Not so long ago, when U.S. Catholic leaders said something political, they tended to sound like conservatives. American bishops’ most prominent policy statements focused on three issues: same-sex marriage, contraception, and—above all—abortion. Their frequently stated opposition to all three put them at odds with not just the left but also many Catholics. It even created tension with Rome.
Since Donald Trump’s reelection, however, the Church in the United States has been sounding more liberal. Its teaching hasn’t changed, but the president’s second term has shifted the bishops’ attention. The most urgent political concern for America’s Catholic leaders is no longer abortion; it’s immigration.
The issue has featured in their agenda for a while. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that wealthy countries should welcome refugees and economic migrants “to the extent they are able.” But now immigration dominates U.S. Catholic leaders’ public messaging.
In November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published a rare “special message” decrying the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation.” The day of Trump’s State of the Union address, 18 bishops from border states urged the administration to implement a range of reforms and to honor migrants’ right to apply for asylum. Following the government’s crackdown in Minnesota, bishops gathered in the state to support migrants and denounce mass deportations. USCCB lawyers told the Supreme Court last month that the president’s plan to revoke birthright citizenship would be an affront to human dignity.
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