A Christian Answer to Trump and Trumpism Is Finally Here
Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a “special message” on immigration that was an unmistakable rebuke of the Trump administration and its cruel and punitive immigration crackdown. The message did not mention President Trump by name, but its meaning could not have been clearer.
By a vote of 216 to 5, with three abstentions, the bishops approved a statement that said, in part: “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”
The bishops also opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and prayed for “an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
A number of bishops also read the statement out loud in a powerful video message posted on YouTube.
The bishops were following the lead of Pope Leo XIV, who has raised a number of specific objections to the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants. In September, the pope told journalists, “Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
On Nov. 4, journalists asked the pope specifically about the treatment of detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, Ill. Federal officials had denied entry to the facility to a delegation that included a Catholic bishop who hoped to offer communion to the inmates inside.
The pope responded with an appeal to Scripture: “Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”
So, when Trump wonders is he's going to heaven....
By a vote of 216 to 5, with three abstentions, the bishops approved a statement that said, in part: “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”
The bishops also opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and prayed for “an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
A number of bishops also read the statement out loud in a powerful video message posted on YouTube.
The bishops were following the lead of Pope Leo XIV, who has raised a number of specific objections to the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants. In September, the pope told journalists, “Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”
On Nov. 4, journalists asked the pope specifically about the treatment of detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, Ill. Federal officials had denied entry to the facility to a delegation that included a Catholic bishop who hoped to offer communion to the inmates inside.
The pope responded with an appeal to Scripture: “Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”
So, when Trump wonders is he's going to heaven....
