Casa Juan Diego and Catholic Charities, recuperating from an overflow of Venezuelans seeking asylum from their country's economic and political spiral this summer, may have to brace themselves for another possible surge this holiday season. A federal judge Nov. 15 blocked Title 42 a public health rule that has allowed U.S. authorities for health reasons to expel more than 1 million migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Before that ruling, the U.S. closed its border Oct. 12 to Venezuelan migrants fleeing an authoritarian government and seeking asylum. The order halting Title 42 handed down by Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court takes effect at midnight Dec. 21.
HOUSTON (CNS) Catholic Church officials say they are not surprised by the 2020 U.S. census showing Hispanics accounted for 51.1% of the country s growth, rising to 18.7%, or about 62.1 million, of the U.S. population.
Representing almost 19% of the country s population, Hispanics are increasingly active in the Catholic Church in the U.S., and pastoral leaders are expanding their outreach to them.
Catholic Church officials say they are not surprised by the 2020 U.S. census showing Hispanics accounted for 51.1% of the country's growth, rising to 18.7%, or about 62.1 million, of the U.S. population. All these census numbers align with a national program the Catholic Church has developed in V Encuentro, or Fifth National Encuentro, a series of regional and national meetings of Hispanic ministry leaders and youths, said Lazaro Contreras, director of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese's Office of Hispanic Ministry.