News - January 2018 RSS Feed

Our country’s determination to protect our southern border comes with tangible costs. We lose the talents, skills and dedicated labor of hundreds of thousands of productive immigrants. We lose their participation in our parishes — 40 percent of all growth in registered parishioners in Catholic parishes between 2005 and 2010 was from Hispanic or Latino/a Catholics, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. We lose their attendance in our schools and engagement in our neighborhoods. We lose their diversity, one of the most positive traits of these United States.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger DAVENPORT — A police report detailing threats on the lives of a family from El Salvador is one of the documents on diocesan Immigration Counselor Gricelda Garnica’s desk. She is striving to assist the Illinois family to prevent the deportation of two of their loved ones — the wife of one of the siblings and the sister of the siblings, both of whom are undocumented.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger FORT MADISON — Thirteen inmates rise from their chairs inside the Iowa State Penitentiary chapel and sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” during an early Christmas Mass Dec. 20 with Bishop Thomas Zinkula. “The inmates obviously can’t leave the penitentiary to attend Mass at a church somewhere, so we, the Church, need to bring the Mass to them,” Bishop Zinkula says later.

By Anne Marie Amacher The Catholic Messenger DAVENPORT — Three weeks of visits to schools, orphanages, hospitals, clinics, a minor seminary and more were part of a needs assessment missionary trip to Africa for Pat Cannaday and Maribeth Green of Holy Family Parish. The two spoke to a group at the parish in late December about their trip earlier in the year to Tanzania, Africa. “Asante,” Cannaday told the group. “That is the Swahili word for thank you.”

As the 45th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision approaches, Catholics are encouraged to take part in “9 Days for Life,” a digital pilgrimage of prayer and action focused on cherishing the gift of every person’s life.