By The faithful should “ask God’s grace and God’s presence as we address very difficult and challenging situations on the ground,” Archbishop Paul Coakley said regarding immigration issues.
Archbishop Paul Coakley said immigration remains a “very high priority” for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
In a Jan. 30 interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Coakley discussed “the unrest taking place in our cities, particularly in Minneapolis and the violent outbreak,” following the recent death of Alex Pretti, the man shot and killed by federal agents on Jan. 24.
The incident marked the second death by federal agents in the city. Renee Good was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
Following Pretti’s death, Coakley, president of the USCCB, called for his brother bishops and priests across the United States to offer “a Holy Hour for peace.”
“I think in view of the anger, the violent reactions that are taking place … we felt prompted to try to change the tone of the conversations and call people, not necessarily to avoid any kind of public witness, but really to call people to give witness by prayer,” he said.
The call is to bring “it all to the Lord in the holy Eucharist, to ask God’s grace and God’s presence, God’s courage, God’s guidance as we address very difficult and challenging situations on the ground,” he said.
The present debate over ICE and law enforcement “is an issue that we simply can’t avoid,” Coakley said. The situation is “impacting so many of our people, both migrants, immigrants, but as well as law enforcement.”
It is also affecting “people that are wondering, questioning in their own hearts and their minds, what is the proper and appropriate response for Catholic[s], for Christians, for people of goodwill in the face of a nearly unprecedented situation.”
Immigration enforcement is “a high priority … for all of us, as was evident by the special message that we issued back in November at our fall assembly. I think that was a message that was passed nearly unanimously by the U.S. bishops,” he said.
Working with national leaders
Coakley met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Jan. 12, where they discussed matters of immigration including the backlog of visas for religious workers.
“One takeaway that we realized almost immediately after that meeting was the relief that was granted for the R-1 visa for the many religious workers working throughout our country who were facing real obstacles in renewing their visas and staffing our parishes as priests and religious sisters and religious workers everywhere,” Coakley said.
The administration “listened and they heard, and I was satisfied, at least at this point, with the progress that we’ve made so far,” Coakley said. “We did discuss other matters, of course, in the time that I had with him, including meaningful immigration reform.”
While citizens and leaders across America are well aware of the developing situation in Minneapolis, Coakley said he would be “very surprised” if the situation was not also on Pope Leo XIV’s radar.
“I think he stays pretty well-informed as to what’s happening here in the United States, being the land of his birth, of course. But it’s garnered worldwide attention and global coverage. So it’s got to be on Pope Leo’s radar screen and a matter of concern for him as well,” he said.
A call to prayer and action
Coakley has previously called the situation a time of “fear and polarization.” In the interview, he further discussed how the country got to its state of division and what the faithful can do amid it.
“I don’t think it’s something that has happened overnight. I think we’ve been sliding in this direction for a number of years,” he said. “But I think we got here because of fear. I think fear is a tool of the enemy of our human nature, as St. Ignatius of Loyola would describe ‘the evil one.’”
“He was trying to turn us against one another, to be blind to the dignity of our brothers and sisters and their God-given dignity, created in his image and likeness,” he said.
To combat the situation, Coakley encouraged parishes across the nation to call for a Holy Hour and to “turn to the Lord and seek his grace and to seek his guidance.” He also urged people “to be careful where we’re getting our information.”
“Because there are some outlets, I suspect, that are playing upon these fears, and we need to avoid becoming pawns of that kind of spinning of information and facts, and to really begin with turning to the Lord in prayer and seeking his grace and his guidance,” he said.
Faithful in Minneapolis are ‘afraid’
In a subsequent interview with “EWTN News In Depth” on Jan. 30, Jesuit Father R.J. Fichtinger, a priest on the ground in Minneapolis, shared that the faithful in the area are “afraid.”
There’s “this pervasive tiredness, this pervasive frustration around our community not feeling like we have our own agency, our own ability to be able to respond to the various needs,” he said.
In a time of disagreement, Fichtinger advised the faithful to “do what Jesus did” and “go in prayer.”
“I think the first step is, in fact, intentional prayer. Then the second is to divorce people from actions. That can be really difficult, but that sense in which we recognize we can judge unjust actions,” he said.
“The reality is our world is complicated, and that art of having hard and difficult conversations is something that I think we need to rediscover,” he said.
