ICE Enforcement Debate Is A Matter U.S. Church ‘Simply Can’t Avoid,’ Archbishop Coakley Says

By Tessa Gervasini

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.”