crs-annual-report

them, they called Church leaders to support diversity, address critical social issues, and encourage them to use their gifts and grow as disciples. Their shared desire was to be involved in the Church in ways that will bring unity and show God’s love to a broken society. HELPING MIGRANTS BECOME CITIZENS In Archbold, Ohio, Franciscan Sr. Andrea Inkrott, who assists immigrants at Project Hope, received help from CLINIC to reunite a family that had been separated by immigration status. The grandfather had become a US citizen, and his son, Alfredo, was a permanent legal US resident. Alfredo wanted to bring his three sons from southern Mexico into the United States. However, the eldest, Alan, was nearly 21—too old to immigrate on the same family petition as his brothers. Attorneys at CLINIC helped Sr. Andrea to formulate a separate petition for Alan based on his grandfather’s status as a US citizen, but it needed to be approved before his rapidly approaching 21st birthday. When Sr. Andrea contacted the consulate in Mexico to ask for an emergency hearing, officials granted it and gave Alan a 45-day extension. Working closely with the CLINIC attorneys, Sr. Andrea helped Alan gather all the necessary paperwork and make the long journey north to the consulate from southern Mexico. His interview went well, and in early June 2022, Alan texted Sr. Andrea to say he was in the United States. “Thanks to God, but also thanks to the CLINIC lawyers,” Sr. Andrea said. “Their guidance was crucial to getting this happy ending. The family was very happy, and I have new knowledge and experience to carry with me to future cases.”

WORKING FOR PEACE Few borders are as tense as the one between North Korea and South Korea. The Catholic Church in South Korea is seeking ways to defuse the danger with help from the USCCB Department for Justice, Peace, and Human Development. Gifts to The Catholic Relief Services Collection supported the Korea Catholic Peace Forum, which met in the fall of 2022 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. After listening to assessments of conditions in North Korea, and of that nation’s nuclear capability, many speakers and bishops called for new ways to break patterns of hostility and seek reconciliation. The forum was an opportunity for “Catholic churches in Korea, the United States, and Japan to pray together and unite together with a little deeper interest in peace issues on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,” said Fr. Peter Ju-Seok Kang, director of the Catholic Institute of While the United States has been plagued by increasing polarization and prejudice, young Catholic adults of all ethnicities and cultures have been building mutual understanding and committing to a better future through the Journeying Together initiative, launched by the USCCB Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church. Planning began in 2019, and discussions launched online during the pandemic. It culminated in a national in-person gathering in Chicago in June 2022. Participants came from a vast array of racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as migrant cultures as diverse as circus workers and seafarers. As they spoke and prayed about where the Holy Spirit was leading Northeast Asia Peace in South Korea. BUILDING UNDERSTANDING