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Bishops issue statement on immigration

Province ordinaries express solidarity, support for immigrant sisters, brothers

The East Tennessee Catholic and OSV News

The Catholic bishops of Kentucky and Tennessee, together as the Metropolitan Province of Louisville, on Dec. 28 released a joint statement expressing solidarity with migrants and restating the Church’s longstanding call for comprehensive immigration reform supporting the country’s duty to control borders and immigration policies in a humane manner.

The statement, released in anticipation of the feast of the Holy Family on Dec. 29, was addressed to the Catholic faithful in the seven dioceses of Tennessee and Kentucky.

The statement was released through the Tennessee Catholic Conference and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, which represent the dioceses of those states.

Those are the Dioceses of Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis in Tennessee, and Owensboro, Lexington, Covington, and the Archdiocese of Louisville in Kentucky.

The bishops’ letter reads as follows:

To our brothers and sisters in Christ,

As we reflect upon the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and recall during this time their flight into a foreign land as migrants, the ongoing heightened discussion surrounding our migrant community has engendered fear and uncertainty.

It is also a challenging time for the whole Catholic Church in the United States, which has long included migrants from various parts of the world. The Catholic Bishops of Kentucky and Tennessee, together as the Metropolitan Province of Louisville, wish to first and foremost express our prayerful support and solidarity to our immigrant sisters and brothers.

Please be assured that you are not forgotten and know that the Church stands with you. You and your families are a cherished gift to the world.

We pledge that the Catholic Church in Kentucky and Tennessee will continue to accompany and serve migrants with every possible resource. We will continue to advocate for your just treatment and dignity as our Catholic Social Teaching instructs in every way that we are able to do so.

The Church recognizes the right of individuals to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their family members. The Church also recognizes the responsibility of nations to control their borders and create migration policies. However, the Church teaches that this right is not unlimited and must be exercised with respect for the human dignity of each person and the common good.

The Church in the United States has long advocated for comprehensive immigration reform that includes pathways to citizenship, family reunification, and protections for those fleeing persecution. It emphasizes the need for just and humane treatment of all migrants, including access to legal protections and due process. The Church recognizes that basic human rights are based on the dignity of being created in the image and likeness of God.

We invite the whole Catholic community in our states and throughout the nation to learn more about the plight of immigrants, to understand the values that form our Catholic teaching on the matter, and to join us in advocating for just and comprehensive laws and policies that respond to the requirements of human rights and dignity and reflect the desire for the common good in our nation. We stand ready to be a part of bringing this about.

Let us all continue to pray for our nation that we might come together to seek answers and constructive action in regard to these concerns.

Most Rev. Shelton J. Fabre
Archbishop of Louisville

Most Rev. William F. Medley
Bishop of Owensboro

Most Rev. John Stowe, OFM Conv.
Bishop of Lexington

Most Rev. John C. Iffert
Bishop of Covington

Most Rev. J. Mark Spalding
Bishop of Nashville

Most Rev. David P. Talley
Bishop of Memphis

Most Rev. Mark Beckman
Bishop of Knoxville

As with other dioceses in the Louisville Province, the Diocese of Knoxville has seen the Hispanic Catholic population grow dramatically in recent years, and a number of East Tennessee parishes have large, thriving Hispanic congregations.

The bishops of Tennessee and Kentucky weren’t alone in their joint statement on immigration.

The bishops of Washington state, among a number of other bishops in other states, also affirmed their solidarity with immigrants and refugees in a statement released on Dec. 29.

It also was the same day dioceses around the world inaugurated the Jubilee Year, meant to be a time of hope amid a world of uncertainty.

The bishops of Washington stated that “refugees and migrants and their families—documented and undocumented” are experiencing great fears due to threats of mass deportations and forced separation of families.

President-elect Donald Trump and his team have discussed openly their incoming administration’s plan to enact “the largest deportation” in U.S. history. There have been reports of a possible policy change that would remove protections against arrest at sensitive locations such as churches and schools. Amid all this, the Washington bishops urged believers to embrace “the Gospel teaching and Pope Francis’ call to recognize the dignity of others as we welcome the stranger,” in a Dec. 29 joint statement from the Washington State Catholic Conference.

The Tennessee, Kentucky, and Washington bishops noted that the Holy Family, too, were migrants fleeing to a foreign land.

