David Agren

Residents of Dignity Village—populated by asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico as their cases proceed in U.S. courts, part of the Migrant Protection Protocols plan—have endured everything from cold snaps to hurricanes, from rats and snakes to vermin infestations, and from criminal gangs kidnapping them to the COVID-19 pandemic.

No sooner had federal forces arrested José Antonio Yépez Ortiz — a crime boss known as "El Marro," or the sledgehammer — than stories surfaced of his supposed generosity with the Catholic Church and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

People started lining up shortly after noon outside the 16th-century Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in southern Mexico City. Most practiced social distancing as best they could on a bustling sidewalk; all were clutching empty food containers.

Nearly a decade after the slaying of 72 migrants on a ranch in northeastern Mexico, church leaders and migrant shelter operators are once again demanding the authorities properly investigate one of the country's most notorious crimes.

Priests in El Salvador have called on the nation's bishops to conduct their own investigation into the murder of a Salvadoran seminary rector.

The Nicaraguan bishops' conference has called an arson attack on the Managua cathedral "an act of terrorism," but vowed not to be intimidated as a government campaign of intolerance targeting the Catholic Church turns increasingly cruel and involves acts of sacrilege.

Bishop Eugenio Scarpellini of El Alto, Bolivia, died July 15 after contracting COVID-19. He was remembered by colleagues as a tireless promoter of missions.

Inocente Orlando Montano, the former Salvadoran army colonel accused of participating in "the decision, design or execution of the killings" of six Jesuits in 1989, testified in his Spanish trial that no order was ever given to eliminate the priests.

An expert witness has testified that the slayings of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989 was "premeditated" and preceded by campaigns to discredit the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus.

A former Salvadoran army officer has testified that the "high command" gave orders to eliminate Jesuits priests during the country's civil war. He also said the Central American country's president would have known of the crimes to be committed and did not intervene.

A former military commander accused of killing six Jesuits and two women working with the Society of Jesus during El Salvador's civil war went on trial June 8 in Spain, offering hopes of justice for crimes that have wallowed in impunity for more than three decades.

Jesuit Father Raul Vazquez always wanted to better include the marginalized barrios alongside a sewage canal, which, centuries earlier, had been named "Canal de la Compania" after the Society of Jesus.

The recent decision by the Department of Homeland Security to extend restrictions on nonessential crossings of the southern border due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not surprise Catholics who work with migrants in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Mexico's bishops have called for the federal government to reconsider its COVID-19 response, urging the president to set aside a suite of mega-projects and instead put the funds toward families facing pandemic hardships.

The Mexican bishops' conference has issued ethical guidelines as the COVID-19 crisis worsens in Mexico and medical staff are potentially forced to make life-and-death decisions on which patients receive treatment, and which ones are denied access to equipment like ventilators.

Catholic migrant ministries of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras have called for an end to deportations during the COVID-19 crisis, saying the practice exposes an already vulnerable group to health and security risks — especially those sent summarily to countries of which they are not citizens.

At least 138 Salvadorans have been murdered after being sent back to their violent Central American country from the United States, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

The secretary-general of the Mexican bishops' conference expressed dismay at the sight of Mexican security forces scuffling with a caravan of Central American migrants trying to enter the country via its southern border with Guatemala.

Christian Brother James Miller was beatified Dec. 7 in Guatemala with a celebration on the soccer fields of the same school he once served.

A pro-government mob entered the cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, damaging property, attacking hunger strikers inside the building and jostling a priest and nun.