Archive for the ‘Catholic’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 11, 2012
Catholic Family Service in Amarillo has decided to reduce new refugee resettlement numbers by half due to concerns of overload from the local school district, according to an article in the Amarillo Globe-News. Resettlement will now be limited to “family reunification cases” – refugees who are resettling to be reunified with local family members. (The article also gives various confusing numbers for the amount of money the State Department gives for initial resettlement needs (intended as seed money). As of last year the amount was $1800 per refugee, with $700 available for resettlement agency overhead, $900 minimum to each refugee, and $200 that resettlement agencies may redirect to the neediest refugees at the agency. The $1800 was supposedly increased this year, but no numbers yet available.)
Catholic Family Service has lowered the number of new refugees it helps settle in Amarillo to help school officials better handle unique needs posed by refugee children and help the organization meet budget cuts.
Roughly 800 to 900 of the 1,100 refugee students enrolled in Amarillo schools had little to no formal schooling when they arrived in the U.S., and that has created a major learning block, said Kevin Phillips, executive director of student performance for the Palo Duro High School cluster…
…Catholic Family Service, a nonprofit organization, is one of two groups that receives federal funds to help newly arrived refugees settle in Amarillo. Executive Director Nancy Koons said the organization has decided to take in no more than 200 arrivals per year, down from 400 in previous years. Koons said the arrivals will be limited to “family reunification cases.”…
…Koons said [Amarillo Independent School District] principals and school nurses have expressed concerns about the challenges posed by refugee children.
“It seems like we were creating needs by bringing in too many refugees,” she said… Read more here
Posted in Amarillo, Catholic, Catholic Family Service, Amarillo, children, funding, R&P, schools, Somali Bantu | Tagged: Amarillo, Catholic Family Service, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 7, 2012
A Catholic volunteer in Kansas City seems to have found the right balance between welcoming refugees to her community without becoming overly involved. She’s found a way to connect with the refugees via her heart and mind while realizing the goal is their autonomy. An article in the Kansas City Star tells her story:
When Bernadette Coulter responded to a note in her church’s bulletin about helping in a conversational English class for refugees, she had no idea what she was getting into.
That was six years ago. On Friday, Coulter was sitting with her husband and friends in a federal courtroom watching Mamur Karabaev, an Uzbekistan refugee she calls her “adopted” son, affirm his American citizenship during a naturalization ceremony.
Karabaev is the last of a dozen refugees who escaped Uzbekistan after a massacre and found their way eventually to Coulter. She calls them her “boys.”
“I never expected to be this involved,” the Shawnee woman said. “It has been very fun and exciting and rewarding, heartbreaking and frustrating.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat.”…
…Barbara Smith, a friend and member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church with Coulter, said she has watched the story unfold from the beginning…
…Friends of Coulter, a 63-year-old retired hairdresser and mother of three, speak of her humility and willingness to help others. Becoming involved in the refugees’ lives, that’s just something Coulter would do, Smith said.
“One person can make a difference and she did it,” Smith said.
But what Coulter did may not always work so well, one person warned.
David Holsclaw, director of English as a second language at the Don Bosco Center, said relationships such as the one between Coulter and Karabaev are the exception to typical stories he’s heard about volunteers who may be over-involved.
“There are some volunteers that go nuts and become way too involved and really become problematic,” Holsclaw said…
…Developing an emotional connection can be detrimental to the resettlement process, he said.
For her part, Coulter thinks being a volunteer helped her.
“I think I had an advantage not being constrained by rules or regulations,” she said. “I was able to jump in feet first.” Read more here
Posted in Catholic, Kansas City, Uzbek, volunteers | Tagged: kansas city, refugees, resettlement, Uzbekistan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 5, 2012
It turns out that the State Department let a Catholic lobbyist sit in on the public refugee resettlement program’s so-called “stakeholders” meeting last month, while only giving the public a last minute notice of the meeting. Lobbyist Jennifer Murphy of the Catholic Public Policy Commission of Tennessee attended the meeting. They never told us where they met either, did they?
Posted in Catholic, moratorium / restriction, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: catholic charities, Catholic Public Policy Commission of Tennessee., Jennifer Murphy, moratorium, refugees, resettlement, State Department | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 7, 2012
The CEO/president of Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston is resigning. This follows the fallout from their attempted cover-up of the sexual assault of a refugee boy in one of group’s shelters, and then their lack of answers to key questions about the cover-up. An article in the Houston Chronicle covers the resignation:
The CEO/president of Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston has announced plans to resign after more than six years at the helm of the nonprofit organization. The organization confirmed the departure of Bonna Kol in a statement, but did not respond to questions about whether her resignation was connected to the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal at St. Michael’s Home for Children…
…The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement issued a scathing report that found the organization’s senior management “deliberately misled” federal officials about a July 1 sexual assault involving children at one of the shelters run through its St. Michael’s Home for Children.
