CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- The U.S. bishops\u2019 conference on Thursday sharply rejected claims by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon that the bishops support undocumented immigrants in order to fill churches and make money.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is preposterous to claim that justice for immigrants isn\u2019t central to Catholic teaching. It comes directly from Jesus Himself in Matthew 25, \u2018For I was hungry and you gave me food\u2026a stranger and you welcomed me,\u2019\u201d said James Rogers, chief communications officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cImmigrants and refugees are precisely the strangers we must welcome,\u201d he said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n
Bannon, who was the White House chief strategist before leaving the Trump administration on Aug. 18, told CBS News\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d host Charlie Rose, in an interview set to air on Sunday evening, that he thought the U.S. bishops support illegal immigration because of a cynical \u201ceconomic interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked by Rose about the Trump administration\u2019s announcement that they would be phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), Bannon defended the decision. Rose pressed Bannon on it, noting that he is a Catholic and that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York \u2013 among other Church leaders \u2013 opposed the administration\u2019s ending of the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church has been terrible about this,\u201d Bannon said, in comments reported on CBSNews.com on Thursday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bishops, he said, \u201cneed illegal aliens to fill the churches\u201d and \u201chave an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that, on immigration, \u201cthis is not about doctrine. This is about the sovereignty of a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers, speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on Thursday afternoon that Bannon\u2019s claim of the bishops having an \u201ceconomic interest\u201d in \u201cunlimited illegal immigration\u201d was \u201coutrageous and insulting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bible is clear: welcoming immigrants is indispensable to our faith,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
And the bishops advocating on behalf of those who will be affected by the end of DACA, he said, \u201cis nothing more than trying to carry out that seemingly simple, but ultimately incredibly demanding, commandment.\u201d<\/p>\n
DACA was a program begun by the Obama administration in 2012. Eligible immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, by their parents, and who did not have a criminal record, could participate in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beneficiaries of DACA could receive a stay of deportation for two years. In that time, they could apply for benefits like a work authorization or eligibility for Social Security, and could work to extend their stay in the U.S. Among other requirements, beneficiaries, or \u201cDreamers,\u201d had to have lived in the U.S. for five years and been brought by their parents to the U.S. before the age of 16.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would be ending the program in six months, and phasing it out in the meantime. An estimated 800,000 persons were benefitting from DACA.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday, leading U.S. bishops called the planned termination of DACA \u201creprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese youth entered the U.S. as minors and often know America as their only home,\u201d the bishops\u2019 statement read. \u201cNow, after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people face deportation. This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect who we are as Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
In comments reported on Thursday, Bannon said that rhetoric manifested a desire by the bishops to promote illegal immigration to deal \u201cwith the problems in the church.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the bishops\u2019 advocacy for immigrants is at the heart of the faith, and is connected to other vital issues, Rogers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe witness of the Catholic bishops on issues from pro-life to pro-marriage to pro-health care to pro-immigration reforms is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ rather than the convenient political trends of the day,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are called not to politics or partisanship, but to love our neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
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