Utah bishop to tackle immigration

It's called the Committee on Migration, which sounds like it might deal with waterfowl or the simple matter of people relocating from one place to another. But when Bishop John C. Wester of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City became chairman this week of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he stepped up to tackle one of America's most contentious dilemmas: what to do about the country's undocumented workers and their families.

Bishop Wester was elected chairman during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting in Baltimore this week. A day later he was lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other members of the progressive group Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, at a Baptist Church in the capital.

Bishop Wester shared the podium with the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; James Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and CEO of the liberal evangelical group Sojourners.

The occasion was the CCIR's release of "A House Divided: Why Americans of Faith Are Concerned About Undocumented Immigrants." As the group's press release says: "This report documents the increasing prevalence of the un-Christian treatment of immigrants," including what it called the increase in hate speech and hate groups linked to the anti-immigration movement, and the upswing of anti-immigrant local and state ordinances.

All that vitriol, Bishop Wester says, "lessens us as a nation" and doesn't help the country find "a humane solution to our broken immigration system."

In a phone interview from Maryland, Bishop Wester said that the impulse to fight for comprehensive immigration reform is part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. "Christ told us that when you welcome the stranger, the person who is thirsty, is hungry, is naked, who needs help, who's in prison, who is sick, you're welcoming me. Part of our faith is to reach out to people and accept them, particularly people who are fleeing persecution, including people fleeing economic persecution."

The Catholic Church believes that America is a country of laws, he added, "but they should be just laws. The best way to secure our borders is not by draconian measures but rather by a comprehensive bill that will be just and is enforceable because it is just."

Not that there is unanimity among Catholics on the issue, he said. "Quite frankly, there are Catholics who don't agree. ... But my personal view is that most Catholics would dismiss the far extremists, the people who say we should 'shoot them."'

In the middle, he said, are people who are unsure, and these are the ones the Catholic Church is targeting with its "Justice for Immigrants" education program, he said.

As chairman of the Committee on Migration, Wester will oversee eight other bishops, another 12 or 15 clergy and lay consultants, and the USCCB's Department of Migration and Refugee Services. The department helps with the resettlement of refugees from unstable regions of the world.

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com