Free Republic

US bishops oppose Trump immigration plan, say families are foundational Leaders of the U.S. bishops’ conference voiced concern over President Donald Trump’s new immigration plan, stressing that families should be strengthened and promoted in the immigration system.“We oppose proposals that seek to curtail family-based immigration and create a largely ‘merit-based’ immigration system,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, who heads the conference’s migration committee.“Families are the foundation of our faith, our society, our history, and our immigration system,” they said. “As Pope Francis notes: ‘Family...

But the assistant district attorney in charge of the investigation said that a search of the church offices was necessary because the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston had turned over only a portion of the evidence. ........... Father LaRosa-Lopez worked for the archdiocese for decades. Cardinal DiNardo had assigned him to work in a parish and appointed him as the vicar for Hispanics for the archdiocese, despite knowing that Father LaRosa-Lopez had been accused in 2001 of molesting a teenage girl.

Evangelist Franklin Graham says the practice separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border is "disgraceful.” But the North Carolina-based preacher isn’t blaming the Trump administration and its zero-tolerance policy toward people who enter the United States illegally. "I think it's disgraceful, it's terrible, to see families ripped apart, and I don't support that one bit,” Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said Wednesday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. "I blame the politicians for the last 20, 30 years that have allowed this to escalate to the point where it is today....

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops elected a new president who has a strong commitment to the sanctity of life on Tuesday. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, leader of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in Texas, was elected to a three-year term as president of the bishops’ organization, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The bishops also elected Cardinal Jose Gomez of Los Angeles as vice president, the report states. DiNardo previously served as the vice president and as the chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the USCCB. One of his duties as the new president will be to guide U.S. Catholic...