Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Gomez: now is the time for immigration reform
April 23, 2013
At a teleconference hosted by staff of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), three prelates spoke in favor of comprehensive immigration reform.
“Now is the time to address this issue,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the USCCB. “As we speak, persons are being deported and an untold number of families are being divided. Human beings continue to die in the American desert. This suffering must end.”
Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, said that he hoped that immigration-reform legislation recently introduced in the Senate would “improve and advance, and we will work toward that end. The lives of millions of our fellow human beings depend upon it.”
Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chair of the USCCB Communications Committee, added that he hoped that discussion of the issue would be “civil and respectful.”
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Further information:
- Teleconference audio (Justice for Immigrants)
- USCCB President Says ‘Now Is The Time’ To Reform Immigration System (USCCB)
- Bishops: Immigration bill on right track, some changes sought (CNS)
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Posted by: Bveritas2322 -
Apr. 24, 2013 1:02 PM ET USA
When will the phony sanctimony ever end? For years our bishops have branded Catholics with honest concerns over ILLEGAL immigration as racist while the bishops advocated open borders. Then the bishops finally figured out that human trafficking, drug trading, and deaths in transit over the “open borders,” is a bad thing and began opposing it, while never apologizing to the “racists” for trying to warn them for years. Considering how long it took them to figure out that raping children is bad...
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Posted by: Thomas429 -
Apr. 24, 2013 4:06 AM ET USA
We do not need more workers here for any reason. There are too many Americans at all levels of education, training, and experience looking for work. Remember also thagt these people who are here illegally will support the very politicians who brought us abortion on demand, late term abortions, partial birth abortions, and extra uterine murder of babies, of course it all mjurder in the eyes of the Lord . . .
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Posted by: bnewman -
Apr. 23, 2013 10:10 PM ET USA
I think that comprehensive immigration reform is an important issue for Catholic bishops to champion, since most of the immigrants in question are in fact Catholics already living in parishes in the USA. Whatever the bill that gets passed (if one does get passed) it will certainly not please everyone, but politics at best must always be a compromise between different interests.
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Posted by: lauriem5377 -
Apr. 23, 2013 7:32 PM ET USA
Perhaps they should turn their immediate attention to the babies unborn - and sometimes born from failed abortions - who are being killed every single hour by horrific and painful abortion procedures. I hope our new Holy Father will help clarify what our Lord expects of Bishops - and all of us!
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Apr. 23, 2013 7:15 PM ET USA
The illegals have waited this long so a little longer should not hurt anyone so American citizens can review and discuss its impacts. Or is that asking too much of the church.
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Posted by: Minnesota Mary -
Apr. 23, 2013 6:24 PM ET USA
Once again, Timothy Cardinal Dolan disappoints. People die from suicide also, but we don't hear the bishops speaking out against suicide. A nation has a God given right to protect its citizens from invasion by people from other lands. I don't believe these bishops are naive. I now know that they are against this country's best interests. They are too often on the side of what hurts this nation.
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Posted by: Defender -
Apr. 23, 2013 11:15 AM ET USA
There are so many basic issues that the bishops ignore that occur in their own dioceses. Romy1274329 points out some and here's some more: Catholic schools run amok and a Catholic education for all who want it (sorry, that used to be true); gay parishes; priests and religious who know and teach Catholicism; the wasteful expenditures of money by the USCCB (always wondered why Catholics have to buy things from them); and all the trips to Rome (in an era of digital communications), etc?
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Posted by: -
Apr. 23, 2013 8:56 AM ET USA
We have a struggling, unchatechized laity who are leaving the Church in droves but all our bishops want to talk about are guns and immigration and corn. If they want to act like a political lobby, they should register as one. We are out of work, our kids are out of work, and we have nowhere to turn because our bishops are very busy with the glamor issue of the moment. It's easier to get in front of a microphone than it is to face a roomfull of unemployed.
