Statement Affirming the USCCB’s Pastoral Reflection Against Diminishing Human Dignity

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, U.S. East-West Province, stand in solidarity with the pastoral reflection issued by Bishop Daniel E. Garcia, chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, and Bishop Brendan J. Cahill, chairman of the Committee on Migration, following several recent immigration enforcement encounters that resulted in the loss of life. We join the bishops in affirming that “acts that diminish or disregard the dignity of any person or group of people should never be normalized in our society.”

Our foundress, Saint Julie Billiart, trusted in a God who is good beyond all telling, and she sent her Sisters to make that goodness known especially among those made poor by unjust structures. That charism compels us to speak now. As Sisters committed to standing with the most vulnerable, we share the bishops’ grief over lives cut short, and their concern that racial profiling and the dehumanization of immigrants, regardless of legal status, erode trust and endanger both immigrant communities and the law enforcement officers who serve them.

Catholic Social Teaching begins with a single truth: every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and carries a dignity that no law, policy or circumstance can take away. This truth calls us to solidarity with the immigrant and the stranger. It calls us, too, to see the humanity of those charged with keeping our communities safe.

We pray for those who have died, for their grieving families, for our nation, and for all who serve in law enforcement and public service. We entrust these intentions to Mary, our Mother, and to the intercession of Saint Julie, asking that, together with people of good will, we may be instruments of God’s goodness in a wounded world.