The resettlement office accused senior managers of doctoring incident reports and failing to immediately seek medical treatment for the boy, who allegedly was anally penetrated, records show…
…Two Catholic Charities executives resigned and two other managers were fired in connection with the incident… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, children, faith-based, Houston, ORR, safety | Tagged: Bonna Kol, Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston, CEO, children, investigation, ORR, refugees, resettlement, resignation, sexual assault, shelter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 13, 2011
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the largest refugee resettlement contractor in the U.S., has adopted a more combative style after failing to get their way on various government social services contracts. After refusing to recognize a new civil union law in Illinois, state government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements. Then, when the USCCB continued to refuse to simply refer human traffic victims – who are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors – to the full legal range of permissible gynecological and obstetric care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided not to renew the group’s human trafficking grant. The Bishops have decided to ignore critical social justice issues, such as the increasing poverty rate during these hard economic times, while pursuing a so-called religious liberty under attack agenda. They still don’t seem to get the fact that most non-Catholics – and no doubt many Catholics as well – no longer trust them after years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved clergy involved in sexual abuse of children among parishes without alerting parents or police. An Associated Press article has more:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Monday in Baltimore for its national meeting feeling under siege…
Many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, an advocacy network for more liberal religious voters, has argued that in a pluralistic society, government officials can choose policies that
differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor.
“Some perspective is needed here,” Gehring, a Catholic, wrote on his organization’s blog…
…The Health and Human Services Department [HHS] recently decided not to renew a contract held since 2006 by the bishops’ refugee services office to help victims of human trafficking…the women are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops, has called the decision discriminatory and a case of “ABC,” meaning anyone but Catholics. [HHS agency] officials vehemently deny any bias and say the sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic social service nonprofits, including the bishops’ conference, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in the last couple of years…
…Scott Appleby, a prominent religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, says many church leaders have recently adopted “a more pugnacious style, much more of a kind of culture-wars attitude.” At the same time, the bishops’ have been stung by their loss of public influence from the sex abuse crisis and the years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved guilty clergy among parishes without alerting parents or police.
“The church no longer receives deference or the hands-off attitude that it once had for many years. That’s gone,” Appleby said…
Critics of the bishops view the closer focus on religious liberty as another sign that church leaders are turning inward and away from promoting the church’s teaching on social justice.
Steven Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, pointed to the agenda released ahead of this week’s meeting, which included no public discussion of poverty despite the state of the economy. In the 1980s, the bishops issued an influential pastoral letter on Catholic principles and the economy, which church leaders reaffirmed in statements and education programs over the next decade.
“I think this certainly will represent to a vast majority of Catholics a tone-deafness on the part of many, many bishops,” Krueger said… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, churches, faith-based, health, HHS, human trafficking, Illinois, sexual abuse, USCCB | Tagged: Catholic Bishops, catholic church, Catholic social service, government contractor, Health and Human Services, HHS, Human trafficking, Scott Appleby, sexual abuse, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 11, 2011
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lost its bid to continue providing services to victims of human trafficking for what it claims “may be the Obama Administration’s support for abortion rights.” Apparently it didn’t occur to them that abortion is legal. Why should human trafficking victims be denied access to the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care that everyone else is? Simply to suit this federal contractor’s religious beliefs? Where would that end if each contractor could have that freedom? Unfortunately, many victims of human trafficking are raped and need access to a wide range of services – including abortions and birth control. An article at Bloomberg News has the story:
…The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was awarded a five- year contract that paid it $19 million to coordinate the services during the administration of President George W. Bush.
The contract was extended briefly in March, and the group said it was informed recently that its grant request to continue the work was turned down. Starting today, three other non-profit groups will provide case-management services for victims such as helping them obtain food, clothing and access to medical care…
Marrianne McMullen, spokeswoman for the U.S. Health and Human Services department’s Administration for Children and Families [said]
“HHS’s primary focus in serving victims of human trafficking is ensuring that they have access to the high quality and comprehensive case management services they need,” she said in an e-mail. “These are individuals who have endured traumatic experiences in many cases and who face uniquely complex challenges.”
HHS’s written instructions for groups seeking grants through the Trafficking Victims Protection Act said that the agency would give “strong preference” to applicants willing to offer referrals for the “full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care,”
including family planning services.
The American Civil Liberties Union said in a 2009 lawsuit that the contract with the Catholic groups was unconstitutional because the bishops group won’t coordinate or refer people for medical services such as abortion that conflict with its religious teachings.
