This year at his annual blessing of the animals (held in St Francis of Assisi's honour), Haitian immigrant Rev. Jean Beniste invited people to bring their pets to church.

"Bring your pet. Bring your dog and cat. I am a Haitian, and I am not going to eat them," he told the 60-strong crowd.

"I will bless them. I will embrace them. I will embrace you. I will make community with you."

It was the first of several laugh-triggering allusions Beniste and other speakers made in reference to Trump's 10 September allegation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are "eating the pets of the people that live there".

Blessings not curses

While Trump's allegation and similar rumours spread like wildfire on social media, they were swiftly debunked. But Beniste says a problem remained.

The hostile rhetoric had a particularly negative effect on Haitians and other immigrants.

So those gathered at St Paul's Episcopalian Church joined together to turn one of Christianity's more light-hearted rituals — an annual blessing of animals — into an act of good-natured resistance.

The Blessing of the Animals is an early October rite observed by various Christian denominations.

Household pets and sometimes livestock come with their owners to receive a clerical blessing that acknowledges their importance to God.

This year St Paul's service was also about depicting an embattled immigrant group as worthy of trust and empowerment.

That reframing drew new participants who wanted to show solidarity, RNS News reports.

"This year the Blessing of Animals takes on a new, even prophetic, meaning" the Rt Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, wrote when he invited the whole diocese to participate.

"Our gathering of blessing, instead of cursing, can be seen as an act of resistance to a culture that is fomenting violence of thought, speech and action."

Transformational

Hirschfeld told those attending the blessing that the Church's response to the false allegations was like that of Jesus, who defies Herod in Luke 13 and keeps on blessing the people.

"This is a way of turning the energy of the world on its head" Hirschfeld said.

"Let's turn this into a blessing rather than continuing with the vitriol."

Source

• Religion News Service

Rev. Carl Ruby of Central Christian Church addressed the issue directly during a service, declaring "Haitians are not eating pets in Springfield".

Rev. Ruby's remarks came after former President Donald Trump made the unfounded claim during a presidential debate.

The allegation has since gained traction online and caused unrest in the community.

"Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is with us in truth. And the truth is that Haitians are not eating pets in Springfield" said Ruby, gripping the pulpit as he spoke.

Over the past decade, the city has seen an influx of up to 20,000 Haitian migrants who have arrived seeking employment and stability.

Local faith communities including the Central Christian Church have played a key role in supporting these new residents.

Tense atmosphere

Ruby also used the service to call on President Joe Biden and former President Trump to help ease tensions.

He appealed to Trump to retract his statements and urged hate groups to leave the city. At the same time, he asked President Biden to provide more resources to help the city manage the growing population.

The atmosphere in Springfield has been tense following Trump's comments.

Local schools, hospitals and government offices faced bomb threats last week, forcing closures.

Additionally, flyers from a white supremacist group known as the Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were circulated, calling for the removal of Haitians from the area.

Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio which provides migrant services has also been affected. Tony Stieritz, the charity's chief executive, revealed that they had received verbal and written attacks, further heightening concerns.

Despite these challenges, community efforts to support Haitian migrants continue.

On the same day as Ruby's service, about 60 Haitians attended English language classes at First Evangelical Haitian Church where local volunteers participated in solidarity.

Flowers and baked goods were shared, symbolising unity between Springfield's residents and the Haitian community.

Springfield, historically a manufacturing hub, has struggled with economic decline and population loss in recent years.

The arrival of Haitian migrants has helped reverse some of these trends by filling job vacancies and contributing to the local economy.

Sources

Religion News Service

NBC News

CathNews New Zealand

"A wave of brown-skinned filth."

"Keep your crime and your filth out of this neighbourhood."

This is some of the invective directed at Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini after she arrives in a chaotic New York City, as depicted in the luminous new film drama Cabrini.

It should be obvious that the kind of abuse that bigots hurled at this future saint and her fellow Italian immigrants in 1889 is also freely applied to migrants today.

"Filthy dagoes, they just keep coming," one gent tells the just-off-the-boat sister. "Who you looking at, guinea-pig?"

It's a good historical rendering of Cabrini's jarring welcome to New York; the scenes echo correspondence in which she wrote home requesting additional habits and veils for her sisters, "otherwise they will call us ‘guinea-pigs' the way they do to the Italians here."

("Guinea" was a slur used against Black people, the coin used to purchase slaves.)

Patron saint of immigrants

The time is right for a new biopic of Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonised.

From Donald Trump on down, many politicians are pushing antipathy for migrants to boost their election campaigns.

I see the result in my own Brooklyn neighbourhood, where efforts to help migrants at a local shelter are treated on social media with expressions of anger and sarcasm.