As the bishops call for prayer and Holy Hours, Fichtinger said: “I don’t know of a better way of addressing the Lord in prayer than in adoration, in peace, and in prayer, in the beautiful silence that adoration and benediction can give.”
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Really?
Have the Bishops ever opined on the morality of a police officer hiding behind a tree to apprehend a speeder rather than remaining in plain sight so that drivers don’t exceed to the posted limit in the first place?
Have they ever collectively assembled to criticize the FBI’s finest goons arriving armed to the teeth to arrest Mark Houck in front of his children, or the attempted infiltration of Latin Mass groups? (OK, I know some actually cheered or perhaps initiated that).
How about the morality of the erection of a digital panopticon by the snoop state? Did they care when the IRS was loading up on guns and ammo? Or when the SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION beefed up their armory?
We all know the answer, no. These men without chests, without progeny, insulated from the difficulties of navigating an uncertain work world, who never worry about having too much month at the end of the money or facing accountability for their failures or misdeeds (McCarrick, Weakland) have no interest in these excesses or protecting ordinary citizens.
With acute moral myopea they spend all their time excusing illegal entry and fetishizing the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, the churches empty, close and consolidate, and according to the Catholic Project, data compiled by University of Pennsylvania law professor Marie Reilly, a total of 39 dioceses have filed for bankruptcy since the Archdiocese of Portland initiated the first diocesan Chapter 11 in 2004. The bishops who guide their Diocese in Chapter 11 never seem to grasp that it is a scandal, cheating debtors, not clever economic renewal.
The young drift away, fail to marry, if they do, they contracept, maybe at some point have an “heir and a spare”, but either don’t Baptize them or do so with no intention of instructing them in the faith. Many of those lax parents themselves have grown up with a superficial sacramentalization. Confession lines are empty.
When will you hear a Bishop say Sunday is the Lord’s Day, not shopping day? When has the Church held an event for young Catholics to meet, as they did until a few decades ago.
And then there’s “Jesuit Father R.J. Fichtinger”, who without any sense of irony claims that lawbreakers are fearful, as if anybody evading the law should be able to do with impunity and fearlessness. It’s long past the time we should finally give the pseudo-Catholic gnostic cult known as the Jesuits their third strike. The good ones can be dispatched elsewhere. Will nobody rid us of these turbulent “priests”?
Many women fear being the next Laken Riley. In three months, millions will be afraid of the IRS, and he couldn’t care less about that.
We are reminded of Archbishop Sheen’s comments:
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious.” -Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
We’re not asking it, we demand that they act like Bishops (and not left-wing political activists) and it’s our right to do so.
There is indeed a pervasive tiredness. Many of us are tired of our clergy taking the part of criminals over our law abiding citizens. People are afraid to attend church?? Well i am very dubious that sex traffickers, drug dealers, Murderers and rapists spend much time in church. This is a bogus argument. People who have committed no criminality have nothing to fear from law enforcement. In spite of the deranged protests made made by the propagandized and ill informed to defend the “rights” of violent criminals ICE is not the enemy of our citizens. . Its a certainty that most of us want these criminals GONE as soon as possible . The violent attacks on ICE officers is indeed insurrection. As are the grossly irresponsible and inflammatory verbal attacks made by the governor and mayor in Minneapolis. These illegals are not Americans and they are not ‘neighbors’. They are dangerous individuals who need to be exited from our country. Democrats and democrats alone are responsible for this state of affairs. From refusing to close the border for 4 years, failing to vet any of them, and now actively refusing to cooperate in their removal,dem politicians alone are culpable for this mess.
I wonder how our clergy missed the threatening occupation if s church during worship services recently by these ignorant dem liberals? Would it be ok if they invaded catholic churches during mass too?? Our church leaders should be telling the truth about the lawless illegals, the politicians who shill for them snd the intellectually vacuous protestors who engage in violence against our law officers.
But clergy i.e. bishops and priests need to stay out of politics which, in the Church, is the bailiwick of faithful Catholics laypersons who can state clearly that they believe ALL THE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TEACHES.
Do these bishops ever read the news or use reason? People whose first act in this country is to violate the law by entering illegally; lowering wages for Americans, crowding schools, overtaxing health system, raising rents and housing costs, not to mention the stealing of billions as in Minnesota and California, or the crimes, such as
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of an illegal alien accused of violently raping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in front of her younger sister in Georgia
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/01/28/ice-seeks-custody-illegal-alien-accused-raping-11-year-old-girl-knifepoint/
Sep 11, 2025 … A 37-year-old illegal alien from Cuba is in the Dallas County jail after he allegedly decapitated a man at an area motel.
