(RNS) — Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for bishops and priests in Catholic churches across the country to hold a Holy Hour of prayer for peace as killings by federal agents have caused national concern about the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort.
Elected to lead the bishops’ conference in November, Coakley made his most robust remarks thus far on the impact of the administration’s agenda in the Wednesday (Jan. 28) statement, signaling growing discomfort among Catholic leaders with current immigration policy and Department of Homeland Security tactics in carrying it out. In the past week, the archbishops of Los Angeles and Minneapolis have also spoken out.
“The recent killing of two people by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis and that of a detained man in Texas, are just a few of the tragic examples of the violence that represent failures in our society to respect the dignity of every human life,” Coakley wrote, referring to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos while he was detained in a facility near El Paso. Lunas Campos’ death, after agents held him down and he stopped breathing, has been ruled a homicide. “We mourn this loss of life and deplore the indifference and injustice it represents.”
The suggested Holy Hour will involve prayer in front of the Eucharist, often also called the Blessed Sacrament, in which Catholics believe Jesus is present in the consecrated bread and wine.
Coakley called on Catholics to pray “for reconciliation where there is division, for justice where there are violations of fundamental rights, and for consolation for all who feel overwhelmed by fear or loss,” whether they gather in a parish or chapel or pray privately.
“The current climate of fear and polarization, which thrives when human dignity is disregarded, does not meet the standard set by Christ in the Gospel,” he wrote.
A relatively conservative member of the bishops’ conference, Coakley serves as an ecclesiastical adviser to the Napa Institute, an influential group of conservative Catholics whose co-founder last year called the Trump administration “the most Christian I’ve ever seen.” On Jan. 12, Coakley met with President Donald Trump, marking the first time a USCCB president had met with a U.S. president in nearly a decade. Two days later, the administration proposed a change to a current rule that requires foreign priests and other religious workers on an R-1 visa to leave the U.S. for a year before it will be renewed.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Jan. 12, 2026. (Official White House Photo)
In Wednesday’s statement, Coakley praised Catholics and other “people of good will” for working for peace and justice. “While proper laws must be respected, works of mercy, peacefully assembling, and caring for those in your community are signs of hope, and they build peace more surely than anger or despair ever could,” he wrote.
On Tuesday, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, the country’s largest archdiocese, called for Congress to pass bipartisan immigration reform through the Dignity Act, which was first introduced in the House in 2022. “Right now our government seems to be treating undocumented immigrants — men, women, and children — as if they have no rights,” Gomez said in a statement. “The root cause of the current crisis is the country’s broken immigration system.”
Saying that U.S. residents’ “rights do not depend on the decisions of government officials or law enforcement officers; we do not lose our rights based on the color of our skin, or the language we speak, or for not having the proper documents,” Gomez argued that lawmakers should limit deportations to “violent criminals or those guilty of other serious offenses” and that it is not in the national interest to deport people who contribute “to the good of our society.”
Archbishop José Gomez, of the Los Angeles Diocese, at the Fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Nov. 16, 2021, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
He objected to the many deportations that leave children without their parents. “Surely, we can find another way to hold these men and women accountable for breaking our laws,” he wrote.
Gomez’s advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform echoed an op-ed by St. Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda that appeared earlier in The Wall Street Journal, though Hebda lauded 2013 immigration reform legislation that ultimately failed, while Gomez specifically pointed to the Dignity Act, which has also been supported by prominent Latino evangelical groups.
While providing support for border enforcement, the Dignity Act would require asylum cases to be decided within 60 days and provide “humanitarian campuses” managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border where asylum-seekers would await their court dates. It would also allow immigrants without legal status who have been in the country at least five years to earn legal status by paying a fine, passing a criminal background check and being employed or going to school.
Gomez wrote: “There is much to improve in this legislation, but it is a genuine, good-faith starting point. And we need to start somewhere. And we need to start now.”
The Los Angeles archbishop noted Congress has not yet held hearings on the Dignity Act, but “I hope that changes soon.”
Gomez, who in a 2021 speech called “new social justice movements” “pseudo-religious,” described the current conflicts arising from immigration enforcement as involving “all sides.”
“I hope all sides in this conflict — federal authorities, city and state officials, and those protesting the enforcement actions — will take a step back in the interests of the common good,” he wrote. “We are caught in a dangerous pattern of angry rhetoric, provocations, and violence. It needs to stop.”
Some U.S. prelates have put the responsibility for recent violence more squarely on federal agents. Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, called for members of Congress to vote against a bill that includes new funding for the Department of Homeland Security. El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark Seitz wrote that the U.S. had become “a bully state.”
Each bishop is confronting unique immigration conditions in his own diocese, potentially shaping how each responds. Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski held a press conference Tuesday with several Catholic and secular groups to warn against the planned expiration of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians on Feb. 3. Miami has a significant Haitian population.
“We should not force Haitians into a crisis in Haiti, or create a crisis here forcing them out of their jobs,” Wenski said. “They’re not violating the laws, they’re documented.”
So far, beyond their November statement opposing the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” the Catholic bishops’ organized response to Trump’s immigration policy has been relatively decentralized and their rhetorical approaches have varied. And with Coakley weighing in and offering nationwide action that can be taken by each parish, it remains to be seen whether the bishops’ approaches will converge. He expressed hope that the Holy Hours held across the U.S. would be “a moment of renewal for our hearts and for our nation.”
“Entrusting our fears and hopes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us ask the Lord to make us instruments of his peace and witnesses to the inherent dignity of every person,” Coakley wrote. “Let us pray together, confident that God hears the cry of his people and remains close to all who seek him.”
