Catholic bishops rebuked for ‘confusion’ on deportations stance by leading lay group

EXCLUSIVE: After U.S. Catholic bishops issued a statement opposing mass deportations, a prominent U.S. Catholic group chided some of its colleagues for sowing “confusion” about the church's official position on law enforcement and called for “a fuller conversation on the issue.” immigration”

On Wednesday United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The USCCB issued a “special pastoral letter on immigration,” in which the bishops said they felt “compelled now, in this climate, to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”

In their message, the bishops stated unequivocally: “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” adding: “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or law enforcement officers.“

“We are concerned when we see an atmosphere of fear and concern among our people regarding issues of profiling and immigration control. We are saddened by the state of the current debate and the denigration of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

US CATHOLIC BISHOPS VOTE FOR OFFICIAL BAN OF GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT IN CATHOLIC HOSPITALS

They also complained that “some immigrants to the USA have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” and noted, “we grieve when we meet parents who fear being detained while taking their children to school, and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

A day later, the conservative advocacy group CatholicVote released a report titled “Immigration Control and the Christian Conscience,” which said, “Despite what some church leaders in America indicate, a faithful Catholic can support strong and humane immigration enforcement—through such means as physical barriers, detention, and deportation—without violating Church teaching.”

While the US bishops' statement referred to the scripture verse: “Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did for me,” referring to the plight of migrants, the CatholicVote report said that “the implications of this passage apply to all people – including those left poor, forgotten, unemployed and victims of crime.”

The report argues that while “loose borders and lax enforcement of laws are often presented as the 'humane' and 'compassionate' policies required by Christian love,” such policies “often result in terrible human costs—for example, when they enrich and empower criminal cartels while clearly harming both Americans and foreigners.”

He also makes the case for deportation even in cases where it results in family separation, stating: “In this regard, there is no significant difference between imprisonment for other offenses and the deportation of illegal immigrants.”

“When legal enforcement disrupts family life, responsibility lies with those family members who violated the law,” the report says.

“DESTROYED OUR WORLD”: FAMILY STILL WITHOUT ANSWERS AFTER DRUNKEN ILLEGALLY KILLED MOTHER

The report laments that “Catholics who advocate tough but humane immigration laws are sometimes accused of disobeying their bishops or the Pope and even violating Church teaching.” It also states that “statements by individual church leaders in America and abroad also add to the confusion, especially when they draw moral equivalences between President TrumpRussian immigration policy and, for example, the pro-abortion platform of the Democratic Party.”

Despite this, the report states that “there is, strictly speaking, no such thing as official “The Catholic Position” on the Practical Details of Immigration Policy.

CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt told Fox News Digital that the group “wants to promote a fuller conversation on immigration and provide moral authority and freedom of conscience to Catholics and Christians who recognize the need to secure borders and the importance of the rule of law.”

Reinhardt said that “pastoral accompaniment on the part of bishops and faithful Christians, however necessary, does not exhaust the moral vocabulary of the Church.”

BISHOPS AND CATHOLIC GROUPS DISTRIBUTE CARDINAL CUPIC'S PLAN TO READ ST. DICK DURBIN'S ABORTION CONTAINER: 'A BIG SCANDAL'

“The responsibility to regulate borders for the common good is not a warning tacked on to a humanitarian manifesto; it is an integral part of Catholic doctrine,” Reinhardt said, adding: “This is not a minor or minor issue. As we argue, it is the collapse of the rule of law, not mere private prejudice, that has created the conditions in which exploitation flourishes, cartels thrive and millions of migrants are pushed into the shadow world without legal recourse or clarity.” prospects.”

“The point, put bluntly, is this: a nation cannot respect the dignity of immigrants if it has effectively abandoned the rule of law under which immigrants can be protected,” she said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

In 2024, CatholicVote made headlines by providing political support for President Donald Trump for the first time. Founder of the group, Brian Birchcurrently serves as the Trump administration's ambassador to the Vatican.

Fox News Digital reached out to the USCCB for comment but did not receive an immediate response.