Leo says young are ‘promise of hope’ in US riven by discord

‘Humanity is diminished whenever the unborn or the undocumented, the unemployed or the unhealthy, are excluded, uninvited or unwelcome,’ said Cardinal Blase Cupich.

President Donald Trump’s attacks on undocumented immigrants brought protesters into the streets of Los Angeles and drove further protests already planned nationwide on his birthday.

Events across the country on 14 June were dominated by the political context, including the gathering in Chicago of thousands of Catholics in Rate Field stadium, home of the city’s White Sox baseball team, to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV.  The Pope addressed attendees in a video message, telling the young people present: “You are the promise of hope for so many of us.”

In his sermon during Mass in the stadium, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago built on the Pope’s words about how the love of the Trinity calls us to love one another. He turned to the plight of migrants and others in society who are defined by what they lack.

“Humanity is diminished whenever the unborn or the undocumented, the unemployed or the unhealthy, are excluded, uninvited or unwelcome, or whenever we tell ourselves they are of no concern to us,” Cardinal Cupich said.

“We should keep this in mind as we face the challenges of immigration in our country. Without question, countries have a duty to secure their borders, protect the public from crime and violence and enact reasonable rules for immigration. At the same time, it is wrong to scapegoat those who are here without documents, for indeed they are here due to a broken immigration system which both parties have failed to fix.

“The task before us in this moment as Christians, is to call each other to live with authenticity, as authentic persons, rejecting language or activity that demonises and degrades the dignity of others, that pretends that some persons are unworthy to be connected to us.  That is foreign to our calling to be persons in the image and likeness of God.”

In San Diego, Bishop Michael Pham, an auxiliary in the diocese who will be installed as its ordinary on 17 July, encouraged clergy to accompany immigrants when they attend their scheduled hearings to regularise their legal status.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents have attended these hearings and arrested immigrants to deport them, even though they are at the court to comply with the procedures for obtaining legal status and becoming a citizen.

“On the morning of 20 June, which is International Refugee Day, a group of priests and faith leaders are planning to visit the federal court building to stand in solidarity with migrants who are making their court appearances,” Pham wrote.  

Other bishops said they planned to follow Pham’s lead and ask their clergy and other church leaders to accompany migrants to their court hearings.

Pax Christi USA issued a statement on 11 June calling “for an end to the militarised repression of nonviolent resistance” in Los Angeles, calling Trump’s deployment of the National Guard against protestors “grossly disproportionate”.

Dr Sherry Simon, chair of Pax Christi USA’s national council said that “as people of faith, we must speak out against a government that is abusing the most vulnerable among us”.

The group also criticised the military parade on 14 June marking the 250th anniversary of the US army. “We are horrified by the plans to display the United States’ machines of war through the streets of Washington, DC this weekend, a waste of millions of dollars which further exacerbates the ever-deepening wound of this administration’s attacks on the dignity of human beings,” Pax Christi said last week, condemning “a bloated military budget which robs people of the education, health care, housing, and jobs that they deserve”.

In a statement on 12 June, the leadership of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace (CSJP) said “the recent deployment of the National Guard and US Marines responding to nonviolent protests in Los Angeles against extensive [Ice] operations represents a grossly excessive response that undermines state government authority and only further escalated tension in a community in protest”.

They criticised “intimidation tactics” deployed against “vulnerable and marginalised populations”, and expressed “deep appreciation for those who continue organising nonviolent actions, prayer vigils, and demonstrations supporting immigrant communities nationwide.”

The same statement also expressed “horror at the plans to parade the United States’ instruments of war through Washington, DC streets this weekend”.

Amid the protests in Los Angeles, church leaders denounced the Ice operations. Fr Brendan Busse SJ said the presence of troops “felt like what it might feel like on the receiving side of an occupation”. Busse is a member of a local rapid response network which monitors immigration raids and supports those affected.

The Revd Jaime Edwards-Acton, pastor of St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood, spoke on 9 June in support of 14 families whose loved ones were among those apprehended by Ice.

“We will not allow this administration to normalise cruelty or silence our resistance,” he said.

Immigrants speaking at the same event accused Ice of “kidnapping” their loved ones, whom they had not heard from since. Edwards-Acton rejected the Trump administration’s claims that those being apprehended were hardened criminals. “That is just not the case,” he said

Edwards-Acton reported that during the protests he and other clergy had walked to where a large contingent of police officers and National Guard members were assembled and spread out in front of the line of officers, holding hands and sometimes bursting into song.

The local Episcopal diocese helped sponsor an interfaith vigil on 10 June, and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles celebrated a Mass for peace the following day. Jewish leaders have also spoken out, including the prominent Rabbi Sharon Brous who appeared with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at an interfaith vigil on 10 June before a curfew went into effect, calling Trump a “pharaoh” and calling for nonviolent resistance.

LA archbishop appeals for calm after immigration raid protests

Evelio Menjivar – bishop without borders

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