Texas Catholic Bishops Seek Clemency for Woman on Death Row

Texas Catholic bishops joined a broad coalition of faith leaders, Latino organizations, anti-domestic violence groups and the Innocence Project in urging state leaders March 22 to commute the death sentence of Melissa Lucio and conduct a meaningful review of her case.

MEXICO U.S. MIGRATION

Visa Delays Causing Hardships for Church Workers in U.S.

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso considers the process temporary religious worker visa recipients endure to maintain lawful status a “race against time” with federal processing backlogs making it difficult to satisfy different permissions and expiration dates.

SUPREME COURT MIGRANTS

U.S. Bishops Cheered By One Migration Ruling, Dismayed by Another

The current and incoming leaders on migration for the U.S. bishops expressed cautious optimism about a recent court decision mandating that migrants can’t be expelled to “places where they’ll be persecuted or tortured,” but dismay over another striking down protections for unaccompanied minors from immediate expulsion.

PERU U.S. MIGRATION

New Coalition, With Catholic Members, Will Push Congress on Immigration

Representatives from the business sector, faith groups and grassroots organizations that support immigration reform sent Congress a letter March 2, a day after President Biden’s first State of the Union address, urging lawmakers to act on immigration because “simply put, the system is broken.”

WASHINGTON MARCH FOR LIFE

U.S. Prelates Oppose Plan to Codify Roe v. Wade in Federal Law

Ahead of a Senate vote next week, two U.S. Bishops Conference chairpeople have labeled a bill that would codify abortion rights into federal law as “built on a false and despairing narrative” that abortion is the “only, or best, solution to a crisis pregnancy.”

BISHOP-DESIGNATE JACQUES E. FABRE

‘Great Missionary’ With Ties to Brooklyn Named Bishop

Standing behind the podium as the second ever Haitian American to be appointed a bishop in the United States, Bishop-designate Jacques Fabre highlighted how the mindset of people in his native country differs from that of Americans, and how that relates to his new role.