In one of the largest donations of its kind in recent years, Pope Francis has provided $500,000 to help migrants in Mexico, who have travelled mainly from Central America attempting to reach the United States. The donation is intended to help provide food, lodging and basic necessities, and is sourced from Peter’s Pence collections.
Peter’s Pence said in a statement that the funds will be distributed among 27 projects promoted by 16 Mexican dioceses and religious congregations. “Of these projects, 13 have already been approved and another 14 are being evaluated,” the statement said.
Peter’s Pence named the dioceses of Cuautitlán, Nogales (2), Mazatlán, Querétaro, San Andrés Tuxtla, Nuevo Laredo (2) and Tijuana, along with the Scalabrinians, the congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Josefinas Sisters. “A regulated and transparent use of the resources, which must be accounted for, is required before the aid is assigned,” the statement said.
In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, travelling on foot or with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. But thousands have been blocked at the border with the United States.
“Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States,” the statement said. “All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States, without a home or livelihood.”
Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola of Monterrey, General Secretary of the Mexican bishops’ conference, addressed the Mexican Senate on 23 April and re-iterated the Church's solidarity with the migrants passing through the country.
Last weekend, Bishop Guardiola and Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera López of Monterrey, president of the Mexican bishops’ conference, thanked Pope Francis for his donation.
Bishop Robert McElroy, whose diocese of San Diego runs along the entire border between Mexico and California, said: “The Holy Father’s gift is a sign of personal and ecclesial solidarity with the immense suffering among migrants and refugees on both sides of the Mexico-United States border, suffering which is deeply compounded by the US Government’s punitive and broken immigration policies that are a repudiation of all that is noble in the character of our nation”
On April 22, near the town of Pijijiapan, Chiapas authorities dispersed a migrant caravan that was moving north; 371 Central Americans were detained for deportation. The Mexican Church has expressed concern that the solidarity that Mexico showed towards migrants in late 2018 has ended.
Meanwhile at least 21 Venezuelans are missing after their boat sank in the Caribbean on Wednesday last week. The refugees were attempting to reach Trinidad and Tobago and had departed on Tuesday from the town of Güiria, in a desperate effort to leave the country whose economy has been brought to ruin under the Socialist Government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Some 3.7 million Venezuelans have fled during the current political crisis. Most Venezuelans seek to migrate by land to countries including Colombia and Brazil. However, the proximity of Caribbean islands including Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and Curazao has motivated others to make the dangerous journey by sea.
It is journey of a few miles from Güiria to Trinidad and Tobago but strong surf overturned the boat. The total number of people on the boat remains unclear, because there were unregistered passengers. Venezuelan media reported that at least nine people were rescued. There was no immediate church comment on the disaster.
On Wednesday 1 May Mr Maduro said he had defeated an "attempted coup" by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, after dozens of National Guardsmen sided with the opposition in clashes on Tuesday that injured more than 100 people. In the capital Caracas on Wednesday a woman was shot dead in clashes between opposition supporters and government forces. Mr Guaidó called for a series of strikes to force President Maduro to relinquish power, urging public employees to act today (Thursday), saying the stoppages would lead to a general strike.
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