As Pope Francis has said, Cabrini's life is of "extraordinary current relevance because migrants certainly need good laws, development programmes, and organisation.

But, "they also always need, first and foremost, love, friendship, and human closeness; they need to be heard, to have people look into their eyes, to be accompanied; they need God."

Compassion still needed

The new film, produced by Angel Studios and directed by Alejandro Monteverde, finds this space and presents a much-needed message of compassion with great visual and emotional impact.

It's a traditional underdog story, with a physically frail, five-foot-tall sister in the Rocky role fighting against the system.

The Italian actress Cristiana Dell'Anna, who starred in the HBO Max crime drama Gomorrah, brings a fiery determination to her portrayal of Cabrini.

I had some doubts about whether this team would do justice to the story.

That's because Utah-based Angel Studios heavily markets its films and fundraising pitches to a conservative Christian audience.

I wondered if Cabrini would really present the saint's pro-immigrant fervour at a time when conservative politicians are exploiting anti-immigrant sentiment.

That's not to stereotype Evangelicals; many Christian groups have aided migrants, as Scripture demands, and some think a more Bible-based response is beginning to take hold.

But overall, for example, this isn't so.

Not political

Nearly three-quarters of the white Evangelical Protestants interviewed in a PRRI survey would "favour installing deterrents to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally even if they endanger or kill some people."

Director Monteverde's previous film for Angel Studios, last year's box-office hit Sound of Freedom, has been lauded for spotlighting the evils and prevalence of child sex-trafficking.

But it was criticised because "the film could be seen as adjacent to the alt-right paranoia that was originally stoked by 4Chan and QAnon" on this subject, as Variety put it.

Monteverde and the film's screenwriter responded in the Hollywood Reporter that the script was written in 2015, well before these conspiracy theories were spread, and that it "was not in the least political."

But promotion for Sound of Freedom, aided by a special showing for Trump at his estate in Bedminster, N.J., was politicised.

That was highlighted when lead actor Jim Caviezel, best known for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, announced on Fox & Friends that voting for Trump was the way to take action against the trafficking of children for sex.

"This is the new Moses," he said of Trump as he was interviewed along with the movie's producer, the Mexican actor and political activist Eduardo Verástegui, who has similarly marketed his movies with a political slant.

Don't expect Trump to embrace and promote Cabrini in the way he did Sound of Freedom. It contradicts his anti-immigrant agenda.

In the opening scene, for example, employees at a hospital turn away a young boy trying desperately to get care for his sick mother, remarking that Italian immigrants were "monkeys" and "inferior."

It shows in shorthand the influence of the racist eugenic theory that was popular at the time, and which Trump is trying to revive by claiming that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."

When I spoke with the director, the executive producer, and the screenwriter in separate interviews, all said that Cabrini was not political: it's not about immigration policy, but about immigrants.

That's true. Read more

• Paul Moses is an author and a contributing writer to Commonweal.

Straddling the U.S-Mexico border, the Diocese of Brownsville is the southernmost diocese in Texas. It has long been at the epicentre of the church's response to migration, especially as the crisis has ballooned in recent years.

"Thank you for your communication, with which you express your closeness to me and the work being done in the Diocese of Brownsville, especially in favour of those who, for various circumstances, are far from their homeland," Francis said in the letter. Continue reading

In Cypris, Francis warned Europe of its indifference to migrants, saying migration issues are something society is getting used to.

He went on to label the indifference "a grave disease for which there is no antibiotic".

The 84-year-old pontiff also said he regretted having to speak about such unpleasant things but added: "It is my responsibility to open eyes."

"Allow ourselves to be drawn into their suffering in order to react to our indifference; let us look at their faces, to awaken us from the sleep of habit", urged Francis.

Some 16,500 km away immigration lawyers and advocates are calling out New Zealand's indifference and its plans to open the border that prioritise tourists over separated Kiwi couples and families.

"We could be looking at well into 2023 until people can get their families into New Zealand", immigration lawyer Nick Mason says.

He cannot understand why tourists are getting priority over New Zealand citizens and their families.

Other advocates say the visa processing policies "continue to marginalise, confuse and discriminate" people.

To 'shake' the New Zealand indifference, some are resorting to legal action.

One man, Michael Witbrock, is taking Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and MBIE to court over his Chinese husband's 2019 Visa application being suspended.

Witbrock's lawyer, Denis Law partner Pooja Sunder says the decision to suspend applications is "unlawful".

She says it is unfortunate but her client's case is not unique.

"It is definitely representative of so many split families in New Zealand at the moment," Sunder told Mike Hosking on NewsTalk ZB.

