WASHINGTON, DC (Zenit.org): The Catholic bishops of the United States weighed in regarding some of President Barack Obama’s recent activities, welcoming the change he made to the nation’s policy on Cuba and urging him to discuss the roots of the migration situation with Mexico’s president.
In a letter from chairman of the prelates’ Committee on International Justice and Peace Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, New York, the bishops noted that their council has “for many years called for relaxing the sanctions against Cuba”.
“These policies have largely failed to promote greater freedom, democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba,” Bishop Hubbard wrote in the April 15 letter.
“At the same time, our nation’s counter-productive policies have unnecessarily alienated many in the hemisphere.
“Improving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging human rights in Cuba will best be advanced through more rather than less contact between the Cuban and American people.”
President Obama granted Cuban Americans the right to freely travel to Cuba and send money to relatives there, and eased restrictions on US telecommunications companies, all with the reported aim of furthering change in Cuba.
Chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Migration Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, Utah, expressed the bishops’ concern about the immigration situation of Mexico and the United States, prior to Mr Obama’s April 23 visit to President Felipe Calderón, where immigration was one of the main topics.
Bishop Wester noted in a news release that both nations benefitted from the current reality, while those who were exploited were the immigrants themselves.
The United States, he said, “receives the benefit of (immigrants’) toil and taxes without having to worry about protecting their rights, either in the courtroom or the workplace.
“When convenient, they are made political scapegoats and attacked – both rhetorically and through worksite raids.”
