Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who served as the bishop of Belleville, Illinois from 2005 to 2019, stood with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, calling for a change in immigration laws last week on the lawn of Congress.
Cardinal Gregory said the 117th Congress “now has an opportunity to be courageous by addressing immigration in a comprehensive and productive way that will provide long-desired relief for those already living as Americans.”
He asked fellow Americans, “whatever political opinions may divide us,” to support legislation that will keep families together and protect children.”
That would include, he said, legislation that would allow Dreamers, as DACA recipients are known, those covered by Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure, seasonal agriculture workers “and other undocumented essential workers to integrate as fully recognized members of our society, whether through the enactment of stand-alone legislation or a broader legislative package.”
The cardinal explained that Catholic social teaching “upholds the principle that every person has the right to live in his or her own homeland, in security and dignity with opportunities for work. However, when the loss of these rights forces individuals to migrate to other lands, we must welcome them, protect them and generously share our abundance with them.”
“All of us have come to this country in various stages of our family life – personally, through our parents, grandparents and beyond. We have built, within the confines of our nation, an amazing story to tell the world of how such a diverse group of people can come together in one place and make an impact on the world itself,” said Durbin.
“That makes it difficult to understand sometimes why we struggle so much with the issue of immigration. It is so central to who we are, what we’ve done, what we will become.
You may be surprised to know that it’s been almost 36 years since this Congress has passed any meaningful or substantive immigration law.
Durbin was appointed a cardinal by Pope Francis in October 2020 and immediately addressed inclusion in the Catholic church.
“It isn’t just the African American kids who need to see a Black bishop, it is the White kids that needed to see it. We know that there is systemic racism woven into almost every dimension of the American institution, but I’d like to focus the question of morality on the individual. That is, where is my heart?”
Roughly 4 percent of American Catholics are Black, but they represent fewer than 1 percent of the nation’s 36,500 Catholic priests. Including Archbishop Gregory, just eight of 250 American bishops are African Americans.
Speaking on the lawn of the Capitol, Cardinal Gregory said that “like many of our own family members who made a new life here … we too are called to demonstrate kindness and a spirit of welcome to our migrant and refugee sisters and brothers, who are greatly contributing to our society through work and service.”