“We applaud the federal government for recognizing that trafficking victims need reproductive-health [services] and making awards based on those needs,” Brigitte Amiri, an attorney for the ACLU, said in an interview. “This has little to do with religion and everything to do with what the trafficking victims need.”
The three groups received grants worth a total of about $5 million for the first year, with a possibility of two additional years. The three are Tapestri of Atlanta, Heartland Human Care Services of Chicago and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants of Washington… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, HHS, human trafficking, USCCB | Tagged: ACLU, federal contractors, gynecological care, Human trafficking, obstetrics, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 3, 2011
The case involving repeated sexual assaults of an 8-year-old refugee boy at a Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston shelter – and the agency’s subsequent cover-up of the case – continues to unfold. The agency won’t answer further questions on the cover-up, including whether the 8-year-old was separated from the two older boys after the assault, how many other children reported witnessing the abuse, what kind of treatment was provided for them and when. Its also seems that government oversight agencies have only been able to slowly dredge out details of the case from Catholic Charities, and that the faith-based agency continues to withhold many key details. It’s also now clear that a Texas state oversight agency did not have a mere “technical glitch” causing closure of the case without investigation, but had a series of failures – putting children at great ongoing risk. Another article in the Houston Chronicle reveals more details of the case.
…In the hours and days after a staff member interrupted the July 1 assault in the upstairs room, the senior management of the Catholic Charities’ program failed to get the boy medical treatment, doctored incident reports and tried to minimize what had occurred in order to “protect the program,” according to a federal report.
But it was not just the boy’s caretakers who stumbled, state and local law enforcement records show. A worker for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services intake system for reports of potential abuse and neglect also made a mistake, accidentally delaying an outside investigation into what happened for nearly two weeks.
After the federal government brought that error to the state’s attention, the case was referred to the wrong agency, leaving it in limbo until it landed with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in August.
In the end, children’s advocates say there is blame to go around, calling for accountability for the shelter program management, who are now part of a criminal investigation. They also called for a review of the state’s intake system to ensure that technical problems with law enforcement notification are quickly fixed.
“Certainly some fault has to go to St. Michael’s for what happened, but if … this reporting went awry and was misdirected in some sort of way, just imagine the hurt that might have been caused to a number of these kids by something not happening soon enough,” said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of the Houston-based nonprofit Children at Risk.
“When it comes to kids, we need to take immediate action.”…
…The shelter management did not call the sheriff’s office, but they did call the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Statewide Intake Division roughly six hours after the incident, at 6:34 p.m……any report to that state hotline reporting potential abuse or neglect should have triggered a chain of events, including notification of the licensing division for DFPS and a fax or email notification to local law enforcement, said Patrick Crimmins, a DFPS spokesman.
But the worker at the state intake center was confused and couldn’t immediately find a state license for St. Michael’s, Crimmins said. The intake report was “mistakenly closed” without notifying the licensing division or law enforcement about any incident at St. Michael’s, he said…
…On July 13, ORR called the state to check on the status of its investigation, but state licensing officials still had no idea what happened at the shelter.
They re-opened the initial July 1 report and sent out a state monitor to investigate within 72 hours. But the automatic notification system again failed, this time referring the report to the wrong agency, the Houston Police Department. The shelter sits near the city-county line but is within the jurisdiction of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office…
…By mid-August, ORR was suspicious enough about what happened at the shelter that day to send a team of monitors to Houston. They issued a scathing report that documented a reporting delay, failure to seek medical care and the doctoring of incident reports, notifying Catholic Charities on Sept. 8 that they would remove all children from their care, at least temporarily…
…Catholic Charities still refuses to answer several key questions about the incident, including whether the 8-year-old was separated from the two older boys after the assault, how many other children reported witnessing the abuse and what kind of treatment was provided for them and when… Read more here
Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston is the agency which was the subject of complaints from gay Iraqi refugees in 2010, and allegations that one of its workers sexually assaulted an 11-year-old refugee boy in 2007.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, child protective services, faith-based, Houston, ORR, police, sexual abuse | Tagged: catholic charities, Department of Family and Protective Services, DFPS, houston, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, police, protective services, refugees, resettlement, sexual abuse, sexual assault, St. Michael's | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 27, 2011
An incident at a Catholic Charities shelter in Houston that media outlets previously reported as “sexual activity” between three children is now being reported as a sexual assault. An investigation by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) found that Catholic Charities did not report the July 1 sexual assault of a boy until four days later, nor did they seek medical treatment for the child. Catholic Charities management also did a cover-up, including doctoring of first reports. An article at UPI reports on the ORR investigation:
HOUSTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) — Federal officials were removing children and teens from three Houston shelters after learning the sexual assault of a child at one facility was covered up.
