Catholic Community Services in the Tucson Diocese has reached a tentative agreement with Pima County to turn an unused juvenile detention facility into a temporary shelter for asylum-seekers.
Bishop John E. Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, bishop-president of Pax Christi USA, and Bishop Marc Stenger of Troyes, France, co-president of Pax Christi International, were among the signers of a statement released July 8.
Two archbishops spoke of the impact of clerical sexual abuse on the people of their dioceses and said survivors are the members of their flocks most in need of care.
Incensed by the recent deaths of a Salvadoran father and daughter, the U.S.C.C.B. is pushing for greater compassion for asylum seekers and migrants from policymakers in the United States.
"There are supposed to be exceptions that are not being respected," said Bishop Seitz, who spoke with immigration officials about allowing the family to enter.
The policy says the diocese's structures and institutions are to identify themselves only with "the names of saints, the mysteries of the faith, the titles of Our Lord or of Our Lady, or the place where the ministry has been established."