"He [Faafoi] failed to consider the international obligations that New Zealand has signed up to ... like family unity, care of the child, the best interests of the child."

"Had he done so, he may have come to a different decision", she said.

Sunder says the New Zealand immigration rules are disproportionately affecting those from specific ethnic groups, gender identity, sexual orientation and religion.

In this regard, she is calling Faafoi's decisions "discriminatory".

Another victim of the policy, New Zealand-born teacher Sandeep Gosai, married in India in January 2020. He came home and his wife was to follow soon after.

"But then Covid hit and then ever since then it's just been a real mission to communicate with the government to get any sort of visa.

"They've just kept saying that when the borders open, they'll think about a visitor visa.

"And for a partnership visa, it's been really difficult because we don't meet the [Immigration Act's] living together requirements."

The government had refused to read a letter setting out their case and breaches of international law, Gosai said.

MBIE's immigration policy manager says no decisions have been made yet on how the final phase of border re-opening will happen.

Source

• RNZ
• France 24
• Newstalk ZB
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Newshub

At Waitangi, last Thursday he railed against immigrants and also suggested: "We should drain the Wellington bureaucratic swamp".

The Destiny Church leader was described in the Waitangi Day service schedule booklet as an 'Apostle Bishop'.

Tamaki had arrived with about 200 supporters, including his wife, Hannah.

Initially, his supporters were not allowed into the Waitangi Grounds.

Police were concerned about them causing trouble, but they were eventually allowed to enter.

Tamaki spoke for about half an hour to the crowd of about 1500 people at an interdenominational service at Whare Runanga on the Upper Treaty Grounds.

Te Tai Tokerau Anglican Bishop Te Kitohi Pikaahu had invited Tamaki to speak.

It was the first time he had been invited to participate in the service and was given the honour of delivering a sermon while others did shorter readings.

One of the most inflammatory comments was Tamaki's likening of immigrants to "termites and parasites" that "totally consume the host".

He suggested immigrants coming to New Zealand were pushing Pakeha and Maori out of their homes.

His comments were greeted by cheers from his supporters who were wearing t-shirts promoting the church's Man Up parenting kaupapa and Vision NZ, the new political party fronted by Hannah Tamaki.

The bishop blasted the Government for "selling off the country" to foreign powers - making multiple references to China - and said it's time to take New Zealand back.

His remarks have met with almost universal condemnation.

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon - who attended the Waitangi Day dawn service - described Tamaki's comments as shocking and utterly false

Labour MP Willie Jackson saying he needed a "slap across the ears".

Senior National MP Judith Collins also condemned the comments.

Source

• newshub.co.nz
• newshub.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• waateanews.com
• Image: Screenshot nzherald.co.nz

Francis picked up the kids, who hail from Syria, Nigeria and Congo, at the start of his weekly general audience Wednesday and zoomed around St. Peter's Square with them in the backseat. Continue reading

Irish Bishop Kevin Doran says he has come across people - some of whom classify themselves as traditional Catholics and faith-filled people - who say "oh well, these Muslims are putting our civilisation at risk and they pose a threat to us".

He said there's an "implication" that because people are Muslim they are more likely to be terrorists.

Doran's comments were made in the wake of what he described as a "savage attack" on the two mosques in Christchurch on 15 March, that left 50 people dead.

"All of us, of whatever religious tradition, can identify with what that might mean for a congregation gathered to worship," he said.

Doran said it was wrong of people to demonise Muslims for the actions of terrorism that claims to be inspired by Islam.

"To define a whole category of people, or a whole nation, or a whole religious group as being in some way more prone to terrorism than any other group is irresponsible," he said.

Doran said in his experience, Muslim people living in Irish society do so "peacefully and participate fully".

"We have large numbers of Muslim children in our Catholic schools, and they contribute to the ethos in many ways.

"One of the interesting things about Muslims is that, while they are of a different faith, they tend to have a level of commitment to faith that in many ways we might well sit up and pay attention to," he noted.

In February, Doran spoke out after a disused hotel that had been going to house refugees was damaged. The house had been burned in an apparent arson attack.

Not only had the alleged arson caused "significant upset to parishioners," Doran said it was "all the more disturbing since it is suggested that the fires are a response to the proposed use of the hotel to house refugees."

"Militant opposition, expressed in the destruction of property, is simply not consistent with the Gospel," he said.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• The Irish Catholic
• Image: Crux Now

Kaitaia therapist, Juliet Garcia, has worked for 10 years but can't get residence.

