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Priest uses chalice to bring home immigration issue to bishops
Catholic News Service June 17, 2017
During the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring assembly in Indianapolis the issue of migrants and refugees was front and center. The commissions and groups instituted by the bishops have been committed in recent years to addressing rising concerns about immigration policy and the lack of one.
INDIANAPOLIS - Holy Cross Father Daniel Groody stood before the U.S. bishops June 14 and held up a chalice. It was not special in appearance, but rather in the story it told.
The chalice was handcrafted primarily with wood from a refugee boat that landed upon the beaches of Lampedusa, the Mediterranean island from which Pope Francis cast a wreath into the waters to remember the thousands of refugees who lost their lives there, attempting to flee persecution.
The base of the chalice was formed from mesquite, a common wood along the U.S.-Mexico border crossed by immigrants seeking better lives in America.
Together, he said, the materials of the chalice speak to the plight of immigrants, a topic addressed during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring assembly in Indianapolis.
“Migration is an incredibly, incredibly complex issue, and those who don’t realize its complexity either aren’t listening, or they don’t understand,” said Groody, an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and director of immigration initiatives at the university’s Institute for Latino Studies.
“And second, migration is an incredibly, incredibly simple issue, and those who don’t realize its simplicity either aren’t listening, or they don’t understand,” he said.
Along those lines of duality, Groody noted the need to “move people beyond binary language: legal or illegal, citizen or alien, native or foreigner, and to try to go to the deeper river of these issues."
He spoke of the tensions in the topic of immigration, the tension between sovereign rights and human rights, between civil law and natural law, and between national security and human security.
Groody’s reflection preceded a review by the working group on migrants and refugees created out of the bishops’ general assembly last November.
The group was to complete its work by this spring meeting, but “recognizing the continued urgency” so many migration and refugee issues present, Cardinal Daniel N. Dinardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president, announced June 15 he was extending the group…
Gomez noted that part of the reason the group was created last November was the bishops’ “desire for a strong response to the anticipated policies of the incoming administration regarding refugees and immigrants.”
cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/06/17/priest-uses-chalice-bring-home-immigration-issue-bishops
Catholic News Service June 17, 2017
During the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring assembly in Indianapolis the issue of migrants and refugees was front and center. The commissions and groups instituted by the bishops have been committed in recent years to addressing rising concerns about immigration policy and the lack of one.
INDIANAPOLIS - Holy Cross Father Daniel Groody stood before the U.S. bishops June 14 and held up a chalice. It was not special in appearance, but rather in the story it told.
The chalice was handcrafted primarily with wood from a refugee boat that landed upon the beaches of Lampedusa, the Mediterranean island from which Pope Francis cast a wreath into the waters to remember the thousands of refugees who lost their lives there, attempting to flee persecution.
The base of the chalice was formed from mesquite, a common wood along the U.S.-Mexico border crossed by immigrants seeking better lives in America.
Together, he said, the materials of the chalice speak to the plight of immigrants, a topic addressed during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring assembly in Indianapolis.
“Migration is an incredibly, incredibly complex issue, and those who don’t realize its complexity either aren’t listening, or they don’t understand,” said Groody, an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and director of immigration initiatives at the university’s Institute for Latino Studies.
“And second, migration is an incredibly, incredibly simple issue, and those who don’t realize its simplicity either aren’t listening, or they don’t understand,” he said.
Along those lines of duality, Groody noted the need to “move people beyond binary language: legal or illegal, citizen or alien, native or foreigner, and to try to go to the deeper river of these issues."
He spoke of the tensions in the topic of immigration, the tension between sovereign rights and human rights, between civil law and natural law, and between national security and human security.
Groody’s reflection preceded a review by the working group on migrants and refugees created out of the bishops’ general assembly last November.
The group was to complete its work by this spring meeting, but “recognizing the continued urgency” so many migration and refugee issues present, Cardinal Daniel N. Dinardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president, announced June 15 he was extending the group…
Gomez noted that part of the reason the group was created last November was the bishops’ “desire for a strong response to the anticipated policies of the incoming administration regarding refugees and immigrants.”
cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/06/17/priest-uses-chalice-bring-home-immigration-issue-bishops