Catholic bishops rebuked for ‘confusion’ on deportations stance by leading lay group

Exclusive: After US Catholic bishops issued a statement opposing mass deportations, a prominent US Catholic group rebuked some of their colleagues for creating “confusion” about the church’s official position on law enforcement, and called for “a more complete conversation about… Immigration“.

Wednesday, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The USCCB issued a “Special Pastoral Letter on Immigration” in which the bishops said they felt “compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”

In the letter, the bishops said unequivocally: “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” adding: “We pray for an end to inhumane rhetoric and violence, whether directed against them.” immigrants or in law enforcement.“

“We are disturbed to see among our own people a climate of fear and anxiety over issues of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary controversy and denigration of migrants. We are concerned about conditions in detention centers and lack of access to pastoral care.”

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US Catholic bishops pray together and federal law enforcement officials make arrests. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters; Mustafa Basem/Anadolu)

They also expressed their regret that “some Immigrants in the United States They arbitrarily lost their legal status,” he noted. “We feel sad when we meet parents who fear arrest when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

A day later, the conservative advocacy group Catholic Vote released a report titled “Immigration Enforcement and the Christian Conscience,” in which it said: “Despite what some church leaders in America have indicated, a faithful Catholic can support robust and humane immigration enforcement — by means such as physical barriers, detention, and deportation — without violating church teachings.”

While the US bishops’ statement cites the biblical verse “Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did for me,” in reference to the plight of immigrants, the CatholicVote report states that “the implications of this passage apply to all people — including those left poor, forgotten, unemployed, and victims of crime.”

The report posits that while “weak borders and lax law enforcement are often presented as ‘humane’ and ‘compassionate’ policies required by Christian love,” such policies “often take a heavy human toll—as when they enrich and empower criminal gangs, clearly harming Americans and foreigners in the process.”

He also calls for deportation even in cases that result in the separation of families, saying: “In this regard, there is no fundamental difference between a prison sentence for other crimes and the deportation of illegal immigrants.”

“If legitimate law enforcement disrupts family life, responsibility falls on the family members who violated the law,” the report said.

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The southern border of the United States near El Paso, Texas. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Cummins)

The report laments that “Catholics who advocate vigorous but humane enforcement of immigration laws are sometimes accused of disobeying their bishops or the pope, and even violating church teachings.” He also says that “statements by individual church leaders in America and abroad have also added to the confusion, especially when they draw a moral equivalence between President TrumpImmigration policy and, for example, the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion platform.”

Despite this, the report posits that “correctly, there is no such thing as… official “The Catholic Position on the Practical Details of Immigration Policy.” Instead, he frames the positions of individual Catholics on immigration enforcement as “a matter of wise political judgment,” which he says is “an area of ​​responsibility that properly belongs to lay Catholics and not to bishops.”

Catholic President Kelsey Reinhart told Fox News Digital that the group “wants to promote a fuller conversation on immigration and give moral standing and freedom of conscience to Catholics and Christians who recognize the need to secure borders and the importance of the rule of law.”

“Pastoral accompaniment on the part of bishops and faithful Christians, however necessary, does not exhaust the Church’s moral vocabulary,” Reinhardt said.

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ICE and several other federal, state and local agencies during a week-long immigration enforcement operation in the Houston, Texas, area that resulted in the arrest of 646 illegal immigrants. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

“The responsibility to regulate borders for the common good is not an admonition added to a humanitarian statement; it is an integral part of the Catholic faith,” Reinhardt said, adding: “This is not a secondary or marginal concern. As we say, it is precisely the breakdown of the legal system – not just private bias – that has created the conditions in which exploitation thrives, cartels flourish, and millions of migrants are pushed into the shadow world without legal recourse or clear prospects.”

“The point, frankly, is this: A nation cannot respect the dignity of immigrants if it effectively abandons the rule of law under which immigrants can be protected,” she said.

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CatholicVote made headlines in 2024 for issuing its first political endorsement of President Donald Trump. Founder of the group, Brian BurchHe currently serves as the Trump administration’s ambassador to the Vatican.

Fox News Digital reached out to the USCCB for comment but did not immediately receive a response.