She's just one example of immigration rules affecting the sector, said chief executive of the Aged Care Association, Simon Wallace. Continue reading

And he says the church has also probably fallen short in fully meeting the needs of recent migrant communities.

Dew said this when he was commenting on new research by the Wilberforce Foundation which showed a sharp decline in the percentage of New Zealanders who identify as Christian.

Dew is the Archbishop of Wellington and vice-president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference (NZCBC).

"The findings from this survey speak to Pope Francis' latest exhortation, in which he says 'we are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves,'" Dew said.

"As the members of the NZCBC, we are aware of our leadership role and the role of faith in the public forum.

"We welcome the opportunity to listen more intently, talk more compassionately and understand more deeply how we can walk with New Zealanders in contributing to the wellbeing of all in our society."

During the Synod in Rome in 2015, Dew talked about the need for "new language" to explain church teaching on sexuality.

He spoke of compassion and inclusion.

"When we have documents which talk about intrinsically disordered or being evil, it's not going to help people.

"We've got to find a way to express what the teaching actually says, but not putting it in ways that people feel they're being branded and being told that they're bad or evil."

Source

• Supplied: Amanda Gregan: Communications Advisor - NZ Catholic Bishops Te Huinga o nga Pihopa Katorika o Aotearoa
• www.youtube.com
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: youtube.com

The reason: Dinesha has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Continue reading

"As a visitor to a country, or even to a home, you're always conscious you're a visitor," he told Crux in a lengthy on June 13.

"You go there with a sense of respect, and you appreciate what they're offering you."

"You remain there on those terms, in order to maintain that relationship."

Ribat is in Rome to take part in a conference sponsored by Pope Francis's new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, intended to present a set of recommendations to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees towards a proposed "Global Compact" on refugees to be presented later this year.

"Many countries are ready to help, but when all they see [of immigrants] is the negative side, it doesn't help," Ribat said. "People become less ready to accept others.
.
"People who are arriving at the doorstep of different cultures … have to accept the fact that people are ready to receive them, but they have to behave in a way that they will be welcomed and accepted," he said.

Ribat said the matter of immigrants and refugees is a challenging issue. "The Church speaks about caring for, loving and accepting [new arrivals]."

"But on the other hand, there's also a challenge that's there, a reality people face, which is fear."

"That's what always comes up, and some recent happenings have deepened these fears in people in countries who are receiving [migrants]."

"They see migrants as criminals, and then there's the problem of ISIS and so on, which creates fear around security and terrorism."

"That makes it more difficult to receive people peacefully."

Source

• cruxnow.com
• Image: catholicworldreport.com

Health worker Aeziel Niegos came to New Zealand in 2008 with a dream of settling here and becoming a Kiwi.

But the 39-year-old, who is earns $19.54 an hour as a house leader in an Albany health care facility, said changes to Immigration rules will make that an "impossible dream". Read more

From snarky observations about the walls around Vatican city to wry observations about all the under-utilized ecclesiastical facilities in Rome, a standard trope for skeptics of papal rhetoric is to charge that Francis doesn't walk his own talk.

In truth, however, this "pope of the poor" is doing quite a bit, from helping fund hospitals in the Central African Republic to having the Vatican sponsor migrant families arriving from the Middle East.

Much more is done on a daily basis by Catholic charities around the world, from Catholic Relief Services, the international charity of the United States bishops' conference, to local Caritas offices at the forefront of the refugee welcoming process in countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain.

Without diminishing the efforts of these organizations that make the Catholic Church arguably the world's largest non-governmental provider of humanitarian aid to migrants and refugees, this summary treats only what the Vatican is doing under Pope Francis.

Ukraine

Though the conflict in the country has faded into a media black zone, Ukraine is still at war with Russia over the annexation of the eastern peninsula of Crimea, and pro-Russian separatists have since taken control of eastern portions of Ukraine. An estimated 1.9 million people are currently internally displaced.

Francis made some missteps on this issue, particularly back in 2015 when he referred to the conflict as "fratricidal" — deeply offending many Ukrainians, who see it instead as the result of foreign aggression.

Yet last year the pope called for a special collection in every Catholic church in Europe to help the Ukrainians, collecting close to $13 million, half of which was distributed last December. Continue reading

Source & Image

• Article by Inés San Martín, Vatican correspondent, Crux

It says as a country we need to have a rational and open debate around the role of immigration in New Zealand's future.

In a report, What Next, released this week;the Salvation Army suggests Government and some industries see immigration as an easy-fix to skill shortages, rather than tipping the balance in favour of upskilling young New Zealanders.

Prime Minister John Key has rejected criticism.

He told Parliament the growing economy had cut the number of 15 to 19-year-olds not in employment, education or training (NEETs).

