Vile comments in letters and vicious attack e-mails have not stopped Bishop Thomas J. Tobin from speaking out against immigration enforcement raids.
Now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined the chorus of concern and called upon the Bush Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to reevaluate such raids as “the humanitarian costs are immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society.” Speaking on behalf of the USCCB, Bishop John C. Wester, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Migration, claimed that the raids revealed the sad reality of a failed immigration system that leads only to fear and fractured family life.
This latest foray by the U.S. Bishops into the national debate on immigration will most likely result in a rather “uncivilized” response by many who oppose not only their position but also that they dare speak out at all. The usual suspects, as Bishop Tobin so sadly discovered, who utter racist and offensive broadsides against immigrants, Hispanics, Bishops and the Catholic Church will shout the loudest and with the most venom. They rail against immigrants with such savagery that their commentaries are not fit for publication. However, other, more measured responses from anti-immigrant groups often maintain that Catholic Bishops should not speak about the issue of immigration, claiming it is a violation of the separation of church and state.
As preachers of the Gospel and as teachers of the faith, Bishops have not only the right but the moral duty to speak up against injustice and inequality wherever it is to be found. In the case of immigration raids, the U.S. Bishops have witnessed the “first-hand suffering of immigrant families and are gravely concerned about the collateral human consequences of immigration enforcement raids on the family unit.” This grave concern is what first led Bishop Tobin to call for a moratorium on the raids, and now has led the majority of U.S. Bishops to do the same.
Once again, we applaud Bishop Tobin for his courageous stand against unjust treatment of immigrant families and welcome the support now echoed by the U.S. Conference of Bishops. And once again, we join in calling upon the leaders of our nation to begin fixing the broken immigration system that does not treat human beings, God's children, with the dignity they so justly deserve. Without a doubt this latest call to halt the raids will garner the same nasty responses that Bishop Tobin received in such great number. Nevertheless, the mindless attacks cannot curtail the Bishops from acting as shepherds of their flock. They will continue to speak out – all the while acknowledging the right and the duty of the government to protect its borders justly. And all the while urging that government to treat each and every child of God with the dignity they deserve.
