EWTN portal reports: The Trump administration has authorized 10,000 additional Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, raising the cap to 17,500, while maintaining severe restrictions on refugees from other nations. Bishop Brendan Cahill, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, criticized this policy in a May 28 statement, arguing that refugee resettlement should not favor one group over others. He called for broader admissions, including for those persecuted for their faith. The article presents this as a matter of “shared values” and “national interest,” framing the bishops’ response as a defense of universal human dignity.
The Naturalistic Framework: “Shared Values” Over Divine Law
The statement by Bishop Cahill and the USCCB operates entirely within a naturalistic framework, devoid of any reference to the supernatural order or the divine law. The bishops speak of “our laws, our shared values, and the national interest” as the criteria for refugee policy. This is a direct echo of the condemned errors of Liberalism. Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemned the notion that “the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people” (Proposition 79). The bishops’ appeal to “shared values” is a hallmark of the modernist error that truth is determined by consensus and sentiment, not by divine revelation. As Pope St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili sane exitu, “The Church, in condemning errors, has no right to require any internal assent from the faithful to the pronouncements issued by the Church” is a condemned proposition (Proposition 7). By failing to ground their argument in the immutable teaching of Christ the King, the bishops reduce the Church’s social doctrine to a mere political opinion, subject to the shifting winds of secular ideology.
The Omission of Christ the King and the Primacy of the Supernatural
The most glaring omission in the bishops’ statement is the complete silence on the Kingship of Christ and the duty of nations to publicly acknowledge Him. Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes God from public life. He wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ – as we lamented – were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The bishops’ call for “broader refugee admissions” makes no mention of the primary duty of the state to uphold the Catholic faith and to seek the salvation of souls. Instead, they adopt the language of secular humanitarianism, which treats all refugees as equal in a naturalistic sense, ignoring the supernatural peril of those fleeing to a country that may lead them further from the true Faith. The bishops’ statement is a symptom of the conciliar revolution’s capitulation to the world, where the Church’s mission is reduced to a charitable NGO, rather than the divinely instituted society tasked with leading souls to eternal salvation.
The Heresy of Indifferentism and False Ecumenism
Bishop Cahill’s statement that the U.S. should grant relief “not favoring one particular group” is a practical application of the heresy of indifferentism, which holds that all religions are equally valid paths to God. Pope Pius IX condemned this error in the Syllabus of Errors: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15), and “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18). By refusing to prioritize the needs of persecuted Catholics over those of other faiths or ethnic groups, the bishops implicitly deny the unique truth of the Catholic Church. The article notes that Cahill mentions “those persecuted on the basis of their faith,” but he does not specify the Catholic Faith. This deliberate ambiguity is a tactic of the modernist “Church,” which seeks to legitimize dialogue with false religions and promote a false ecumenism. As the file “False Fatima Apparitions” notes, such imprecise formulations “open the way to religious relativism” and serve to “legitimize dialogue with schismatic Orthodoxy.” The bishops’ statement is not a defense of Catholic teaching, but a promotion of the very errors that have led to the current crisis in the Church.
The Symptomatic Silence on the Spiritual Ruin of the Faithful
The bishops’ statement is entirely focused on the temporal welfare of refugees, with no consideration for their spiritual state or the spiritual dangers they may face. This is a direct consequence of the modernist error condemned by Pope St. Pius X, who wrote that “philosophy is to be treated without taking any account of supernatural revelation” (Proposition 14). The bishops’ naturalistic approach ignores the teaching of the Church that the primary end of man is the glory of God and the salvation of his soul. By treating refugees as mere victims of political persecution, the bishops neglect their duty to preach the Gospel and to ensure that those who come to the United States have the opportunity to embrace the Catholic Faith. This silence is not accidental; it is a systemic feature of the conciliar “Church,” which has abandoned its supernatural mission in favor of a humanistic agenda. The bishops’ call for “shared values” is a betrayal of the Church’s divine commission, which is to teach all nations, not to conform to the spirit of the age.
The Rejection of Catholic Social Teaching in Favor of Secular Liberalism
The bishops’ appeal to “national interest” and “our laws” is a capitulation to the secular state, which the Church has always taught must be subordinate to the divine law. Pope Leo XIII, in the encyclical Immortale Dei, wrote that “the State is not competent to make laws in matters of religion, nor can it interfere with the rights of the Church.” The bishops’ statement accepts the premise that the state has the right to determine refugee policy based on secular criteria, rather than demanding that the state conform its laws to the teachings of the Gospel. This is a direct violation of the Church’s teaching on the relationship between the two powers. The bishops’ failure to invoke the authority of Christ the King and the social Kingship of Christ is a damning indictment of their modernism. They have become spokesmen for the secular order, rather than defenders of the Faith. As Pope Pius XI warned, “the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation” when Christ is removed from public life. The bishops’ statement is a symptom of this shaking, a clear sign that the conciliar “Church” has lost its divine mandate and become a tool of the world.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Conciliar “Catholicism”
The statement by Bishop Cahill and the USCCB is a textbook example of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar “Church.” By adopting the language of secular humanitarianism, appealing to “shared values,” and ignoring the supernatural mission of the Church, the bishops have revealed themselves as modernists who have abandoned the Faith of their predecessors. Their call for “broader refugee admissions” is not a defense of Catholic teaching, but a promotion of the very errors that have led to the current crisis in the Church. The faithful must reject this naturalistic and modernist approach, and return to the unchanging teaching of the Church, which proclaims the Kingship of Christ, the primacy of the supernatural, and the duty of all nations to submit to the divine law. Only by embracing this teaching can the Church fulfill its mission and lead souls to eternal salvation.
Source:
As Trump welcomes more Afrikaner refugees, Catholic bishops call for others to also be included (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.05.2026