The Roman Catholic bishops of Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, have issued a joint statement about immigration policy and enforcement in the United States, describing the issue as “both complicated and emotional.”
In their statement, Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv, of the Diocese of Charlotte and Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama of the Diocese of Raleigh indicate that while “there is room for disagreement and discussion with respect to immigration policy, we wish to remind our more than 1 million Catholic faithful in North Carolina of the stated positions of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, formed by Catholic social teaching, and encourage personal reflection and formation on these issues.”
“We respect our borders and laws AND support immigration policy reforms and care for those who are already here, many already contributing members of our society for years. We do not see these ends as mutually exclusive,” the bishops state.
“We recognize there are persons residing in the United States without legal documentation and we do not condone violating the law,” the bishops make clear. “We will not counsel anyone to thwart or resist proper law enforcement but will continue to provide education about individuals’ legal rights,” they add.
At the same time, the bishops continue, “as Catholics, we advocate for the recognition that immigrants, as members of God’s human family, are deserving of and must be granted the appropriate dignity as our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Jesus himself was a refugee and taught us to welcome the stranger and to realize that in welcoming the stranger, we are welcoming Christ himself.”
Referencing Catholic social teaching, the Tarheel State bishops call for “lasting solutions to our immigration system” and specify four principles upon which those solutions should be based.
Continue reading at Catholic News Agency
Our Commentary on the Bishop’s statement:
- The bishops of North Carolina are employing many of the same deceptive talking points used by Catholic bishops across the nation.
- Why are they bishops choosing to speak-up now? They have four years under the Biden administration to criticize the illegal invasion of our nation, but did not utter a word.
- Why are these bishops failing to acknowledge that Catholic NGOs where paid billions of dollars under the Biden administration for immigration-related services?
TAKE ACTION: Send a message to the North Carolina bishops letting them know what you think about their recent statement.