Welcome to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday. El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute are looking forward to once again providing hospitality to asylum seekers now that the Remain in Mexico program has been eliminated, but they write that Catholics must still work against policies and practices that demonize migrants. NCR's editorial staff says what happened in Texas has proved to be the "perfect storm" for assessing a future in which a deregulated and underspending government fails to respond to catastrophic events, especially those caused by climate change.

Restoring asylum at the border is a holy invitation

Following President Joe Biden's elimination of the Migrant Protection Protocols, commonly known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy, border communities like El Paso, Texas, will once again be able to provide hospitality to asylum seekers.

For the past two years, asylum seeking families and individuals were forced to navigate a punitive immigration system from situations of insecurity in northern Mexico, write El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute in a commentary for NCR.

"As people of faith who minister to migrants at the border, we have seen first-hand how fear of the other, fueled by racism and a politics of exclusion, enabled us to turn our back on the most vulnerable searching for mercy at our nation's doorstep," they write. "In our frenzy to build walls, we have constructed borders of rivalry and polarization between neighbors throughout the country."

You can read more of the commentary here.

Editorial: Texas storm's aftermath a lesson in the need for government

"What happened in Texas has proved to be — if you'll pardon the pun — the 'perfect storm' for assessing a future in which a deregulated and underspending government fails to respond to catastrophic events, especially those caused by climate change," NCR writes in our latest editorial.

The failure of Texas' electric grid was the result of a lack of investment in modernizing and weatherizing it. And attempts to blame renewable energy were patently false.

The grid's isolation from the other networks in that part of the country, which could have helped prevent the devastation, is "an apt metaphor for the need for more economic interconnectedness, as described by Pope Francis in his latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, where he rails against economic and political models that fail to promote the common good," we write.

You can read more the editorial here.

More background:

• Texas faith leaders called out Gov. Greg Abbott for a lack of leadership and preparation and called on state leaders to act on a 2012 plan to modernize and weatherize the electric grid.

More headlines

• At Global Sisters Report, read part two of a series on survivors of sexual abuse by women religious. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious provides resources for abuse allegations but says it has no authority over its members. Survivors of nun abuse disagree. They want stronger oversight and the chance to speak at annual assemblies. Read part one here.
   
• Messages from Jim Forest and Kathy Kelly urged virtual attendees at an annual gathering, sponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action and the Sacred Heart Peace Community, to persevere in the work for justice.
   
• Martin Gugino, a Catholic social justice activist who police knocked down during a protest over racism last year has sued the city of Buffalo, its mayor, the police commissioner and several police officers.

Final thoughts

Did you know that NCR has a membership program called NCR Forward? We are in our second year and offer readers access to special events for as little as $5 per month. You can find out more about how to join here.

Until Friday,

Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY

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