Isaiah's prophecy in our first reading today is so timely as the recent executive orders on immigration and a wall on our southern border stir controversy in the USA and beyond. These initiatives have drawn comment from our own archbishop as well as other church leaders. In case you didn't read Archbishop Vigneron's recent statement to the local council of Imams in Michigan, I include part of it here: "Please know that the Catholic community will continue to speak out and care for immigrants and refugees, no matter their religion or their country of origin. As I said in my statement last month: 'Our local community in metro-Detroit is much richer for the contributions of our brothers and sisters from Mexico and El Salvador, from India and Pakistan, from Iraq and Syria, from China and Korea, from Ukraine and Poland, from Cameroon and Nigeria.'”
Speaking for all the bishops of the United States, Bishop Joe Vásquez, the chair of the US Bishops committee on migration has also responded: "We strongly disagree with the Executive Order's halting refugee admissions. We believe that now more than ever, welcoming newcomers and refugees is an act of love and hope. We will continue to engage the new administration, as we have all administrations for the duration of the current refugee program, now almost forty years. We will work vigorously to ensure that refugees are humanely welcomed in collaboration with Catholic Charities without sacrificing our security or our core values as Americans, and to ensure that families may be reunified with their loved ones."
I hope you will join me in praying that all elected officials have the strength and wisdom to carry out their duties in the spirit of Isaiah's words: "If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness...."