In 1965, Catholic priests and nuns joined the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, seeking voting rights for African Americans in the face of violent local hostility.
Catholics risked prison and physical harm for their actions, but it was a time of moral leadership. More than that, it was a teachable moment that impacted a generation of future church leaders and became a catalyst for a broader awareness of Catholic Social Teaching.
In 2025, many believe we are facing a similar moral challenge. Immigrant communities and the rural and urban poor are suffering from deportation raids and critical budget cuts. Church leaders are speaking out more forcefully and taking public action that is attracting significant media attention.
In Los Angeles, an epicenter of anti-immigrant actions, Archbishop José H. Gomez is not simply expressing his concern for the large immigrant communities in his archdiocese. He is marshalling business leaders to create a fund to help families that have gone into hiding to avoid seizure or who have already lost a family wage-earner in immigration raids and are afraid even to go to the grocery store.
"This program will provide direct support to families who are suffering financial hardships because of the current climate of uncertainty and fear," Archbishop Gomez said.
In Detroit, Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger garnered media attention by joining Catholic laity and religious leaders from a variety of denominations on a procession to Detroit's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office.
The group attempted "to deliver a letter asking the agency to review immigration enforcement policies and practices that have created fear in the immigrant community," the Detroit Catholic reported.
Perhaps most striking was Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski with members of his motorcycle posse, Knights for Christ. The bikers prayed the Rosary outside Florida's so-called Alligator Alcatraz where detainees are being kept under onerous conditions. The archbishop said no Catholic priest has been given access to say Mass for those Catholics inside.
I ended a recent column with a statement by Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso. Talking about the growing effort by bishops to critique both deportation and budget decisions by the administration, he said that "it's a real challenge to reach even Catholics" about why they are opposed. "We as a church unfortunately don't have the kind of megaphone that the administration does."
Taking public steps to address social wrongs is one way to seize the megaphone. Following two immigration raids on church property, Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, California, declared that parishioners in his diocese who feared deportation were dispensed from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass. His action attracted international news coverage.
The continuing challenge, however, is how to educate adult Catholics about Catholic social teaching and its applicability to the present crisis. A bishop's witness in the public square is a start. But the challenge Bishop Seitz and his peers face is not just getting the attention of Catholics with a headline, but explaining what the church is saying about care for the migrant and the refugee, the poor and the homeless. For the examples to resonate, for the seeds to take root, the soil must be prepared. The church's great treasure, its social teaching, needs to be proclaimed.
The bishops, our teachers, have a teachable moment right now, just as there was in 1965. What they need is a megaphone that reaches the pews, explaining, inspiring, evangelizing. It will take not just bold public witness, but a focused effort by homilists, catechists and communications staff. Call it a Good Samaritan Strategy, teaching us to see Christ in the faces of those most in need of our help.
