Immigration is a gospel issue before a political issue, says US bishop

The Bishop of El Paso, Texas (United States), Bishop Mark Seitz, said that immigration is a “Gospel issue” rather than a “political issue” in the United States.

In an exclusive interview with EWTN News journalist Valentina Di Donato, Seitz said the Church has a responsibility to reaffirm Catholic social teaching regarding the preferential option for the poor.

“It is always the bishop’s role to preach the Gospel, to reflect on that Gospel and its implications for our daily lives,” the prelate told EWTN News.

“We have the task of training people based on this teaching of love, mercy and compassion, which is applied not only in exceptional cases, not only to certain people, but especially to the poor and vulnerable, and that includes immigrants,” he stated.

Speaking about the “inalienable rights” with which every person is endowed by God, the bishop said that the rights of immigrants should not only be a concern of the Church, but should also be “respected in the law.”

“While we are not politicians – it is not our job to make rules and laws – we are responsible for helping to shape consciences and returning people to the basic underlying principles which, by the way, are principles on which our country was built,” he said.

According to the bishop, the United States asylum law is not being respected “at this time,” as several migrant families living in the Diocese of El Paso, located near the border between the United States and Mexico, no longer feel protected and fear deportation.

“We should practice that (respect for) human dignity when dealing with a person who simply fled here because they had no other option,” he told EWTN News.

Having pastorally accompanied families who have felt threatened by criminal drug trafficking organizations, Seitz said it is an injustice to deny asylum or safety to those seeking protection outside their home countries, especially when the activities of those gangs are “sustained by our drug addiction in the United States.”

Earlier this week, Pope Leo XIV met with Seitz, El Paso Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino and Dylan Corbett of the Hope Border Institute in a private audience Oct. 8 at the Vatican.

During the meeting, the bishop shared a four-minute video and handwritten letters from migrant families in which they expressed their faith, as well as their fears about the future.

“I said, ‘Holy Father, we are very happy to be with you,’” Seitz recalled of the meeting. “Later in the audience (the Pope) returned to that point and said: ‘In matters of injustice, the Church has to speak and, in that, I am with you.'”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.