At Pope Leo’s Urging, Bishops Issue Historic Rebuke of Trump’s Raids

Nearly all U.S. Catholic bishops united in Baltimore to denounce the Trump administration’s “inhumane” deportation campaign — a near-unanimous, unprecedented moral stand against a sitting president.

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America’s Catholic bishops delivered a historic rebuke Wednesday, condemning President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration raids in a rare, near-unanimous statement.

Meeting at their annual conference in Baltimore, the bishops voted 216-5 (with three abstentions) to approve a “Special Message” on immigration — the first such action in 12 years.

After the overwhelming vote, the assembly of bishops stood and applauded, underscoring the moment’s importance.

Longtime church observers called it perhaps the strongest collective denunciation of a U.S. president by the Catholic hierarchy in American history.

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” the bishops declared.

Listing a litany of concerns, the prelates described a “climate of fear” among immigrant families — parents afraid to take children to school or even attend church — and deplored the “vilification of immigrants” in public debate.