In a reflection offered during an online interfaith prayer service hosted by Faith in Action on Jan. 26, the Catholic Archbishop of Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, urged people to say “no” to ICE’s violence. As one example, he proposed that people contact their U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask them “to vote against renewing funding for such a lawless organization,” emphasizing that Congress should so vote, “for the love of God and the love of human beings—which cannot be separated.”
Cardinal Tobin was one of three U.S. cardinals who together issued a “rare joint statement” on Jan. 19 urging that U.S. foreign policy be guided by a “moral vision,” invoking Pope Leo XIV’s warning against the “zeal for war” and “diplomacy based on force.” Now, he has stepped forward with a call for restoring the protection of “human dignity” as the guiding compass for domestic policy.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin likewise told reporters on Jan. 28 that the Holy See “cannot accept episodes of this kind.” As he explained, “the position of the Holy See is always to avoid any kind of violence, obviously.… Difficulties, problems, and contradictions must be resolved in other ways.”
In his Faith in Action remarks, Cardinal Tobin cited the message of the “great teacher Martin Luther King,” that only love can drive out hate. He repeatedly posed the question: “How will you say ‘no’” to ICE? Contacting your Congressional representatives is one way. “Every day people from many faith communities” in the Newark-Elizabeth, New Jersey area also are saying “no” by standing by the gates of immigrant detention centers, talking with the ICE personnel, “insisting on the rights of the detainees within. They bring them human comfort, they console the families of those who aren’t always admitted to see their loved ones,” he added.
