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The leader of Utah's 300,000-plus Catholics has a message for President Donald Trump: Re-examine your executive actions on "vulnerable" immigrants and refugees.
Salt Lake City's Catholic Diocese is "dismayed and alarmed" by the White House's recent moves, Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, the diocese's interim administrator, wrote in a Wednesday news release. "While we support efforts to improve public safety, such efforts should be carefully crafted and vetted through appropriate channels to ensure vulnerable populations are not left even more defenseless."
The diocese knows more than a little about refugees. It sponsors Catholic Community Services of Utah, one of two organizations authorized to resettle refugees in the state. The agency already has seen Trump's orders stall at least 30 people from entering Utah.
"As a religious organization that serves refugees and immigrants in Utah," Bircumshaw said, "we are very familiar with the conditions of violence, poverty and political instability that force people to flee the only homes they have ever known."
He emphasized that these new arrivals enrich Utah and become "integral members of our communities."
"Our country," Bircumshaw added, "would be a far less vibrant society without the contributions of our many waves of immigrants and refugees of all religions, races and nationalities."
The Catholic clergyman pointed to Pope Francis' reminder that governments, churches and society as a whole have a duty to care for the "most vulnerable and poor."
"We are concerned," Bircumshaw concluded, "that the current executive actions do not rise to meet this challenge."
Bircumshaw has overseen Utah's Catholics for more than a year and a half. In March, Bishop Oscar Azarcon Solis, originally from the Philippines, will leave his Los Angeles assignment to take the reins as Utah's 10th top Catholic leader.