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Many faithful Catholics are expressing dire concern over the U.S. Catholic bishops’ “special message” last week, one in which they overwhelmingly agreed to condemn what they called the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” in the country illegally.
Appearing in the November 14th episode of the popular podcast “The Prayerful Posse,” hosted by Catholic cultural commentator Raymond Arroyo, Robert Royal expressed his concern that the U.S. bishops appear to be propping up their political statement on illegal immigration by hearkening back to “the spirit of Vatican II.”
In fact, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, addressed the bishops during their Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, claiming that Vatican II needs to show the way to the Church’s current and future direction.
Royal, the editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, asserted the bishops’ statement reflects yet another confused narrative about what the Church actually believes.
“We are really in a different world, but it’s not the one that points back to this kind of open world in which we’re supposed to build bridges and not fences,” he said. “I think it’s time to start building some fences, and not only in the secular world, but in the Church as well. We need to get back to the point where we have a clear definition of what it is to be inside the Church and outside the Church, what actually belongs to the faith and doesn’t belong to the faith.”
Royal acknowledged greater definition of the Catholic faith will likely cause some people to leave the Church while others will find themselves drawn closer to it.
“But the church can only continue to exist if it has that sort of clarity about what it is,” he said. “And what it is cannot simply be a kind of a more pious version of what’s going in the secular world.”
Arroyo agreed the U.S. bishops are presenting a confused message by continuing to base its premise on Vatican II when “since Vatican II, we have less people in the pews, less people ordained, less people baptized, less people returning to the sacraments.”
In the same podcast episode, Father Gerald Murray, a canon lawyer and the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in New York City, observed that it was St. John Paul II – who was present at Vatican II – who issued the Catechism of the Catholic Church to address the confusion that developed afterward.
Murray noted to Arroyo and Royal that Pope John Paul II decided a catechism was needed.
“The bishops of the world agreed,” he said. “He issued the catechism – one of the most important documents that was issued in the post-conciliar period. And what was it? It’s exactly what Bob is saying. It was establishing, this is what we believe. This is what we don’t believe. This is why we believe it. This is why we don’t believe these other things.”
“I think what the nuncio was trying to say is – and I’m sure this was, of course, approved by the Roman authorities – is the American hierarchy has not shown enough enthusiasm for the heritage of Pope Francis,” Murray asserted. “They better get in line, because otherwise we’re accusing them of being unfaithful to the Second Vatican Council. To which I would say, Eminence, here’s the catechism of the Catholic Church. Show me where the things that Pope Francis innovated are in that book – because they’re not.”
Bishop Joseph Strickland, the former bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was ousted by Pope Francis, wrote as well in a pastoral letter at his website Pillars of Faith, that while the bishops’ discussion about “immigration, legislation, and reform” is “necessary, it must also be “rooted in truth.”
“For compassion without truth is not charity; it is sentiment divorced from justice,” Strickland asserted, referencing that the U.S. bishops’ migration programs have been funded by the federal government:
The Church must always be a mother, never a manager. We are called to welcome the stranger, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked – but never to confuse compassion with compromise. Too often, our ministry at the border has been entangled with bureaucracy, programs, and politics. When mercy becomes measured by the size of a contract, or when the Gospel is filtered through government terms, the heart of Christ is obscured.
“Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has spoken of the need to defend the dignity of every person,” the bishop wrote. “Indeed, ‘Every human being is made in the image of God.’ Yet we must also recall that justice, order, and truth are expressions of that same divine image. When immigration systems reward deception or enable exploitation, when borders become corridors of human suffering, the Church must not merely manage that suffering – she must challenge the systems that perpetrate it.”
Leading national Catholic advocacy organization Catholics for Catholics posted on social media last week a video clip of Bishop Robert Barron, of the diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and the founder of world-renowned evangelical ministry Word on Fire.
During an interview, Barron explained the nuances of the Catholic Church’s social teaching on immigration that many faithful Catholics assert are absent from the U.S. bishops’ recent “special message.”
Barron, a member of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, also posted that, when concerns arose about the possibility that illegal immigrant detainees’ access to the Sacraments had been restricted, he contacted “senior officials in both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security” to express those concerns.
“They have assured me that these matters are under careful review,” the bishop wrote. “I feel that maintaining open lines of communication and engaging in dialogue with the Administration constitute the most constructive way forward.”
Additionally, when New York Times reporter Ruth Graham apparently touted her piece claiming Barron had “criticized the administration’s treatment of Catholics detained by immigrant officials,” the bishop promptly corrected her.
“I did not criticize the administration,” he noted. “My comments were pastoral, not political. I simply asked that detained Catholics have access to the sacraments—a request met with openness from federal officials.”
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