As of Friday, only five of 72 children and teens, mostly refugees, remained in the three Catholic Charities shelters, the Houston Chronicle reported.
An investigation by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement found that Catholic Charities did not report the July 1 sexual assault of a young boy at a St. Michael’s shelter until July 5 and also failed to get the boy medical attention until the latter date.
“CCGH staff had knowledge that a [child] had been anally penetrated as the result of a sexual assault … and did not seek medical treatment,” a report by the office states. “Program staff should have observed that a sexual assault of a child is grounds for immediate medical attention.”
Federal investigators conducted an unannounced visit to the site of the sexual assault in August and found that initial reports of the attack had been doctored.
“The ORR monitors found significant concerns, including the fact that management had full knowledge of the extent of the assault and submitted erroneous … reports to this office, which deliberately misled ORR,” the agency’s director wrote in a Sept. 8 letter to the president of Catholic Charities… Read more here
An article in the Houston Chronicle reports that Catholic Charities management also pressured staffers to withhold details from investigators.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, child protective services, children, faith-based, health, Houston, medical care, ORR, sexual abuse | Tagged: catholic charities, chilren, cover-up, doctored documents, houston, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugees, sexual abuse, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 16, 2011
The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement will temporarily remove all the immigrant and refugee children from St. Michael’s Home for Children operated by Catholic Charities in Houston due to an investigation into “sexual activity” involving three children at one of the organization’s shelters. The organization allegedly assigned staff members in charge of supervising children with other assignments, which left the children to their own devices. An article in the Houston Chronicle has the story:
Federal authorities plan to temporarily remove all of the immigrant and refugee children from St. Michael’s Home for Children operated by Catholic Charities in Houston amid an investigation into “sexual activity” involving three children in one of the organization’s shelters, officials said.
The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, which places children and teenagers caught crossing the border without family members into temporary care, so far has removed 22 of the 46 children housed at the three shelters in Houston and plans to continue removing the rest, officials with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston said Friday.
Kenneth Wolfe, an ORR spokesman, said the agency made the decision to temporarily remove the children based on its own monitoring and a state investigation…
…Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said the state conducted an investigation after being notified of the incident on July 13. The state investigator documented deficiencies at the facility, including faulting the administrator for assigning staff members in charge of supervising children with other assignments, which left the children alone “where they acted out inappropriately.”…
…U.S. immigration officials placed 6,074 immigrant and refugee children in the care of ORR in 2009, the most recent data available. More than half of those – some 3,200 – were detained in Texas, the statistics show… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, child protective services, children, faith-based, Houston, ORR, public/private partnership | Tagged: catholic charities, chilren, houston, immigrant, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugees, resettlement, St. Michael's Home for Children, Texas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2011
Catholic Charities of Houston, the agency which was the subject of complaints from gay Iraqi refugees in 2010, is now attempting to defend itself from allegations that a worker sexually assaulted an 11-year-old refugee boy in 2007. ABC 13 KTRK-TV tells us more:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — A former Catholic Charities worker is accused of indecency with a child, and the boy involved says the worker threatened not to give financial help to his family if he told anyone.
The man in question worked at Catholic Charities until 2009. He is currently working for another county agency, but is not yet under arrest, so we went looking for the man wanted by authorities.
In 2007 while working at Catholic Charities, prosecutors say Carlos Valera sexually assaulted an 11-year-old Cuban refugee whose family was receiving help from the charity.
“The defendant would call the victim to his office and ask if he wanted some candy,” said assistant district attorney Tolu Omodele. “The victim would go into his office, and the defendant would grab his hand.”…
…we contacted his former employer. In a statement Catholic Charities says it was made aware of a potential problem two years ago.
- “Catholic Charities is aware of criminal allegations made today in Houston against a former employee of this organization. Two years ago Catholic Charities acted quickly to investigate concerns about the employee. After engaging an outside firm to independently investigate, we terminated the employee in November 2009 for violating our agency’s Ethical and Personal Conduct Policy. We remain committed to safety and wellbeing of our 90,000 clients in the Greater Houston area and fully support the independent and law enforcement investigations of this matter.”…
…”He threatened the victim,” Omodele said. “He told him not to say anything. He told him that if he did tell anyone, that his family would no longer be assisted by the organization.”… Read more here
What I’d like Catholic Charities of Houston to respond to is what the agency’s role was in the delay in the allegations coming forward, which it claims to have known about for two-years.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, children, Cuban, faith-based, Houston, sexual abuse | Tagged: Carlos Valera, Catholic Charities of Houston, child abuse, Cuban, refugees, resettlement, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
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