Catholic and Evangelical Leaders Issue First Joint Statement Calling for Compassionate, Wise Immigration Policy
WASHINGTON — Bishop Brendan Cahill, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Migration, and the Rev. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), released a joint statement on October 13 titled 'A Call for Christian Compassion and Wisdom in the Immigration Debate.' The leaders said it is the first such statement on immigration in U.S. history to be jointly issued by senior leaders of the Catholic and evangelical traditions.
Cahill and Kim co-chair the Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue on Immigration (ECDI), established by the USCCB and the NAE in March 2026. 'There is much that can be done to avoid the rupturing of our families and communities brought about by indiscriminate and aggressive enforcement actions,' the two said in the statement. It articulated shared principles: every human being is created with dignity, bearing God's image; government is responsible for protecting its citizens and providing for the common good, including the establishment and enforcement of reasonable immigration policies; and those policies should include targeted, humane border enforcement, clear legal pathways to citizenship and efforts to prevent the separation of families.
The statement also highlighted risks to religious liberty presented by certain immigration enforcement efforts, citing a lawsuit from the Archdiocese of St. Louis against the federal government over a policy it said prohibits priests from distributing holy Communion and hearing the confessions of people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A report the two groups produced last year found that 1 in 12 Christians in the U.S. could face deportation or have a family member at risk of deportation, according to Religion News Service. The leaders said that although their traditions have doctrinal differences, they are united in standing both with fellow Americans experiencing economic and cultural anxieties and with immigrant neighbors facing existential challenges.
Source: Compiled from the USCCB–NAE joint statement (October 13) and Religion News Service reporting.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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