The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River has a message for the immigrants in his region: the church is still there for them.
Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha signed on to a “Special Message” on immigration issued at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops last week. Earlier this month, he urged the Trump Administration to slow its aggressive immigration policies.
“I want (immigrant parishioners) to know that they’re not alone, the church is here with them and for them. And they can count on us to support them,” da Cunha said. “They can count on us to have a place that is safe, that they can come and pray and connect with God and with the community and with their brothers and sisters.”
In October, Pope Leo XIV suggested that the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants is “inhuman.”
da Cunha oversees about 250,000 Catholics in his diocese, according to the church, which includes Bristol County, part of Plymouth County, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. da Cunha said that during the first few months of the Trump Administration, his diocese saw a substantial drop in immigrant parishioners attending mass. But he went on to say that those numbers have begun to creep back up.
Every country has the right to regulate its own borders, da Cunha said. But he feels the church should be sensitive to the treatment of those who immigrate.
“This is a complicated issue. It’s a divisive issue, but it’s also a human issue,” da Cunha said. “So when we talk about immigration, we talk about people, we talk about lives, we talk about human beings. They have the right to migrate.”
