April 13, 2018 // World News

News Briefs: April 15, 2018

Catholic News Service

At annual convention, Catholic educators reminded of
missionary roles

CINCINNATI (CNS) — Nearly 5,000 Catholic school educators and administrators attended the National Catholic Educational Association Convention and Expo at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati April 3-5. The three-day convention was filled with workshops dealing with how to help students write more creatively or tackle math concepts, use modern technology safely and live their faith in the modern world, but it also examined constant challenges and a way forward for educators and Catholic education at large. In the opening session, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, encouraged educators from around the country to continue in their role as missionaries and evangelists. He urged the convention delegates to take to heart what the pope has said about education, primarily to always place the heart of the Gospel in their ministry and to see the importance of their work as evangelization, not just with students but parents and in dialogue with the larger world. “You are forming young people for service to the Church and society,” he told them.

Catholic leaders react to Trump’s plan to send troops to border

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic leaders in Texas criticized President Donald Trump’s April 4 announcement that he would be deploying National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. I an April 5 tweet, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said Trump’s move was a “senseless action and a disgrace on the administration.” He also said the decision to send troops to the border demonstrated “repression, fear, a perception that everyone is an enemy, and a very clear message: We don’t care about anybody else. This is not the American spirit.” The Diocese of El Paso’s Commission on Migration similarly criticized Trump’s decision, saying in an April 4 statement that the plan was “morally irresponsible and dangerously ineffective.” The statement, signed by Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso and co-chairs of the committee, Lily Limon and Dylan Corbett, called Trump’s action “a hurtful attack on migrants, our welcoming border culture and our shared values as Americans.” The next day, Bishop Seitz in his own statement said it was a “rash and ill-informed action” and asked the president to reconsider. During their administrations, Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush also sent troops to the border for one- to two-year periods.

A wounded Syrian woman receives aid at a hospital April 7 in Damascus after a suspected chemical-weapon attack in Douma. Pope Francis condemned the use of chemical weapons after the deadly attack killed dozens of innocent men, women and children. (CNS photo/SANA via EPA)