January 28, 2017
By Travis Andersen
Hours after President Trump (click here) signed an executive order blocking refugees and citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States, the head of the Boston Archdiocese issued a call for “mercy for those fleeing violence and persecution.”
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley made the statement on his personal blog just hours after participating in the pro-life march in Washington, D.C., and posting a video to his Twitter account where he said that marchers were “so glad” that Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, had addressed the crowd.
In his blog posting, O’Malley made no explicit reference to Trump, but noted that immigration has come to “occupy a central place in our national life at this time.”
"The Catholic voice in the immigration debate calls for reform based on reason, compassion and mercy for those fleeing violence and persecution,” O’Malley wrote. “At a pastoral level, in our country and in the Archdiocese of Boston, the Church must be a community which provides pastoral care, legal advice and social services to refugees and immigrants, as we have done in this ....