A high-ranking Catholic leader is ratcheting up criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and urging people of faith to be more vocal in calling out injustice.
Responding to a sense of helplessness many people are feeling in the wake of violence at the hands of federal immigration officials, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, urged people of faith not to shy away from the news and to use their voices to say, “No.”
In a reflection delivered Jan. 26 during an online interfaith prayer service hosted by Faith in Action, Tobin employed some of the strongest language yet by a U.S. cardinal to condemn the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, describing Immigration and Customs Enforcement “lawless” and urging Catholics to tell their lawmakers to vote against additional funding.
Recounting a story from Bread and Wine, a 1936 novel by Ignazio Silone, Tobin described a character lamenting the incursion of fascist forces who asks a priest, “Father, what can we do?” With “the machinery of death” set in motion, as Tobin put it, the priest tells the young woman that what worries dictators and authoritarian regimes is the person who scrawls on the piazza wall, “No.”
“I think if we are serious about putting our faith in action, we need to say ‘no,’ each one of us,” Tobin said. What saying “no” looks like today, he continued, is by telling the truth about what is happening and honoring those whose lives are upended.
Over the weekend, immigration enforcement agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and intensive care nurse who was filming at the protest. Federal authorities say that Pretti was armed and a threat to law enforcement, but video analysis by The New York Times and other media outlets dispute that account. According to reports, Pretti’s gun had already been secured by officers before two agents shot him at least 10 times.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), where this article originally appeared.
