A brief response to the comment made recently by Roman Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, regarding ICE agents who are Catholic
Bishop Seitz is a champion of immigrants’s rights.
I did not know of Bishop Mark Seitz until his recent comments about ICE agents who are Roman Catholic were published. In short, he said that ICE agents may not be able to do the job they are doing and be Catholic.
This is his inspiring bio from the Archdiocese of El Paso website:
In 2013, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Seitz as the sixth Bishop of El Paso. As a prelate serving a borderland community whose sister city is Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, the bishop has focused his work and heart on the poor and vulnerable, including migrant families and refugees who have made their home in this region or who choose the community as their point of passage. The bishop believes that migrants add inestimable value to the communities where they choose to live and that parishes and community members should welcome them with compassion, love and solidarity.
I would like to respond.
This is an important statement, Bishop. Thank you. But respectfully I suggest that any follower of Jesus—Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox—should know what Jesus-living is in conscience without any clerical, hierarchical prompting.
No ICE officer or boss is a follower of Jesus.
They shouldn’t be falsely led to believe they are by their respective organized religion of choice. At least, you Catholics have excommunication built into your system.
With gratitude for your grit,
David Albert Farmer