“The threats of mass deportations and forced separation of families have caused great fear for refugees and migrants and their families—documented and undocumented,” said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, and Auxiliary Bishops Eusebio Elizondo and Frank Schuster of Seattle. “These threats are contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the dignity of every human person that is central to the teachings of our Catholic faith.”

Citing Pope Francis’ third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (on fraternity and social friendship), the bishops spoke about being brothers and sisters and that the inalienable dignity of every human is more important than nationalities.

“We cannot separate our love for God from our love for others,” said the bishops, echoing Pope Francis’ call to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate immigrants.

“As Christians, we know our love for God is measured by our love of neighbor, particularly the most vulnerable,” the Washington bishops wrote.

“While we uphold that we are a nation of laws, as we’ve stated in the past, we also know that the U.S. immigration system is severely flawed and in need of a comprehensive overhaul,” the bishops said in their statement. They added that “migration is part of the fabric of our nation.”

According to data from the Pew Research Center, immigrants currently account for 14.3 percent of the U.S. population—the highest level since 1910, but still less than the 14.8 percent marked in 1890.

Data for 2022 showed that the majority of immigrants (77 percent) are in the United States legally, with close to half (49 percent) being naturalized citizens, just under a quarter (24 percent) lawful permanent residents, and 4 percent legal temporary residents. Slightly less than one quarter (23 percent) are unauthorized.

President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plans are targeting an estimated 11 million people living in the United States without authorization. However, there are fears that immigrants who have temporary status and are registered with the federal government through different programs could also be vulnerable to deportation.

The Trump administration’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, who was named to the role in November and will not require Senate confirmation, has addressed the question of mass deportation’s effects on families. Mr. Homan was President-elect Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 2017-18 “zero tolerance” era, which saw children taken from their parents in the midst of illegal border crossings.

On Dec. 26, Mr. Homan told multiple media outlets that the incoming Trump administration is considering open-air family detention centers for holding and deporting families. Mr. Homan has also proposed the deputization of local and military forces to apprehend these migrants, as well as the use of military bases to detain them and military planes to transport them out of the country.

In their Dec. 29 statement, the Ten nessee, Kentucky, and Washington state bishops talked about how “the Catholic Church has a long tradition of standing with those forced to migrate.” This is rooted in Scripture, they pointed out.

Catholic social teaching on immigration balances three interrelated principles—the right of people to migrate in order to sustain their lives and those of their families, the right of a country to regulate its borders and control immigration, and a nation’s duty to regulate its borders with justice and mercy.

At the same time, the Church also makes clear human laws are also subject to divine limits knowable to human reason. St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor (Splendor of Truth) and 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) both quote the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which names “deportation” among various specific acts “offensive to human dignity” that “are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”

The Tennessee, Kentucky, and Washington bishops’ statements are similar in their solidarity to calls from other bishops, including an open letter by the bishops of New Mexico, a statement in five languages written by the bishops of California on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as well as an op-ed column by 10 Arizona faith leaders, including the Catholic bishops, denouncing the specter of immigration raids on churches, schools, and other sensitive locations.

A 2018 immigration raid on a Grainger County slaughterhouse in East Tennessee resulted in the deportation of nearly 100 Hispanic residents, many of them members of Diocese of Knoxville parishes.

The workplace raid was initiated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. As a result, some half of those migrant laborers who were detained were sent to ICE detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama.

Soon after the November 2024 election, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops posted a statement of pastoral concern pledging support for immigrants. It said the U.S. “should have an immigration system that protects vulnerable migrants and their families, many of whom have already been victimized by criminal actors.”

According to the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Justice for Immigrants Campaign, bishops in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Nebraska, as well as the Diocese of Portland, Maine, have also addressed migration in statements before and after the elections.

The Washington bishops concluded their statement with assurance of the closeness of the Church, saying, “May all our brothers and sisters on the margins, especially migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, know that our parishes are open for prayer, comfort, and solace.”

“During this time of uncertainty and fear, we stand with our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” the Washington bishops said, echoing what was said by the bishops in Tennessee and Kentucky and elsewhere across the country.

 

 

[Feature photo: Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, is seen Feb. 26, 2019, at the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Bishop Seitz, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, has been leading efforts to draw attention to the plight of migrants. OSV News photo/David Agren]

Comments 1

  1. There is a difference between a legal immigrant and an illegally alien. This letter appears to support illegal aliens. What happened to the church teachings to follow the laws?

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