July-August 2018 NewsNotes

Vol. 43, No. 4

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Immigration: Ongoing family separation, asylum crisis – Since early May, Maryknoll missioners along the U.S.-Mexico border and the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns in Washington, D.C. have taken action to end family separation and protect the rights of asylum seekers.

Life under 'zero tolerance' – Maryknoll Sister Ann Hayden reports on the crisis of U.S immigration policy from Peñitas, a small, rural border town in deep south Texas, fourteen miles west of the city of McAllen, site of the largest immigration processing center in the United States where currently thousands of undocumented adults and immigrant children separated from their parents by U.S. Border Patrol are detained. 

Crafting the Global Compact for Migration – UN member states are scheduled to hold their last round of negotiations for the Global Compact for Migration July 9-13 with the goal of producing a final draft document for adoption at the International Migration Conference in Morocco in December. 

Fossil fuel divestment: Ways to go about it – This is the second in a series of articles designed to educate Catholic organizations about ways to participate in the fastest growing divestment campaign in human history - the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Palm oil: A growing problem – This article is the first in a three-part series examining problems with palm oil production.

Israel accused of war crimes in Gaza – Since March 30, Israeli forces have killed 118 Palestinians, including 14 children, and wounded 3,895 with live gunfire as protesters engaged in weekly demonstrations at the border fences separating Gaza and Israel. 

South Sudan: Possible peace agreement – Amid a humanitarian catastrophe the parties to the internecine conflict in South Sudan surprised many international observers when they signed a permanent ceasefire agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on June 27. Whether this ceasefire will hold is anyone’s guess. What we do know is the humanitarian crisis continues.

Latin America: Call for ecological conversion – The following article was published by Development and Peace Caritas Canada on May 10, 2018 and entitled “Latin American bishops make urgent call for an ecological conversion in new pastoral exhortation.”

North Korea: Maryknoll missioners on peace talks – On June 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and U.S. President Donald J. Trump met in Singapore with grandeur and fanfare to discuss the possible dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear program.  

Peru: Org. founded by Maryknoll Sr. Patricia Ryan wins human rights award – Congratulations to Maryknoll Sr. Patricia Ryan and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente (DHUMA), on being named the 2018 recipients of the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award

Resources – Find fact sheets on asylum and family separation, a pastoral letter on elections in Zimbabwe, a news from Nicaragua, and much more.