Welcome to Thursday. In an NCR editorial, we say that President Joe Biden can reverse abusive immigration policies by executive order, but the U.S. needs to confront our complicity in the atrocities those countries' populations endured in the past. Ahead of the Lunar New Year, congregations of women religious across Vietnam have stepped in to help people who lost homes and livelihoods due to severe flooding.
In his first few weeks of office, President Joe Biden quickly reversed some of the most abusive of Donald Trump's immigration policies, NCR writes in our latest editorial. But this is just a start.
"Justice requires a much deeper commitment to seeking the truth in order to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform," we write.
"Much can be restored by executive order," we later write. "The difficult-to-look-at-reality, however, is that what the Trump administration perpetrated on migrants is, in many ways, an extension of atrocities visited in the past on those countries' populations with the complicity of prior U.S. administrations."
"If we don't confront that history, then our 'moving on' will likely include the same presumptions of superiority and domination that led us to this current circumstance."
You can read more of the editorial here.
More background:
- The Biden administration is said to be looking at creating a task force to reunite families separated at the border and reimagining the current asylum and immigration systems and is expected to order a change of some of Trump's most controversial policies, including what has become known as the Migrant Protection Protocols or MPP, also known as the "Remain in Mexico" program.
- Biden has signed several executive orders: reversing the travel ban, which has separated thousands of families since it was issued in former President Donald Trump's first week in office; reversing a policy that excluded unauthorized immigrants from the census count; and raising the refugee cap to 125,000 for fiscal year 2021.
Every day for the last four months, Duong Thi Mong has carried food, pots, dishes and other utensils on her shoulders to walk nearly 5 kilometers daily from her house to a nearby village, where she serves com hen (rice mixed with mussel, a popular traditional dish) to local people on streets of Thua Thien Hue province.
Mong, a Buddhist from Hue's Vi Da ward in central Vietnam, which is famous for its mussels, said she usually takes her boat to carry food over the Huong River then walks only 600 meters to her destination. However, her boat was wiped out in severe flooding after six tropical storms hit the central provinces in October and November.
The 56-year-old mother of two said she earns 80,000 to 100,000 dong ($3.50 to $4.30) per day to support her family, not enough money to buy a new boat. She said she had to work harder and sell food at night to get money to prepare food for the celebration of Tet, or Lunar New Year. Local markets closed for the weeklong traditional festival Feb. 10 ahead of the New Year, which starts Feb. 12.
Thankfully, sisters across Vietnam have stepped in to help Mong and others like her.
"I am excited for the nuns who offered me 10 million dong [$435] on Jan. 28. I will use the money to buy a new boat for my work soon," Mong said cheerfully, adding that the boat is really a lifeboat that will help save her energy so she can work longer and earn more money to put food on the table.
You can read more the story here.
More headlines
- In her latest column, Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister says our government needs to consider the family the heart of the nation when setting criteria for COVID-19 aid. "After all, when those families and businesses and children's lives fail, so goes the country."
- The first woman selected to serve as an undersecretary for the Vatican's office for the Synod of Bishops, Xavierian Sr. Nathalie Becquart, said that she hopes her appointment will help "open up new possibilities" for women in the Catholic Church.
- A 116-year-old French nun who is believed to be the world's second-oldest person has survived COVID-19 and is looking forward to celebrating her 117th birthday today.
Final thoughts
In the final essay of her series at Global Sisters Report, Phyllis Zagano discusses whether the ministry of women religious as women deacons would be beneficial. She says it is important to recognize that calls for more women in positions of leadership are directed at only partial needs of the church, such as ministry to other women, but also ministry to the poor and neglected of society. You can catch up with the rest of the Women Religious, Women Deacons: Questions and Answers series here. Sign up for email alerts to get the latest news and columns from Global Sisters Report.
Also, you can register for a session with Zagano and Sr. Colleen Gibson in a conversation about women religious and women deacons. The conversation will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. Central.
Until Friday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
