07/02/2019 Update:

In recent weeks, the Parish has provided financial support to the asylum group in Portland. This has been accomplished through Catholic Charities of Portland. Daily news accounts have reported on these May-June arrivals. Through Catholic Charities, our financial support is being used to provide translators and assistance for processing the new people -- many who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. Our Parish website (below) has information on the situation, including the process for donating money. In addition, the Catholic Charities website has an explanation of the process for entering the US as a refugee, immigrant or asylum seeker: ccmaine.org/refugee-immigration-services/faqs 

Asylum Seekers in Portland

Bishop Deeley recently issued a statement on Assisting Asylum Seekers in Portland saying, “This time of grave difficulty for some of our brothers and sisters calls us to show our concern and solidarity, answering our baptismal call to serve the most vulnerable among us, regardless of whether they are born in America or are new arrivals.”

Last weekend at all Masses, our Parish Social Justice Commission, in contact with Catholic Charities, collected donations to help alleviate the Asylum Crisis in Portland to support funding for providing interpreters, training volunteers for work in resettling asylum seekers, and training of these newcomers. Here are a few additonal ways you can still make a donation to this cause:

1. Click here to visit the Catholic Charities Maine donation webpage set up specifically for this cause and make a donation.
2. Send your donation checks made out to Catholic Charities Maine (noting “Asylee Support” on it) directly to Catholic Charities, 307 Congress Street, P.O. Box 10660, Portland, ME 04104.
3. There will be a decorated donation box at the back of each church this weekend (6/29-30) to receive your offering for this cause.
4. You may make any donations out to POTHE, designating checks for “Asylee Support”, and turn them into the parish office. 

This is the situation in mid-June. It will likely change in the weeks ahead and our help may be requested in other ways. It is a good cause...it is right on our doorstep...we can help.

The Catholic Church and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops remind us of the Three Basic Principles of Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration:

1. People have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.
2. A country has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration. (While individuals have the right to move in search of a safe and humane life, no country is bound to accept all those who wish to resettle there. By this principle the Church recognizes that most immigration is ultimately not something to celebrate. Ordinarily, people do not leave the security of their own land and culture just to seek adventure in a new place or merely to enhance their standard of living. Instead, they migrate because they are desperate and the opportunity for a safe and secure life does not exist in their own land.)
3. A country must regulate its borders with justice and mercy.