US bishops thank Pope for ‘prayerful support’ in defence of migrants’ dignity

‘You call not only every Catholic, but every Christian to what unites us in faith – offering the hope of Jesus Christ to every person, citizen and immigrant alike.’

US bishops welcomed the Pope’s letter addressed to them in response to “the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the institution of a programme of mass deportations” under President Donald Trump.

The letter, published on 11 February, applauded the bishops’ efforts “as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights”.

In a reply issued the same day, the Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), expressed “deep gratitude for your prayerful support”.

“As successor to Saint Peter, you call not only every Catholic, but every Christian to what unites us in faith – offering the hope of Jesus Christ to every person, citizen and immigrant alike,” he wrote. “In these times of fear and confusion, we must be ready to answer our saviour’s question, ‘What have you done for the least of these?’”

Referring to the “sudden withdrawal of aid” caused by the Trump administration’s halt to funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Archbishop Broglio prayed that the government would “keep its prior commitments to help those in need”.

“We also turn to the People of God to ask their mercy and generosity in supporting the Catholic Relief Services [CRS] national collection this Lent as well as the ‘on the ground’ work of local Catholic Charities organisations so that the void might be filled with the efforts of all.”

USAID funding provided more than half of CRS’ $1.5 billion annual budget for overseas programmes, while many local Catholic Charities branches operate refugee support services threatened by the new White House policy.

Last week, the news website The Pillar reported that the Catholic Charities branch in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston cut more than 20 per cent of its 500 staff due to the loss of federal funding.

The Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich said he appreciated the Pope’s “prophetic witness” in identifying “the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the pre-eminent urgency at this moment”.

“I am grateful for his encouragement of bishops who have criticised mass indiscriminate deportations and the criminalisation of immigrants, as well as his challenge for all the bishops to walk together and defend the human dignity of the migrants in our country,” he told Vatican News.

The cardinal particularly noted Francis’ assertion that the “rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality”.

Cupich said this showed that “each and every one of us can make a critical judgement and express disagreement with policies that are falsely built on the basis of force and distortions”.

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Tom Homan, the law enforcement officer and Fox News commentator whom Trump appointed his “border czar” with responsibility for deportations, told reporters yesterday that the Pope should “stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us”.

Responding to a question about the Pope’s “harsh words”, Homan said: “I’ve got harsh words for the Pope. The Pope ought to fix the Catholic Church. I’m saying this as a lifelong Catholic … he ought to focus on his work and leave enforcement to us.”

He continued: “He wants to attack us for securing our border? He’s got a wall around the Vatican does he not?”

The Pope’s letter included a pointed reference to the ordo amoris, a concept developed by St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas which Vice President J.D. Vance drew on in an interview broadcast on 30 January in which he insisted that as an American leader or citizen “your compassion first belongs to your fellow citizens”.

He said it was “a very Christian concept … that you love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world”. Vance later referred to the ordo amoris in response to online criticism of his claim.

In his letter on Tuesday, Pope Francis asserted that the “true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’”.

“Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity,” he wrote.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!”

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