Bishop Strickland Addresses Illegal Immigration
True compassion never turns a blind eye to victims of crime, to children ravaged by drugs, to women sold into bondage by the very networks that profit from chaos.
In these days, our nation once again turns its eyes toward the border, and our bishops gather to speak about immigration, legislation, and reform. The conversation is necessary – but it must be rooted in truth. For compassion without truth is not charity; it is sentiment divorced from justice.
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. 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.
The Dignity Act (HR 4393) now before Congress presents itself as a compassionate path. Many in public life, and even within the Church, praise it as humane and balanced. Yet we must look beyond sentiment to substance. No legislation can be truly just if it fails to secure the common good, protect the innocent, and ensure that mercy does not become disorder. Our compassion must embrace not only those who cross the border, but also the families whose peace, safety, and livelihood are torn apart by the violence, trafficking, and lawlessness that have flourished there.
True compassion never turns a blind eye to victims of crime, to children ravaged by drugs, to women sold into bondage by the very networks that profit from chaos. To ignore this is to mistake permissiveness for love.
Let it be said clearly: The Catholic Church must never profit – in money, influence, or prestige – from the suffering of others. Our mission is not to administer programs, but to proclaim the Gospel. We are shepherds of souls, not stewards of systems. If our ministries become dependent on state funding to the point of silence, then we have ceased to speak prophetically.
Our Lord warned, “ … You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). The Church must take this seriously – especially when serving the poor. For if our service is mingled with compromise, then our witness loses power. Charity must be transparent, ordered toward conversion, and born from the Cross.
The saints remind us that truth and mercy cannot be separated. St. John Paul II wrote, “There is no peace without justice, and no justice without forgiveness.” Forgiveness and justice walk hand in hand; neither is real when divorced from the other.
I ask my brother bishops to reflect deeply on how the Church in America has come to this moment. We must examine whether our partnerships and institutions truly serve Christ or whether they have dulled our prophetic voice. The Church must not become a mere NGO. When we rely more on human funding than on divine providence, when we measure success in reports rather than in conversions, we risk becoming precisely that.
Our call, dear friends, is to recover simplicity – to love in truth, to serve without compromise, to speak without fear. Let us welcome the stranger, but let us also defend the weak against the wolves that hunt them. Let us build a border where mercy flows, but also where justice stands guard.
In this hour of confusion, may the Church in America repent where she has lost her way, renew her witness to the Gospel of Life, and remember that every work of mercy must begin and end in Christ.
May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, intercede for all who journey in fear, for all who labor for justice, and for all who serve Christ at the borders of this world and of the soul.