February 23, 2024

Texas attorney general moves to shut down Catholic migrant shelters

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued a volunteer-run network of Catholic migrant shelters based in El Paso, Texas, aiming to revoke the organization's nonprofit registration. The lawsuit comes after Annunciation House moved to delay handing over documents about its clients to the attorney general.

"The Office of the Attorney General ('OAG') reviewed significant public record information strongly suggesting Annunciation House is engaged in legal violations such as facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house," the office wrote in a press release on Feb. 20.

If Paxton, a Republican, is successful, Annunciation House, which was founded in 1976, could be required to cease sheltering migrants entering Texas. The lawsuit "seeks to revoke Annunciation House's authorization to do business in Texas and asks the court to appoint a receiver to liquidate their assets," Paxton's office wrote.

On its website, Annunciation House says it has hosted more than 500,000 migrants fleeing death squads, civil wars, human rights abuses and poverty.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/texas-attorney-general-moves-shut-down-catholic-migrant-shelters?fbclid=IwAR1SBOCun-nrMcTgUGIc5S5jD2GzDYrodS3S7kTkSRtnAixQY2hLr_v6wKg

Wouldn't it be nice if this woke the bishops up? (Hint. It won't.)

February 7, 2024

LA Skid Row anchors Catholic Worker 'to the suffering world'

https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/la-skid-row-anchors-catholic-worker-suffering-world?fbclid=IwAR05yO3e4IO-Zj8zOXMo_dzBst-2nPq3_fPuuh0GsPJwyYDgACk4KIlZ20Y

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The only people we knew who would be crazy enough to buy shopping carts for homeless people was us, the Catholic Workers. Since that first distribution of shopping carts in front of the police department we have given more than 100,000 shopping carts to homeless people on Skid Row.

One could easily dismiss our project as insane, but it meets the needs of homeless people where they are actually situated in real life. I have seen people turn our carts over, put a tarp on top and sleep inside. The homeless are daily harassed and told to "move on." To do so, they need to be able to move their meager possessions to the next location. They also use our carts for recycling, to earn essential income.

As Skid Row continued to evolve from one homeless encampment into the squalid Beirut and Baghdad refugee encampments of today, we took our fight to the courts. Along with help from civil rights attorney Carol Sobel, we won the constitutional right of homeless people to "security in their property and possessions." We also won the constitutional right of homeless people to be free from the "cruel and unusual punishment" of police harassment and jail time for the "crime" of sleeping on the sidewalks until such time as the city provides additional low cost shelter or housing for them.

As more and more areas of our city — indeed our entire country — begins to look like the tent cities of Skid Row, we must realize that the expanding American economy has left behind and abandoned a significant population to the status of homeless refugees.

February 7, 2024

Journalist O'Loughlin named first executive director of national LGBTQ Catholic ministry

https://www.ncronline.org/news/journalist-oloughlin-named-first-executive-director-national-lgbtq-catholic-ministry?fbclid=IwAR2qdPoQTWF-d15r9U9SbkeOZdVK1qR-yts6Wt4LTO-Rb0oy9ZLEJ24qZJA

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Giving its ministry added journalistic heft, Outreach — a news, opinion and resource site for LGBTQ Catholics that's affiliated with the Jesuit-run America magazine — has named a former Boston Globe and America reporter as its first executive director.

The organization announced Feb. 6 that author and award-winning journalist Michael O'Loughlin will fill the post, where he'll focus on fundraising, assist with strategic planning, help manage the website and annual Outreach conference, and report on LGBTQ Catholics.

"We definitely want him to continue reporting," Jesuit Fr. James Martin, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ Catholics and current editor of the site, said in an email to NCR.

There are a number of organizations that aim to provide welcome and resources to the LGBTQ Catholic community, such as New Ways Ministry, Dignity and Fortunate Families.