CNA Staff, Feb 11, 2025 / 18:44 pm (CNA).
The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference has responded to Pope Francis’ letter to the bishops regarding the country’s latest drive to deport unauthorized immigrants, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding human dignity and the goal of building a humane system of immigration.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for Military Services and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), thanked Pope Francis for his “prayerful support” and asked for the Holy Father to pray for the U.S. to improve its immigration system, protect communities, and safeguard human dignity.
“Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all,” Broglio wrote.
The letter was in response to Pope Francis’s February 10 letter, in which the Holy Father urged the U.S. to evaluate the justness of its policies in the light of human dignity and highlighted the inherent dignity of migrants.
Broglio, in turn, highlighted the importance of centering the issue on Christ.
“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,” Broglio wrote on behalf of all the country’s bishops to the Holy Father. “In these times of fear and confusion, we must be ready to answer our Savior’s question, ‘what have you done for the least of these?’”
Pope Francis in his letter proposed that a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality, while at the same time affirming a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes. Additionally, the Holy Father weighed in on the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris” — “rightly ordered love” — which was recently invoked by Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, in the ongoing debate over the country’s refugee and immigration policy.
Broglio also directly addressed ongoing concerns around the U.S. government’s role in charitable aid. Noting the recent funding pause by the U.S. government, Broglio urged the U.S. and the faithful to support Catholic charity and relief organizations.
“We all turn to the Lord in prayer that families suffering from the sudden withdrawal of aid may find the strength to endure,” Broglio continued. “With you, we pray that the U.S. government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need.”
Under the Trump-Vance administration, the U.S. has paused its funding to most national and international charities. This includes Catholic organizations such as Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, which have since urged the administration to resume funding.
Meanwhile, the U.S. bishops’ conference last week laid off 50 staff members in its migration and refugee services office, citing a delay in reimbursements from the federal government.
“We also turn to the People of God to ask their mercy and generosity in supporting the Catholic Relief Services national collection this Lent as well as the ‘on the ground’ work of local Catholic Charities organizations so that the void might be filled with the efforts of all,” Broglio wrote.
Broglio concluded by highlighting the importance of fraternity, especially in the Jubilee Year.
“As we struggle to continue our care for the needy in our midst and the desire to improve the situation in those places from which immigrants come to our shores, we are ever mindful that in them we see the Face of Christ,” Broglio wrote. “In this Jubilee Year, may we build bridges of reconciliation, inclusion, and fraternity.”
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If I were a bishop, I’d be asking Francis to pray for an end to corruption in the Catholic Church.
When I was the Director of my diocese’s Catholic Charities (Charleston SC), I was very much aware of the vast amounts of money taken in by various Church organizations coming from the Federal government. My CC budget was a bit over a million dollars and, at first, I couldn’t understand why every other diocesan CC organization had budgets of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. Then I realized that every other diocese was under contract with the Federal government while ours was not. I also began to become aware that when speaking with other Directors of CC around the country that they were minimally interested in advancing the mission of the Church as Christ had mandated but seemed to talk and act as political agents of the government and were motivated by a political agenda in line with secular government. I wanted no part of this since it did not align at all with my purpose to be involved with Church ministry.
Prior to working for CC in SC, i worked at a Catholic psychiatric hospital in NY where, among other things, I had a hand in setting up a treatment program for clergy with sexual abuse issues. After many years of experiences being involved in Church ministries of various kinds, I concluded that if anyone ever thought that the Clergy Sexual Abuse and Cover-up Scandal was bad, wait until they got wind of the corruption in the Church over money and the hundreds of millions of dollars the Church was taking in acting, not in Christ’s name, but as agents of the Federal government. Anyone with a conscience would be sickened by what goes on in the inner workings of the Church.
I guess the height of my disgust came when I learned that Catholic Charities of the diocese of Richmond had taken a 14 year old girl who was in their custody as part of one of the Federal Immigration contracts FOR AN ABORTION. The day before the abortion, the Director of CC marched herself into the bishop’s office, told him what she was going to do and that there was nothing he could do about it. Then, when the USCCB bishops in charge of the various Federal contractual groups got wind of this, they tried to cover it up by sending a warning to every other bishop in the USCCB. (If anyone wants more info, the story broke when it was published in The Wanderer by publisher Chris Mannion).
Yes, bishops, ask the Pope to pray. But ask him to pray that the money corruption of the Catholic Church should end.
Easy peasy.
We simply adopt the Vatican’s system.