Bp. Christensen among bishops studying the impact of border issues

Eight Roman Catholic bishops are in El Paso to study the effects of immigration, human trafficking and the violence in Juárez and what impact they are having on the local diocese.

But more important, the bishops, who arrived on Wednesday, are here to help the El Paso Diocese financially.

"It is the first time that we have all these bishops visit," said Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso. "They approached me at our summer meeting about wanting to come and have the opportunity to get a flavor of what is happening on the border region."

The bishops make up the Subcommittee on the Home Missions, a group of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that awards about $8å million each year in grants to many "mission" dioceses and parishes.

Mission dioceses are dioceses and parishes in the United States that can't provide basic pastoral services without outside help, according to the subcommittee Website. El Paso is one of those mission dioceses.

The Most Rev. Michael W. Warfel, bishop of the Diocese of Great Falls and Billings, Mont., and committee chairman, said the group likes to visit different dioceses each year.

The visiting bishops are the Most Rev. Peter F. Christensen, bishop of Superior, Wis.; the Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, bishop of Salina, Kan.; the Most Rev. Curtis J. Guillory, bishop of Beaumont; the Most Rev. Thomas Olmstead, bishop of Phoenix; the Most Rev. Stefan Soroka, archbishop of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia for Ukrainians; the Most Rev. Robert F. Vasa, bishop of Baker, Ore.; and the Most Rev. Joe S. Vasquez, bishop of Austin.

 El Paso Times