Human dignity is from God, not from migration papers or legal status by Bishop John Stowe

A reflection from the bishop president of Pax Christi USA.

The following reflection from Pax Christi USA’s bishop president, Bishop John Stowe OFM Conv., was shared at a prayer vigil outside the headquarters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 24, the anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Oscar Romero. We are grateful to Pax Christi USA and Bishop Stowe for permission to republish it here—Ed.

On [March 24], the Church remembers the heroic witness of Saint Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, who was assassinated on this date in 1980 while celebrating Mass, because he dared to proclaim the Gospel without reservation and denounced the powers of death who were threatening the humble people of El Salvador and causing great suffering for them with no accountability.

Romero was called “the voice of the voiceless” because he dared to say what no one else would. He named the names of those who had disappeared, he gave voice to the pleas of their families, and he appealed to the consciences of the soldiers who were carrying out illegal orders and terrorizing their own people.

Like Romero, the Church in the United States today must … amplify the voices of those who are left in detention centers (or holding facilities) in unsafe and unhealthy circumstances and without due process. The voices of separated families and children removed from parents. We must imitate the brave Minnesotans who were armed with whistles to alert the undocumented to the presence of ICE agents, who created human barriers to protect parents dropping off their kids at school, and who actively drove ICE agents from their neighborhoods and cities.

Oscar Romero was converted by his own encounter with the poor, his eyes were open to the injustices experienced in his homeland, he was moved to action when one of his priests [Rutilio Grande, SJ] was killed for accompanying the landless.

We are joining our voices and presence to those of the border in El Paso, Texas, and all who are marching and demonstrating today. They are once again showing that the Church is an immigrant Church and that there is desperate need for comprehensive immigration reform. We must insist that no human being is illegal, that our human dignity is given by God who made us in his image and likeness, it is not dependent on migration documents or legal status. We must insist that human rights and the US Constitution apply to everyone in this land, regardless of their legal status.

We must insist that ICE officers are not above the law. They should be identified and visible, rather than masked and in unmarked vehicles. We must insist that those who are detained have access to legal representation, food, medicine, decent facilities and pastoral care. We must insist that immigration agents follow the law as they carry out their duties and we plead with all those in authority to remember the noble ideals of this nation and the welcome that Lady Liberty holds in her hand in the New York harbor.

Let us remember that Jesus said we will be judged on whether or not we fed him in his hunger, clothed him in his nakedness, welcomed him when he was the stranger and visited him when he was imprisoned. ♦

Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., was ordained as the third Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington (Kentucky) in 2015.