NEW YORK CITY — The New York Times published an article Wednesday detailing a rare and nearly unanimous rebuke from American Roman Catholic bishops against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign, framing the immigration crisis in starkly moral terms. The bishops stated, “We feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”
During their annual meeting, the bishops reached a consensus in their statement concerning the federal crackdown on illegal immigration.
According to the New York Times article, the statement, passed at the bishops’ annual conference in Baltimore, indirectly called out Donald Trump. The bishops argued that they “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and “pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
According to the New York Times, this was a historic event since the bishops — who were divided by American politics in the Pope Francis era — displayed a united front in standing behind Pope Leo XIV. He is the first pope from the United States and the first pope to speak out for immigrants, urging other U.S. bishops to do the same.
The statement, referred to in the New York Times article as “a special message,” is a rare pastoral document the bishops can issue only at their annual meeting to address current pressing circumstances.
The article states that the last time they issued one was in 2013, in opposition to the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act under former President Barack Obama.
According to the article, for months Catholic bishops have pushed back against federal actions.
“Prelates have accompanied migrants to courthouses and protested… Trump’s domestic policy bill in Congress,” writes the New York Times. However, this action sent a strong message not only to the administration, composed of several high-profile Catholics, but also to the millions of immigrant families within the church.
The article notes that the statement outlined a range of concerns that many bishops perceived as primarily pastoral rather than political.
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” relays the New York Times.
The article continues, “We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”
The New York Times reports that the statement passed with 216 anonymous votes in favor, while five bishops voted against it and three abstained.
Further, on Wednesday, November 12, the bishops created a separate guidance document for Catholic hospitals. According to the New York Times, it rules that they must not provide “interventions that aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex.”
The New York Times reports that before the vote on the statement on immigration, Oklahoma City’s newly-elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, announced that he is “strongly in support of it.”
According to the article, Pope Leo expressed a specific desire for the bishops to give a united statement on the issue last month. Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso personally hand-delivered some 100 letters to him from immigrants.
According to the New York Times, following a day of public meetings in Baltimore on Tuesday, November 11, bishops convened privately for five hours to deliberate on the content of their statement. However, some expressed concerns that the statement might provoke backlash from the White House regarding matters such as religious worker visas, which the bishops are seeking to address.
The New York Times explains that, unlike previous annual gatherings earlier this year on the issue, the bishops presented a largely united public front.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago praised the near-unanimous support for the statement, which notes that federal agents conducted immigration raids for weeks, the article states.
During the discussion on the floor, he proposed an amendment to clarify that the bishops were against the indiscriminate mass deportation of individuals. According to the New York Times, the amendment was quickly approved.
“This is a time of really reflecting on what’s happening, and to not be afraid to respond to the need to defend the dignity of people,” Cupich said in an interview.
According to the New York Times, some prelates, like Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, wished the statement was even stronger.
Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami argued that the amendment from Cardinal Cupich “really gave the document gravitas.” According to the New York Times, Wenski has strongly criticized the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz. “This summer, he drove there on a Harley-Davidson with the Knights on Bikes, a motorcycle ministry, to pray the rosary at its entrance,” the article states.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado approached the microphone on the floor while the bishops deliberated over the final amendments to the statements.
According to the New York Times, this was Garcia-Maldonado’s first bishops’ conference. There, he asked that the statement speak not only to migrant families but also to immigrant priests like him.
“As a migrant person coming from Mexico to the United States, for me and my whole family, thank you for this,” says Garcia-Maldonado.
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