USCCB on refugee executive order: solidarity with Muslims, religious-freedom concerns
February 01, 2017
Citing “fear and untold anxiety,” the chairmen of three committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have expressed deep concern about President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order that touches upon refugees.
On January 31, the chairmen of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Committee on International Justice and Peace stated:
We recognize that Friday evening’s Executive Order has generated fear and untold anxiety among refugees, immigrants, and others throughout the faith community in the United States.
In response to the Order, we join with other faith leaders to stand in solidarity again with those affected by this order, especially our Muslim sisters and brothers. We also express our firm resolution that the Order’s stated preference for “religious minorities” should be applied to protect not only Christians where they are a minority, but all religious minorities who suffer persecution, which includes Yazidis, Shia Muslims in majority Sunni areas, and vice versa.
While we also recognize that the United States government has a duty to protect the security of its people, we must nevertheless employ means that respect both religious liberty for all, and the urgency of protecting the lives of those who desperately flee violence and persecution. It is our conviction as followers of the Lord Jesus that welcoming the stranger and protecting the vulnerable lie at the core of the Christian life. And so, to our Muslim brothers and sisters and all people of faith, we stand with you and welcome you.
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Posted by: rjbennett1294 -
Feb. 03, 2017 10:00 AM ET USA
I have to comment on this again and say that the USCCB is being stunningly naive.
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Posted by: Gregory108 -
Feb. 03, 2017 2:30 AM ET USA
Not only did Jimmy Carter not allow Iranians to come in, but he rounded up Iranian students already in the US,peaceful Iranian students,and threw them out of the US. Yet, he is the liberal darling! Where were the protests,where were our bishops then? The USCCB does need to be disbanded! Have these bishops ever considered that President Trump JUST MIGHT BE God's answer to all those Fortnights for Freedom they held, when we were facing religious persecution and nuns were on Obama's frying pan?
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Posted by: unum -
Feb. 02, 2017 12:40 PM ET USA
The USCCB needs to be concerned with the crumbling of Christ's Church in our country as the faithful are shut out of the work of the Church (Ex. Catholic Charities will handle it) and our clergy feed them homilies on Scripture that do not relate to the modern world. Unfortunately, homilies and classes on controversial topics about life in the real world are not permitted by today's diocesan culture! The people of God are not being fed!
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Posted by: space15796 -
Feb. 02, 2017 12:09 PM ET USA
Yet they remain largely silent on the slaughter and rape of Christian and Yazidi girls by our so-called Muslim "brothers". Snore.
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Posted by: brenda22890 -
Feb. 02, 2017 5:28 AM ET USA
The USCCB needs to be disbanded. I, for one, am tired of their pc commentary.
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Posted by: rjbennett1294 -
Feb. 02, 2017 3:53 AM ET USA
In his latest book, Cardinal Raymond Burke says: “Islam is a religion that, according to its own interpretation, must also become the State. The Koran, and the authentic interpretations of it given by various experts in Koranic law, is destined to govern the world. In reality, there is no place for other religions...” Cardinal Burke says that, for anyone “not at peace with the idea of being under an Islamic government”, it was reasonable to be “afraid” of such a prospect. https://goo.gl/IkBwLr
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Posted by: jalsardl5053 -
Feb. 01, 2017 9:40 PM ET USA
Dear Holy See et. al. Please read the Summa Theologica, in the first part of the second part, question 105, article 3 (I-II, Q. 105, Art. 3). wherein the angelic doctor addresses the immigration issue - thoroughly. It will require you to have an open mind and thus, also, to shed your liberal unthinking propensity.
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Posted by: Bernadette -
Feb. 01, 2017 6:23 PM ET USA
USCCB is out of step with the truth about this situation; they are following the riotous scare tactics and not even aware that previous presidents have passed similar measures. For example, President Carter forbidding immigration to Iranians during the Iranian Hostage crisis. I'm just not in agreement with our bishops on the immigration issue. As a sovereign nation, we have the right to protect our borders - and we must!
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Posted by: feedback -
Feb. 01, 2017 8:48 AM ET USA
The temporary ban's purpose is not to be mean to pious Muslims but to establish proper vetting procedures to curb terrorism. In the meantime, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court; a judge with solid record of defending religious freedom and the right to life. What does the USCCB think about that? Nothing?
