Mexican bishops say government proposal of 'humanitarian camp' for migrants is unilateral

Village, Colorado.“I remember reporters trying to find young people who would be there to protest and asking questions what they think about the Church's view on abortion, marriage, you know, all these things, trying to find young people that may hate the Church.”Chris Stefanick. Courtesy photo.Even church leaders in the Vatican were extremely surprised that the Holy Father chose Denver as the next venue for World Youth Day. They reportedly even tried hard to convince him to pick a different city. But Pope St. John Paul II insisted the event happen there.“John Paul II had special love for this place. He even put his foot down and said, ‘No, World Youth Day will be in Denver,’ because other people wanted it to be in other cities, bigger cities, said Rick Machado, Mary Machado’s husband.“He recognized through his discernment of life that there is something special about Denver, that it could be the place of renewal for the New Evangelization.”Contrary to the predictions, WYD ’93 unfolded in a way that no one expected.“Nobody believed that the World Youth Day in Denver was going to be successful, including the organizers,” Martin said, “so when hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people came, they weren’t prepared.”“The impact was massive,” he continued. “It wasn’t because of the planning or the strategies of how to implement it. It really all happened by the grace of God, and in many ways by Archbishop Chaput responding to the grace of John Paul having been here for a week.” Those who remember WYD ’93 say what transpired defies human explanation.“What we saw tangible here in Denver cannot be explained other than the Holy Spirit and being miraculous,” said Rick Machado. “At that time, if you go back and read the news articles, crime went to almost an absolute zero during that period.” Scott Powell of Camp Wojtlya recalled being struck by how dramatically attitudes seemed to change in and around Denver during the event.“My memory of it is that any semblance of animosity or anger toward religion, Catholics, or the pope didn’t seem to exist," he said."The whole city of Denver had this experience of people who had smiles on their faces and were happy and were filled with joy and were kind and polite and respectful," he said. "It set a groundwork and created a stage for the Church to thrive here.”Powell said that World Youth Day changed his own perspective on the Catholic Church. “It wasn’t a moment of conversion for me, but it was a moment that opened my eyes to how much bigger this thing (the Church) is that I was a part of,” he explained. “The reason why I was able to fall in love with the Catholic Church was because of the kind of Church that was revitalized in a way that was pretty unprecedented when the pope came.”Even so, Mary Machado points out, the real fruit of WYD ’93 wasn't immediately apparent.“The actual event was very life-giving, and people were very renewed at that moment,” she remembered.“You know what the lasting effects would be,” she said. “It was not immediate; it was slowly transforming.”If Denver's experience is any indicator, then, it will take time before anyone can access the true impact of the International Eucharistic Congress going on this week in Budapest. Pope Francis will celebrate Mass at the conclusion of the event on Sunday, Sept. 12.“Getting together in massive numbers and publicly celebrating our faith in the midst of a secular city is a paradigm event, it's a model for what we are supposed to do, all do, all the time,” Stefanick observed."When people are immersed in that for a weekend or for an evening or for a Eucharistic Congress, like you are going to have in Hungary, it's an experience that you keep going. And that happened here in Denver, no doubt,” he said.“Denver is still a hotspot for the faith in North America and it's because of what happened over here 25 years ago.”

Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 4, 2021 / 14:00 pm (CNA). The bishops of Mexico on Thursday said that a proposal of the Instituto Nacional de Migración to establish a "humanitarian camp" for migrants at the country’s southern border is unilateral, and they have yet to agree to it. The INM, which operates under Mexico's Secretariat of the Interior, had said Sept. 1 that "the process of communication and agreements with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) in Mexico and the Pastoral Ministry for Human Mobility of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference" has begun to "set up a humanitarian camp for Haitian migrants in Chiapas.”The Pastoral Ministry for Human Mobility of the Mexican bishops’ conference said Sept. 2 that "the proposal for a 'humanitarian camp' is an initiative created by the Instituto Nacional de Migración itself," and that the bishops have not yet “agreed to or accepted it.” The bishops’ ministry to migrants “is concerned about the conditions in which migrants find themselves in Tapachula: overcrowding, the lack of security or work, which can lead to violations of these people’s human rights.”Located in Chiapas state, Tapachula is a short distance from the border with Guatemala, where most Central American and Haitian migrants enter Mexico.The constant flow of migrants trying to enter Mexico through the southern border has