USA: Card. Dolan (New York), “Taking children away from their families is against the Bible and anti-American”

(New York) “Taking children away from their families is against the Bible and anti-American”. Those words were written by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in an open letter to all New York parishes; he wrote them after his last week’s visit to a few children separated from their parents on the border with Mexico, and now living in a former convent in the Bronx, supported by lots of local charity associations. “Seeing those children without their parents was heartbreaking – wrote Dolan – think about the chaos and shocks they have to face”. The Cardinal said that meeting professionals “taking care of them with good skills and compassion” was just as moving. The New York Cardinal said to be much concerned for a question touching the Church from the pastoral as well as the ethical and humanitarian point of view; however, he said, Catholics “entered the field long before the current emergency”, for instance, through the Caritas Catholic Immigration Center, in the heart of Manhattan. In the last five years, this Center provided legal support and education to over 10 thousand minors getting to NY either with their families or without. Dolan pointed out to be involved in the crisis and concerned about it “not as a politician, but as a pastor. I am not an expert in legal complex matters, executive orders or policies changing every day. However, I know that the policies taking children away from their families don’t respect the Bible and are anti-American. They have made damages needing a long time and much effort to repair”.

The Cardinal was grateful to the archdiocese to have been a “welcoming mother for a long time, for many immigrated children looking for their new home in New York”. In his pastoral visits, he realised how the welcoming spirit is “alive and well, while the proof of faith of migrants is a gift of liveliness for our communities and schools”. Dolan wished them to go on like that, asking for prayers for destroyed families, as well as for “our Church and our nation, for us to be able to live faithfully, following all our values”.