In a July 14th opinion piece for The New York Times on the alarming rise of anti-immigrant politics in the United States, Pulitzer Prize recipient and former Times reporter Linda Greenhouse shouted out an April lecture by El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz, which she found published in the pages of Commonweal. 

Discussing Seitz’s lecture in the magazine and the witness of other Catholic bishops who have taken action to protect immigrant communities, Greenhouse argued that, “The Catholic Church has distinguished itself by the moral clarity of its critique of the president’s deportation obsession.” She expressed hope that other religious groups would follow suit in forceful public advocacy on behalf of immigrants.

In particular, Greenhouse quoted Seitz’s discussion of America’s national character in an era of mass deportations. “On a fundamental level, these are signs that we are losing the story of who we are as a country,” Seitz argued. “This is a crisis of narrative. Are we no longer a country of immigrants? Are we no longer a country that values the dignity of the human person, individual liberties, and with a healthy regard for checks and balances?”

In increasingly dangerous and cruel times, Commonweal is committed to treating its coverage of the mass deportation crisis with “preeminent urgency.” Seitz’s lecture, which appeared in the magazine on June 1st, can be found here, while more pieces on immigration can be found here.