Florida bishop urges faithful to ‘welcome the foreigner’ amid immigrant family separations

CNA Staff, Oct 15, 2025 / 12:45 pm

Pensacola-Tallahassee Bishop William Wack this week called for immigration reform while urging the faithful to welcome immigrants amid ongoing deportations and detainments in Florida and throughout the country.

The bishop told the faithful in his diocese in an Oct. 14 letter that he has “reflected with a heavy heart” on the trials of immigrants in the United States “suffering under the weight of a broken immigration system.”

The Trump administration has continued to aggressively pursue enhanced immigration enforcement, claiming that more than two million immigrants have either been removed or self-deported in roughly the last eight months.

In his letter, Wack acknowledged that law enforcement “has a responsibility to apprehend and detain individuals who commit crimes,” but he criticized what he described as “the dangerous narrative that every immigrant is a threat.”

“At the same time, we must also advocate for reform — of immigration law, of due process, and of enforcement practices — so that justice and mercy are upheld together, and families are not needlessly torn apart,” he said.

The bishop suggested that “a pro-life people” should not support “the separation of families with mixed immigration status.”

“Can we, in good conscience, endorse policies that deport a working father — knowing the devastating impact it will have on his family — without also acknowledging his contributions to our communities?” he wrote. “Can we accept that more children are being pushed into the foster care system because both parents have been deported?”

Wack said Catholics in his diocese should “set aside partisan talking points” and look to the messages of Christ and the Gospel.

“We are called to care for our neighbor, to shelter the stranger, and to welcome the foreigner; for each of us has been lovingly created in the image and likeness of God,” he said.

The Christian faith has always required the faithful to give “special care” to the poor and vulnerable, Wack said, including immigrants who come to the U.S. “in search of safety and a better life.”

The prelate urged the faithful to “to employ all of your gifts and influence to join me in bringing about this needed change” to U.S. immigration policy.

“Our nation has long been a beacon for those fleeing violence, persecution, and extreme poverty. As people of faith, may we choose hope and life —  not just for ourselves and our loved ones, but for every child of God,” he said.

Earlier this year, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski similarly urged the government to expand legal pathways to citizenship for unlawfully present migrants who have committed no other crimes.

“Rather than spending billions to deport people who are already contributing positively to our nation’s well-being, it would be more financially sensible and more morally acceptable for Congress, working with the administration, to expand legal pathways for noncriminal migrants to adjust to a permanent legal status,” the archbishop said at the time.

In July, meanwhile, Venice, Florida, Bishop Frank Dewane criticized the then-proposed “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detainment facility and said it was “alarming to see enforcement strategies which treat all unauthorized immigrants as dangerous criminals.”

“Decency requires that we remember individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” he said.