In 2024, the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, through its Social Ministry Program, invited Faith in Action International to work with parishes in the diocese to develop a grassroots faith-based organization. The Archdiocese is one of the largest in Latin America, with 514 parishes, 1,125 chapels, 1,688 priests, 2,479 Catholic sisters, and almost six million parishioners. Twentyfive clergy and lay leaders met monthly to develop this new organizing effort. Key issues include access to clean water, sanitation, the cost and quality of health care, and the need to strengthen the social fabric to prevent violence and strengthen democracy in Mexico.
Root Causes Initiative
In December 2019, grassroots and faith-based organizations and religious leaders from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the U.S. met in Mexico City created the Root Causes Initiative to change the underlying conditions causing poverty and forcing Central Americans to migrate. Working virtually, we built a shared regional agenda and brought civic and religious leaders from Central America into discussions with high level officials from the U.S. State Department, National Security Council, USAID and the U.S. Congress and organized campaigns to press for changes in policies related to human rights and rule of law, migration and respect for migrants and refugees, and locally-led development.
Vision: A regional movement of people of faith, grassroots organizations and religious leaders working to transform the underlying conditions that force Central Americans to migrate.
Root Causes Highlights of 2022
Publication of No Queda de Otra: An Exploration of the Root Causes of Migration to the Southern Border by the Hope Border Institute and a briefing about the report held for the State Department’s Central America Strategy Team
Publication of an Assessment of Year One of the Biden-Harris Root Causes Strategy on February 2, 2002.
Letter from 23 Guatemalan Indigenous Authorities and 8 other civil society organizations to Vice-President Harris and the U.S. State Department about the crisis of rule of law and human rights in Guatemala with specific recommendations on March 23, 2022, with follow up meeting with U.S. State Department.
Sign-on letter about rule of law crisis in Guatemala from 1,100 religious leaders and people of faith to President Biden, Vice-President Harris and Secretary of State Blinken on June 6, 2022.
Regional webinar with Thelma Aldana former Guatemalan Attorney General and Juan Francisco Sandoval, ex-director of Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity and other exiled Guatemalan judges and prosecutors, along with U.S. Bishop Dorsonville, Chair of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Migration Committee and Guatemalan Cardinal Ramazzini, attended by 174 people.
Regional webinar, VOICES FROM CENTRAL AMERICA AMID CRISIS, with senior officials form USAID and the U.S. State Department and 114 participants from Central America, Mexico and the U.S.
