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Edith Manuel teaches the Tohono O’odham language to students and families at San Xavier Catholic School, but she knows that what she’s doing isn’t simply teaching a language.

arlier this week, I issued a statement about policies recently enacted involving migrants coming through Mexico. These policies are adversely affecting migrants on the non-US side of our borders with Mexico. There have been reports of maltreatment of  people awaiting entrance into this country to begin the asylum process.  This includes depriving those waiting from having adequate bathroom access, limited drinking water, and in some cases taking medications from them as they wait. This is not “protection” in any sense of the word.  It is deprivation without cause and without regard for the lives of those seeking help from harm and poverty in their native countries.  It is outrageous and depraved behavior.

Community leaders, including Catholic Community Services Executive Director Peg Harmon, Congregation Or Chadash Rabbi Thomas A. Louchheim and Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger, opened a public fund-raising phase for a proposed Medical Respite Center for Homeless Men and Women.

As Catholics, we are bound by faith to see all people as one family created in the image of God. We are called to offer hospitality to those who need us. We are required to treat all with dignity and respect because they are our sisters and brothers. We are called to walk in solidarity with migrants on their journey. The Migrant Protection Protocol is a policy that does not provide protection to these most vulnerable people and in fact has placed them in significant danger in cities that cannot adequately assist them.

The Catholic Foundation has announced the hiring of Elizabeth Bollinger as its new executive director.

The 58th Annual Study Week for the Southwest Liturgical Conference (SWLC), with the theme “Go in Peace, Glorifying the Lord by your Life,” will be held Jan. 15-18 at the DoubleTree Hotel at Reid Park.

I hope all of us are planning a grand Thanksgiving filled with the love and laughter with our family and friends.  I also hope you will consider attending Mass on this day that we gather to remember the goodness God has provided us with throughout the year.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Tucson, received the “The Archbishop Pietro Sambi ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Award for Services to the Bethlehem University Foundation” in recognition of his support of Bethlehem University.

National Catholic Youth Conference Thursday I will head out to Illinois for my third trip to the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC).  I will be flying out to the conference with Joe Perdreauville, who is our Assistant Director for Pastoral Services and a board member for the NCYC, and several students from Salpointe Catholic High School and St. Patrick’s Parish in Bisbee.

In a high-stakes issue before the Supreme Court Nov. 12, it was not clear how the justices will ultimately resolve the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.

Capuchin Father Robert Kose leaned over to touch a bloom that had just peeked out in the back yard at Casa San Jose, realizing he would never see it fully blossom.

This week, Nov. 3 -9, is National Vocations Awareness Week. Please take a moment to pray for our seminarians, priests and religious. Coming up: Fall national bishops conference I will be attending the Fall General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) next week in Baltimore, Maryland. Here is the Catholic News Service story previewing this event.

Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger presided over the Seventh Annual Red and Blue Mass, a liturgy recognizing the legal community and law enforcement, Oct. 1 at St. Augustine Cathedral.

“We were just ordinary people trying to do extraordinary things,” said Sister Barbara Donahue, of the Sisters for Christian Community, looking back on memorabilia from her childhood when she and her siblings formed the vaudeville troupe “Nine Dancing Donahues.”

Colonial and later US policies toward Native American communities were often violent, paternalistic and directed toward the theft of Native American land.

Marriage Mass at Cathedral: There were 106 smiling couples at St. Augustine Cathedral last Sunday. They gathered for our annual celebration recognizing wedding anniversaries from one year to 70 or more years.  Our longest wed couple was Phillip and Lucy Montano, married a whopping 76 years!  Then there was William and Bernadette Knebelsberger, married 70 years. 

As I reported last week, I visited St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California, and I installed several seminarians as lectors on Saturday, including three from our diocese.

Ana Chavarin knows what it's like to be cheated and dismissed as an immigrant without legal status in this country.

Visits to Seminaries Later this week I will be visiting St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California.  We have a number of seminarians studying there.  I will be present for the Mass of Candidacy on Oct. 19.

The Synod of Bishops for the Amazon is not a "referendum" on priestly celibacy; it is looking for ways to provide for the sacramental life and formation of the people there, U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston said.