Pope Leo Ally Cardinal Joseph Tobin Slams ‘Lawless’ ICE | EUROtoday

A high-ranking Catholic chief and distinguished ally to Pope Leo XIV provided a strongly worded condemnation of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants this week whereas encouraging extra individuals of religion to talk out in opposition to it.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, was considered one of a number of spiritual leaders to participate in an internet prayer service organized by Faith in Action in response to the Jan. 24 capturing of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.

In excerpts of his remarks, Tobin urged Congress to “vote against renewing funding for such a lawless organization,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“We mourn for a world, a country that allows 5-year-olds to be legally kidnapped and protesters to be slaughtered,” he mentioned. “How will you say no to violence? Because as the great teacher Martin Luther King said, ‘Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.’”

Elsewhere within the service, Tobin referenced Ignazio Silone’s 1936 novel “Bread and Wine,” which was written whereas the creator was residing in exile from his native Italy throughout dictator Benito Mussolini’s regime.

He concluded his section of the service with a quote from the novel: “How will you help restore a culture of life in the midst of death?”

In an interview with OSV News printed Monday, Tobin stood by his sentiments and mentioned he agreed with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who beforehand described the U.S. as being at an “inflection point.”

“I would say that we do stand at an inflection point — or maybe I would just simply say a crossroad, where there are different alternatives,” he instructed the outlet.

Elsewhere within the interview, he famous: “I think that some of the policies of the government, especially as showcased recently in Minneapolis — but not only in Minneapolis, in other places — certainly give question to what sort of oversight this particular branch of law enforcement is actually receiving.”

Tobin’s remarks got here lower than every week after he and two different U.S. cardinals signed a press release that was important of the Trump administration’s current international coverage strikes, together with the Jan. 3 seize of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

A day after the prayer service, the National Catholic Reporter’s digital editor, John Grosso, printed an opinion piece that rebuked Vice President JD Vance’s incendiary response to Pretti’s demise.

“As a Catholic, Vance could have chosen to share the Gospel message of healing and human dignity. Instead, he chose to offer the MAGA message of division and blame,” Grosso wrote within the piece, which bore the headline: “Catholics must decide if they serve Donald Trump or the Gospel.”

Describing Vance’s feedback as “a moral stain on our collective witness of Catholicism,” he added: “Given its scandal, the vice president’s cafeteria Catholicism must continue to be repudiated by people of faith.”