U.S. Bishops To Meet With Bishops From Mexico, Central America And The Caribbean To Discuss Migration Issues

WASHINGTON—Representativesof bishops’ conferences of the United States, Mexico, Central America andCaribbean countries will convene May 28-30 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,for the 2012 Regional Bishops’ Consultation on Migration. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman, U.S. Conference ofCatholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, and Bishop Anthony B. Taylor of Little Rock, Arkansas will lead the U.S.delegation.

The meeting is an annual event thatbrings together bishops to focus on migration issues in the hemisphere. The participantsare expected to discuss the current situation ofmigrants in their respective countries and explore ways to work together topositively impact the migration of peoples throughout the hemisphere.

Thediscussions will focus upon current conditions impacting migration insending and receiving countries; the treatment of immigrants living in or in transitthrough their countries; the impact on communities left behind; and the implicationsof these realities on the Church’s pastoral care, advocacy and public policy,and service responses.

At theconclusion of the meeting, the participants will issue a statement on theirdiscussions and make recommendations for regional cooperation betweengovernments on the issue of migration.

Theannual consultations have grown out ofregular meetings between the migration-related committees of the U.S. andMexico episcopal conferences that began in 1999 and resulted in the historicjoint pastoral letter, Strangers NoLonger: Together on the Journey of Hope, issued in 2003. Since then, theconsultations have been expanded to other bishops’ conferences and their staffinvolved in human mobility work in Canada and Latin America, especially in CentralAmerica and the Caribbean. The meetings have served to strengthen collaborationamong the participating episcopal conferences on behalf of migrants, in thehemisphere, allowing for a more comprehensive Church pastoral and political responseto their situations.In 2011, theconsultation was held in San Jose Costa Rica.

Scheduledto participate at the consultation in Dominic Republic are representatives of other episcopal conferencesincluding Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz of Tijuana (Mexico), Bishop AlvaroRamazzini (Guatemala), Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez (El Salvador), Bishop ArturoGonzalez (Cuba), Bishop Yves Pean (Haiti), Bishop Pedro Hernandez (Panama),Bishop Jose Grullon (Dominican Republic), Bishop Angel San Casimiro (CostaRica), Archbishop Pablo Varela (Panama), and Bishops Maurus Muldoon and JuanJosé Pineda (Honduras).

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Keywords:immigration, migrants, refugees, unaccompanied minors, human mobility,Archbishop José Gomez, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB

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