Five-Time Deported Illegal Alien Charged with Kicking Baby to Death
Breitbart › Politics › 2019/04/25
Apr 25, 2019 … A five-time deported illegal alien has been arrested and charged with kicking a four-month-old baby to death in Shelby County, Tennessee.
Truck Driver Allegedly Behind Fatal 8-Car Accident Identified as …
Breitbart › Immigration › 2025/10/22
Oct 22, 2025 … The suspected semi-truck driver behind an eight-car accident in California has been identified as an illegal alien from India.
Obama Judge Refuses to Give More Jail Time to Illegal Alien Who …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/12/15
Dec 15, 2025 … A judge is refusing to add additional jail time to a sentence for a seven-time deported illegal alien convicted of raping a disabled woman.
Report: ICE Arrests 101 ‘Dangerous’ Illegal Alien Truckers … – Breitbart
Breitbart › Immigration › 2025/12/23
Dec 23, 2025 … There are now reportedly 101 fewer illegal alien truck drivers on California highways following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement …
Illegal Alien Accused of Random Shooting Spree on Tennessee …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/05/02
May 2, 2025 … Enoc Martinez, a 24-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested in Shelby County, and charged with five counts of attempted first-degree …
Sanctuary State Illinois: Illegal Alien Accused of Killing GOP Elected …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/10/30
Oct 30, 2025 … Police say that 34-year-old illegal alien Edwin Pacheco-Meza of Honduras was driving a van on Oct. 24 when he crossed the center lane and struck …
ICE Busts Illegal Alien Pedophile Ring in Minneapolis – Breitbart
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/07/09
Jul 9, 2025 … Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested several illegal alien pedophiles and sexual offenders in Minneapolis.
Illegal Alien Accused of Killing 23-Year-Old National Guardsman …
Breitbart › Politics › 2025/11/19
There is no moral right to enter the U.S., without being vetted.
“Purpose: Vetting minimizes risks, ensures security, and confirms the integrity of individuals, projects, or, at times, financial investments. “
There is no moral right to enter the U.S., without being vetted.
“Purpose: Vetting minimizes risks, ensures security, and confirms the integrity of individuals, projects, or, at times, financial investments. “
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/01/19/bishop-barron-says-ice-should-focus-on-serious-criminals-urges-protesters-to-cease-interfering/
I am not a lawyer. I earned a Para Legal Certificate and am familiar with the Law.
Bishop Baron’s advice seems reasonable given the fact that there were certainly members of The Biden Administration who misrepresented United States Immigration Law for which law abiding Immigrants could claim a defense.
“This legal principle is known as entrapment by estoppel. It serves as a defense when a government official or agent affirmatively assures a person that a specific action is lawful, and that person subsequently relies on those “authoritative assurances” in good faith, only to be prosecuted for that very action.
The defense is rooted in the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which protects citizens ( and non citizens residing in our Country), from being unfairly misled into criminal liability by the state.”
If the Bishops desire to be honest about the essence of the issue of unvetted immigration, they would be, and should be, for therein lies the crux of the matter, that must be addressed first and foremost in order to create a Just Immigration Law.
There is no moral right to enter the U.S., without being vetted.
“Purpose: Vetting minimizes risks, ensures security, and confirms the integrity of individuals, projects, or, at times, financial investments. “
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/01/19/bishop-barron-says-ice-should-focus-on-serious-criminals-urges-protesters-to-cease-interfering/
I am not a lawyer. I earned a Paralegal Certificate and am familiar with the Law.
Bishop Baron’s advice seems reasonable given the fact that there were certainly members of The Biden Administration who misrepresented United States Immigration Law for which law abiding Immigrants could claim a defense.
“This legal principle is known as entrapment by estoppel. It serves as a defense when a government official or agent affirmatively assures a person that a specific action is lawful, and that person subsequently relies on those “authoritative assurances” in good faith, only to be prosecuted for that very action.
The defense is rooted in the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which protects citizens ( and non citizens residing in our Country), from being unfairly misled into criminal liability by the state.”
If the Bishops desire to be honest about the essence of the issue of unvetted immigration, they would be, and should be, for therein lies the crux of the matter, that must be addressed first and foremost in order to create a Just Immigration Law.