, and that they be allowed to go with US sponsors while they wait for their day in immigration court.
However, policies such as the Remain in Mexico programme, also called the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, which asks those seeking asylum in the US to wait in Mexico until an immigration court can adjudicate their case, have led to the eventual return home of many Guatemalans and other Central Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, Guatemalan officials halted flights carrying deportees into the country, saying that at least 20 per cent of its Covid-19 cases had resulted from deportees who contracted the virus in US detention centres.
Citing those figures, Refugees International said once they were returned to Guatemala, deportees tested positive for Covid-19, “despite having a clean bill of health documents from the United States.”
And once they return to Guatemala, they were met with stigma, lack of jobs and still facing dangerous conditions in addition to having contracted the virus, the group says.
Polish bishop under investigation for delay in responding to child abuse
VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis named an apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Kalisz, in Poland, that came under scrutiny in a documentary investigating the current bishop’s reported lack and delay of action in responding to accusations of the abuse of minors.
The Vatican announced on June 25 that Archbishop Grzegorz Rys of Lodz, was named apostolic administrator sede plena (with the bishop’s position is not vacant) of Kalisz, meaning the current diocesan bishop, 67-year-old Bishop Edward Janiak, is still head of the diocese.
The appointment came as a Vatican investigation was to get underway regarding accusations that Bishop Janiak failed to take action when told about allegations of abuse perpetrated by a diocesan priest.
Archbishop Wojciech Polak, primate of Poland and the bishops’ delegate for child protection, announced in mid-May that he would ask the Vatican to initiate proceedings against Bishop Janiak for failing to discipline a priest incriminated by the documentary.
Korea’s Catholics mark 70th anniversary of outbreak of Korean War
SEOUL (CNS): Catholics prayed for lasting peace on the divided Korean Peninsula on June 25, marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea said 16 dioceses in South Korea held Masses in succession on the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 conflict, UCAN reported. Churches followed strict safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 by taking temperatures and providing hand sanitisers and distanced seating, Yonhap news agency reported.
Mass at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, was attended by 230 people.
“I wanted to state that although achieving true peace that we all want is a very difficult thing, it is absolutely not impossible,” Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung said.
United Arab Emirates sends aid to Peru
VATICAN (CNS): Ongoing dialogue between Catholic and Muslim educators took a very concrete turn on June 25 when the United Arab Emirates sent 50 tons of humanitarian aid to Iquitos, Peru, which has been overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A plane carried masks, gloves, medical oxygen and food aid to be distributed by the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon.
According to the Peruvian health ministry, as of June 16, the region had 7,781 cases of Covid-19 and 316 people had died.
“This project is one of concrete aid to the Amazon, but it is also a project in which Christians and Muslims are learning to work together, to serve together, and to build a new world together,” Monsignor Guy-Real Thivierge, secretary-general of the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis, told Vatican News.
