By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-20 19:38:05 | Updated at 2024-11-21 10:21:01
14 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to deport all illegal immigrants living in the United States, Iowa bishops have issued a letter to migrants expressing solidarity.
“We write to you with hearts full of compassion and a deep desire to express our solidarity with you during this stressful time,” the bishops wrote in the letter, which was posted to the Iowa Catholic Conference’s website. “We recognize the immense challenges you face as migrants, and we want to assure you that you are not alone.”
The bishops then promised to advocate for migrants to be treated fairly within the framework of U.S. law.
The letter then quoted Pope Francis, who stated, “Migrants and refugees are not pawns of the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women, and men, who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.”
Pope Francis has also stated that “the encounter with [those who migrate], as with every brother and sister in need, is also an encounter with Christ.”
The letter ends with a reminder that Sacred Scriptures show God’s love for the stranger and sojourner, and that every person is a pilgrim in this life on the way to heaven.
In October, CatholicVote reported on comments from Bishop Francis Kalabat of the Chaldean Catholic Church regarding some of the issues in the presidential election, including immigration.
While Bishop Kalabat acknowledged that Pope Francis had expressed that Trump’s immigration policies were “anti-life,” he stated that the Pope had been misled, as he was told that deportation applied to “migrants,” instead of illegal immigrants.
The Bishop then pointed out that Pope Francis had stated in a 2022 interview, “Can borders be controlled? Yes, each country has a right to control its borders — who enters and who leaves — and countries that are in danger of terrorism or the like, have more right to control them more.’”
The Bishop added that this statement reflects the Catechism’s teaching on immigration. The Catechism states in 2241 that wealthy nations are obliged, insofar as they are able, to welcome foreigners seeking security; however, those immigrants must respect the laws and customs of their new nation.
Moreover, the Catechism states that political authorities have the right to impose conditions on immigration:
“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens” (CCC 2241).
Bishop Kalabat also addressed how an open border harms vulnerable migrant children.
“300,000 children are lost due to the instability of the border, most of [whom] have been used in sex slavery,” he stated, referring to a report published in August by the Department of Homeland Security.
