Vatican City, Oct 9, 2025 / 13:25 pm (CNA).
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, said immigration is a “Gospel issue” before it is a “political issue” in the United States.
In an exclusive interview with EWTN News reporter Valentina Di Donato, Seitz said the Church has a responsibility to reaffirm Catholic social teaching regarding the preferential option for the poor.
“It’s always the role of the bishop to speak the Gospel, to reflect on that Gospel and its implications for our daily lives,” the prelate told EWTN News.
“We have a task to form people based on that teaching of love and mercy and compassion that applies not just in exceptional cases, not just to certain people, but in a special way to the poor and the vulnerable, and that includes immigrants,” he said.
Speaking about the “inalienable rights” every person is endowed with by God, the bishop said the rights of immigrants should not only be a concern of the Church but should also be “respected in law.”
“While we are not politicians — it’s not our task to develop rules and laws — we are responsible to help form consciences and bring people back to the basic underlying principles, which, by the way, are principles upon which our country was built,” he said.
According to the bishop, U.S. asylum law is not being respected “right now,” as several migrant families living in the El Paso Diocese, located near the U.S.-Mexico border, no longer feel protected and fear deportation.
“We should practice that [respect for] human dignity when we are dealing with a person who simply fled here because they had no other option,” he told EWTN News.
Having ministered to families who have felt threatened by criminal drug gangs, Seitz said it is unjust to deny asylum or security for those seeking protection outside of their countries of origin, especially when the gangs’ activities are “supported 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 Hope Border Institute in a private Oct. 8 meeting at the Vatican.
During the meeting, the bishop shared a four-minute video and handwritten letters from migrant families expressing their faith as well as their fears about the future.
“I said, ‘Holy Father, we’re so happy to stand with you,’” Seitz said, recalling the encounter. “Later on in the meeting [the pope] came back to that and he said, ‘In matters of injustice, the Church has to speak and, in that, I stand with you.’”
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“Preferential option” for the poor????? Yeah, see, that is exactly the problem. Too many leftist politicians and Bishops trying to make illegals a special category of person. People who get served before the needs of our own poor are met. We have indeed seen how much the left “prefers” illegals to the safety of American citizens. Like the illegals are all poor grape pickers. I suppose thats why they have been trying to gin up sympathy for the ones we have worked these last 8 months or so to deport. You know, the rapists, murderers, gang members , drug pushers, sex traffickers, pedophiles, and gun toting violent criminals. Count me out. Many of us have no sympathy for this bunch who walked right on into the country to kill and attack our own citizens, thanks to Biden and the democrats. And we have even less respect for those who facilitated this situation while jabbering that the boarder was “closed”, when they knew in fact that it wasn’t. Its a disgusting situation which never should have happened. And its disturbing to hear our clergy continue to defend these people, too many of whom are outright criminals, and many that had criminal convictions in their country of origin. Helping the poor takes many forms. In my book it does not include helping people trying to murder or rape you or a family member.
Legal Immigration – SI!
Illegal invasion of our country – NON!
Before immigration is a Gospel issue or a political issue it is a social issue and an economic issue. No society can absorb twenty million unvetted individuals without social disruption and economic catastrophe. The profile of the Roman Catholic episcopate on this issue is scandalous. It is observed as an delusional entity incapable of sound reasoning. If you can’t get the temporal issues right how can you be trusted with the mysteries of the faith?
That should read familiar.
Humankind is thirsting for the Good News. Preaching and practicing the Gospel is an opportunity second to none. We need to wish our shepherds strength and stamina in carrying out the mission of the Holy Spirit.