"The NEET rate for 15 to 19-year-olds is almost the lowest since records began in 2004."

"A huge number of young New Zealanders are in apprenticeships the economy is creating a huge number of jobs and opportunities"

"I think migration of people to New Zealand is a positive and good thing," Key said.

Report author is Alan Johnson, senior policy analyst with The Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit.

He says, "Continuing to import labour as an easy, short-term solution avoids the broader society-wide issues of what to do about the skills deficit of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and of catering for the needs of migrants."

The report suggests local industries should be required to plan for the inclusion of more young New Zealanders into their sector.

They should be required to demonstrate a tangible commitment to this before a relaxation of migration policies is considered to meet labour needs.

Source

• What Next
• pacificscoop.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: salvationarmy.org.nz

Community worker Pravin Patel said there were now 17 Hindu temples across Auckland.

The city's Hindu adherents increased by more than any other religion between the 2006 and 2013 censuses, from 45,324 to 61,458, and are now 4.3 per cent of all Aucklanders.

Two priests and their families have been recruited from India and will live in a house next to the temple.

Shri Ram Mandir, a $5 million structure claims to be Australasia's biggest temple devoted to the Lord Rama.

The marble domes, deities, elephants, doors and 12 wall panels depicting scenes from Hindu scriptures have been imported from India, along with skilled workers who installed them.

Shri Ram Mandir trustee Shiu Charan said the new temple would cater for up to 500 people in the upstairs main temple and 400 in a ground-floor community centre, which will be open to Hindus and non-Hindus.

The Trusts Charitable Trust, Lottery Grants Board and Foundation North (formerly ASB Community Trust) contributed small amounts adding up to less than 5 per cent of the project's total cost, or about $200,000.

The rest of the $5 million has been raised from the local Hindu community, including a donor who gave $1 million to buy the land.

Charan, a retired general secretary of Fiji's National Federation Party, said the temple's charitable trust planned to run youth programmes, religious education and cultural events.

"We would like to supplement and augment the work of other voluntary organisations and government organisations dealing with community-based programmes and social problems that we have in our society ... ," he said.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: alltravels.com

The Ravet family have lived in New Zealand for 11 years, but the parents' work permits have expired, and they face deportation to Chile.

They had first sought refuge at a Catholic Church in Burnside. Continue reading

Because I had some time before we were supposed to start services, I wandered around the 300 or so folks who shivered in the cold and gathered in the space around the altar (Mass was obligatory—Casa Romero was run by a generous, but iron-fisted Spanish nun).

On the outer edges of the group, I came upon a young, thin girl surrounded by five or six older men. We spoke for a bit; she told me that she was heading out that night with these men, looking to cross through the Wild Horse Desert, a desolate place just north of Brownsville, in an effort to avoid the Border Patrol.

The men, hands stuffed into their pockets, scuffed the ground. They would not meet my eyes, and ignored my handshake.

I found the nun and told her that I was worried about the girl. The nun said to me, "You should be. Please take her to the rectory with you tonight. She is not safe here."

The girl agreed to come and spend Christmas Eve with our religious community that night. She was sixteen years old, and she was from El Salvador. Her arms were covered with scars, about which she would only say, "They burned me with cigarettes."

I gave her my room, for that night, and I took to the couch in the living room. The next morning, as I passed by my bedroom, I saw her kneeling on the floor, her scarred arms held straight out from her sides, her eyes closed, and her head upturned toward the heavens. She was back-lit by the sunlight streaming through the window.

It was Christmas Day, and I felt that God had sent me an angel disguised as skinny, scarred teenaged girl.

She stayed with our community for about two weeks, until some good immigration attorneys managed to get her a special travel permission, and then, into a center that worked with the victims of torture (The Center for Victims of Torture). Continue reading

• Source: Views From Alongside a Border (author's name not noted)
• See also: Gilberto Ramos hoped for a better life, but died alone in a desert
• Image: Fronteras

The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East opened its doors in Manurewa.

Father Toma K Toma, who came to New Zealand from Iran in 1992, acknowledges the church has come a long way from its early beginnings and is happy to see it thrive in South Auckland - "it's a dream come true", he says.

People in the neighbourhood are very impressed with the new building and ask many questions, and he's proud to share his religion and culture, he says. Continue reading

The supermarket won the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust diversity award for innovation in 2005 after Carran set up a prayer room for Muslim staff.

"It's just good business," he says. "It's just being a decent human being and understanding and accepting other cultures."

Of the store's 270 staff only half were born in New Zealand. Employees are from India, China, the Middle East and Africa, Carran says. Continue reading