Bishops from Americas discuss threats to life, U.S. border fence

Published: 2006-10-25

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The breakdown of families and threats to human life from abortion to the death penalty are challenges Catholics in the Americas must confront, said a group of bishops meeting at the Vatican. The council of bishops charged with monitoring and promoting follow-up to the 1997 Synod of Bishops for America and to Pope John Paul II's 1999 post-synodal document, "The Church in America," met at the Vatican in early October. In addition to denouncing threats to human life, council members -- from North and South America as well as from the Vatican -- also offered a harsh assessment of plans to construct a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. On Oct. 23, Congress sent the bill authorizing construction of 700 miles of fencing to President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to sign the provision Oct. 26. "The wall along the United States-Mexico border will not resolve the problem of the migratory flux between the two countries and will not help establish a coordinated and humanitarian migration policy," the bishops said.

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