The Catholic Church is getting ready to mark its 111th World Day of Migrants.
And ahead of that, Washington’s Archbishop Cardinal Robert McElroy made some of his strongest comments to date about President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration policies.
Following a seven-station march Sunday that began at a Columbia Heights parish that has a large number of immigrant parishioners and ended at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, McElroy called the current crackdown a governmental assault.
He added the policies embrace “as collateral damage the horrific emotional suffering that is being thrust on children who were born here.”
McElroy said those children face the terrible choice of losing their parents or leaving the only country they have ever known.
In his message that received a standing ovation that lasted nearly a minute, the Cardinal spoke about the parable of the good Samaritan. In that Bible story, a Samaritan man stopped on his journey to help an injured person, noting there were two other people who passed by the man and didn’t help.
“As a church we must console and peacefully stand in solidarity with the undocumented men and women whose lives are being upended by the government’s campaign of fear and terror.”
McElroy acknowledged that every nation has the right to effectively control its own borders, but said current policy produces fear and terror among millions.
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