Pope Financially Supports ILLEGAL Immigration in the U.S.
Pope Financially Supports ILLEGAL Immigration in the U.S.
Vatican enters illegal-immigration debate
Church criticized for funding refuge to aid border crossers
Chris Hawley and Sergio Solache
Republic Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY - The Vatican is helping to pay for construction of a shelter for Central Americans traveling to the United States, angering immigration-control advocates just as Pope Benedict XVI begins his first official U.S. visit.
The Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which reports to the pope, donated at least $20,000 in January to help erect a $120,000 building for the Brothers on the Path refuge in the southern Mexico city of Ixtepec, the Vatican confirmed Tuesday.
The donation comes at a delicate time as the United States is fortifying its southern border and the number of Central Americans crossing illegally is high. Critics accused the Vatican of fostering illegal immigration to enrich the church.
Many Roman Catholic churches in the United States and Mexico have programs to aid immigrants. But few receive direct support from the Vatican, said Alejandro Solalinde, a priest in Ixtepec and project director.
Ixtepec lies about 210 miles northwest of the Guatemalan border in the narrowest part of Mexico, an area known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The isthmus is the main conduit for Central American migrants who ride freight trains to the U.S. border.
Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and other Central Americans are becoming a larger percentage of the migrants crossing the U.S. border. During fiscal 2007, non-Mexicans, mostly Central Americans, accounted for 7.8 percent of the 876,704 apprehensions by the Border Patrol, up from 2.4 percent in fiscal 2000.
They made up a record 13.9 percent of apprehensions in fiscal 2005.
The Brothers on the Path charity owns two warehouses and adjacent land on the isthmus, where it provides food, bathrooms and a place to rest for as many as 1,000 people a night, Solalinde said.
Solalinde said Brothers on the Path wants to build a better-equipped facility and has approached Catholic charities in Mexico, Colombia and Germany for donations. In September, the Diocese of Tehuantepec asked officials at the Vatican itself for help.
“They studied it in December, and that very December decided it was an important project and gave us their support,â€
