Pope Leo is urging America’s Catholic bishops to stop sitting on the sidelines in the fight against Trump’s abuses of human rights.
I know some of America’s bishops have been trying to do something all along. The bishop of Miami prayed the Rosary outside Alligator Alcatraz. The bishop of West Virginia wrote a scalding letter in which he reminded ICE agents in blunt language that they would ultimately have to answer to God for what they are doing. The bishop in Oakland accompanied immigrants to the courthouse.
There was a “people’s mass for justice and peace” Chicago, followed by a march of opposition to an ICE staging area. There was also a Eucharistic procession in Chicago about the occupation as well. The USCCB has finally issued a statement condemning ICE’s tactics.
I think the bishops were like the rest of us at first. They were stunned by the raw, arrogant evil of this regime. America has always stood for human rights. America has always been the bastion on freedom and hope.
Nobody thought an American president and an entire American political party was capable of falling this low, this fast.
Pope Leo talks about the Church’s response to this in the video below.
Pope Leo seems almost shell-shocked by the cruelty and savagery the Trump regime is visiting on people. I know how he feels. A lot of us thought our Constitution protected us from this kind of lawless tyranny from the Oval Office. But we didn’t reckon with a Supreme Court who said the president was above the law.
Pope Leo says that America’s bishops need to take a stand against this evil. The Church can’t be silent, he said repeatedly.
I agree. It is absolutely imperative for the Church to find its voice in these times. The devil has co-opted the Christian voice in America. As you can see from what happened to Reverend Black, the devil gets plenty angry with he is confronted with the Gospel.
The Church must not be silent.
Silence in these times would be a failure to follow Christ.
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