Catholic bishop protests deportation by Mexican immigration authorities

[Michie]

A bishop of the Melkite rite, one of the more than 20 Eastern rites of the Catholic Church that are in communion with Rome, protested the mistreatment he says he received and his subsequent deportation after arriving at Mexico City International Airport.

Bishop Joseph Khawam, apostolic exarch for the Melkite Church in Venezuela and apostolic administrator of the Melkite Eparchy in Mexico, denounced that Mexican immigration authorities detained him for hours with illegal immigrants, confiscated his Vatican passport and his personal phone, and deported him to Venezuela from where he had flown to Mexico.

In a statement posted April 6 on Facebookand Instagram, the prelate of Syrian origin said he “deplores and denounces” what reportedly happened on the night of April 2-3 at the airport in Mexico’s capital city.

The statement said the Melkite bishop said that what happened to him is “a flagrant practice of racial discrimination and an insult to human dignity above all, given that his nationality of origin in the Vatican passport is Syrian and that he was treated by the authorities on this basis.”

Continued below.

Catholic bishop decries deportation by Mexico immigration authorities

Bishop Joseph Khawam, a bishop of the Melkite rite, protested his alleged mistreatment and subsequent deportation by Mexican authorities.

www.catholicnewsagency.com