This past Sunday on the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas and Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted published a guest opinion piece titled "Humane immigration reform needed" in the Arizona Star.
In their piece the bishops referred back to their December 2005 "You Welcomed Me" [pdf] pastoral letter to Catholics in our dioceses in which they expressed concerns about "the tragic deaths of migrants in our desert, the growing fear felt by citizens and non-citizens in our state and the increasingly hateful and hostile rhetoric in our state and nation about immigration" and stated that "such rhetoric is not characteristic of our state and the good people who live here."
In their new opinion piece, they then expressed their concern "that recent state and local actions, such as the state employer sanctions law that just went into effect, are not solutions, but may make matters worse. "
They close by saying: "Echoing our 2005 pastoral letter, we again commit ourselves to work with others in our state for a comprehensive solution at the federal level that protects the rights and dignity of immigrants among us, that strengthens our communities, that protects our borders and makes us safer as a nation, that enriches our faith communities and that builds on the great immigrant heritage of which we Arizonans are rightly proud. "
CLICK HERE for a complete copy of the January 6th opinion piece in PDF form.
