Bishop Barron’s Naturalist Compromise on Immigration Enforcement
Naturalism Masquerading as Pastoral Care
The Catholic News Agency portal reports that Winona-Rochester “bishop” Robert Barron has issued a public plea for federal immigration authorities to focus exclusively on deporting “serious criminals” while urging protesters to “cease interfering” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. This comes amid national tensions following ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good during a Minneapolis protest on January 7, 2026. Barron lamented the “violence, retribution, threats, protests, deep suspicion of one another, political unrest [and] fear” gripping Minnesota, proposing that authorities limit enforcement actions while protesters stand down and Americans “stop shouting at one another.”
The “bishop’s” statement exemplifies the fundamental error of naturalism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), which rejects the proposition that “the Church ought to adapt herself to the progress of civilization” (Error 80). Barron operates entirely within the secular framework of competing political interests, never once invoking the Regnum Christi or the Church’s divine mandate to govern nations toward eternal salvation. His silence on the duty of civil authorities to submit to Christ the King constitutes implicit acceptance of the Masonic dogma condemned in Pius IX’s Quanta Cura: “That the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Syllabus, Error 55).
Theological Abdication in Crisis
Barron’s call for ICE to “limit themselves…to rounding up undocumented people who have committed serious crimes” ignores the Church’s perennial teaching on the just application of law. Pope Leo XIII in Immortale Dei (1885) established that civil laws must conform to divine law: “Human law is law only by virtue of its accordance with right reason; and thus it is manifest that it flows from the eternal law.” By suggesting immigration enforcement should concern itself only with immediate criminal threats – rather than upholding the bonum commune through orderly immigration processes – Barron adopts the relativistic position condemned by Pius XII in Ci Riesce (1953), where he warned against “exaggerated nationalism” and “exaggerated internationalism.”
The article notes multiple U.S. “bishops” have issued “dispensations from Mass for those who are afraid of being arrested and deported,” including the Archdiocese of New Orleans and Diocese of San Bernardino. This constitutes sacrilegious abuse of ecclesiastical power, as the Holy Office decreed in 1886: “No circumstances can ever exist which make it lawful to have any communication in sacred things with heretics” (Holy Office Decree Ecclesia Catholica). The Mass dispensations reveal these clerics prioritize temporal safety over the supreme law of salvation, violating Canon 1258 of the 1917 Code which forbids “active communication in sacred things with non-Catholics.”
Revolutionary Subversion of Authority
Barron’s demand that “political leaders should stop stirring up resentment against officers” contradicts Catholic ecclesiology. St. Robert Bellarmine in De Romano Pontifice (II,30) teaches: “Secular princes have no power to punish heretics…that authority belongs to the Church.” The “bishop” inverts this hierarchy by treating ICE enforcement as an untouchable secular absolute rather than an instrument that must submit to Church judgment. His plea for protesters to “cease interfering” with ICE operations ignores the Church’s doctrine on just resistance to unjust laws, as articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas: “Human law has the nature of law only insofar as it proceeds according to right reason…consequently, to the extent it deviates from reason, it is called an unjust law, and has the nature not of law but of violence” (Summa Theologica I-II, Q.93, A.3).
The article mentions Denver “archbishop” Samuel Aquila and Lincoln “bishop” James Conley leading “Stations of the Cross at an ICE detention facility” while requesting “pastoral access to detained immigrants.” This performative activism substitutes sacramental ministry with political theater, embodying the modernist error condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (1907): “That the Church shows herself unequal to the task of preserving morality” (Proposition 63). True pastors would condemn both unjust deportations and unlawful border violations while calling nations to submit to Christ’s social reign – not stage public spectacles that implicitly endorse revolutionary disorder.
The Silence That Condemns
Nowhere does Barron or the article mention the Social Kingship of Christ, the foundation for resolving social conflicts according to Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925): “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.” The “bishops'” November 2025 statement opposing “indiscriminate mass deportation” fails to ground their objection in Catholic doctrine, instead adopting the UN’s humanitarian language.
The murder of Renee Good provokes no call for justice or investigation from these clerics – only a cowardly plea for de-escalation that equates lawful enforcement with unlawful protests. Contrast this with St. Pius X’s uncompromising stance against moral relativism in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907): “There is no progressive or traditional doctrine, but only one immutable truth.” Barron’s “modest proposal” constitutes apostasy from this principle, seeking temporary peace through doctrinal surrender.
Source:
Bishop Barron says ICE should focus on 'serious' criminals, urges protesters to 'cease interfering' (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 19.01.2026