By Kate Quiñones
CNA Staff, Feb 11, 2025 / 18:44 pm
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. “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 he affirmed a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes.
