The bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) pledged to stand up for the rights of migrants and for due process in a message that was sent to Pope Leo XIV.
“With gratitude to God and deep affection, we, the members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, gathered in plenary assembly in the Premier See of Baltimore, write to assure you of our prayers and communion with you,” said the message, which was read out loud by Fr. Michael Fuller, the general secretary of the conference.
This is the first time the bishops have met for a plenary assembly since the May 8, 2025, election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States.
In June, the bishops met for a retreat in lieu of the spring plenary assembly.
“Your reflection, offered last June during the Jubilee for Bishops, on our shared ministry continues to encourage and strengthen us,” said the message. “We must be profoundly renewed, as you said, by Jesus the Good Shepherd, preserving and transmitting the prophetic message of hope to a world that, as your predecessor Pope Francis continually taught, is in great need of that virtue.”
But in the United States, said the bishops, there is “a growing worldview that is so often at odds with the Gospel mandate to love thy neighbor.”
“In cities across the United States, our migrant brothers and sisters, many of them (who) are fellow Catholics, face a culture of fear, hesitant to leave their homes and even to attend church for fear of being randomly harassed or detained.”
Right to due process
The bishops pledged to “continue to stand with migrants and defend everyone’s right to worship free from intimidation.”
“We support secure and orderly borders and law enforcement actions in response to dangerous criminal activity, but we cannot remain silent in this challenging hour while the right to worship and the right to due process are undermined,” said the message.
In the United States, and in the world overall, there are “so many challenges in witnessing to the Gospel,” said the message, including “the growing narrowness and selfishness of individualism, economic and social impoverishment, growing polarization, animosity, and political violence, the inability to engage in civil discourse, the lack of generosity to work with each other, and constant threats to the life and dignity of every human person, especially the poor, the elderly, and the unborn.”
Even with these challenges, the bishops remain “encouraged by the Christian virtues of hope and charity.”
“Where the world sees others as a problem or a burden, we must, and we will continue to show that each person is loved by God and therefore deserves to be respected, whether in the womb, a stranger, or homeless, hungry, in prison, or dying,” said the message.
