Pope Leo's First U.S. Bishop Is Mobilizing Priests To Help Immigrants In Court
The first U.S. pope is a citizen of Peru, and the first U.S. bishop he appointed is a refugee from Vietnam. And next week, that bishop is urging his fellow priests to stand in solidarity with migrants by showing up to immigration court proceedings.
There may be a pattern here.
Pope Leo XIV appointed Rev. Michael Pham as bishop of San Diego, California, in May. On Wednesday, Pham, along with auxiliary bishops Revs. Ramon Bejarano and Felipe Pulido, sent a letter to faith leaders in the Diocese of San Diego suggesting they visit federal court buildings next week 'to stand in solidarity' with immigrants making court appearances.
'We know that migrants and refugees find themselves in the difficult predicament of being called to appear, which is what the government asks of them, and then being given orders for expedited removal from our country,' the group wrote in the letter.
'This group of priests and faith leaders will simply be present during this process as it has been experienced that the presence of faith leaders makes a difference in how migrants are treated. Unfortunately, it will most likely not change the outcome.'
The day of action, June 20th, is also International Refugee Day.
The church leaders plan to hold a press conference afterward to send the message 'that people of faith stand with immigrants and refugees.'
Pham has a remarkable story of immigration himself, having fled the North Vietnamese Army in 1975 when he was just eight years old, surviving for several days at sea on an empty rice cargo barge with no food or water.
'I thought they were sleeping,' he later recalled of the bodies he saw on the floor of the barge, 'but I came to realize that they were dead.'
Pham and his family ended up in another part of Vietnam, but then he and two siblings fled to Malaysia in 1980, again via a harrowing boat journey. They lived in a refugee camp for seven months before they were sponsored by an American family in Minnesota.
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