“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem” (Mt 20:18) Lent: a Time for Renewing Faith, Hope and Love

We join our voices to vehemently denounce racism, a plague among us. It is an evil and a force of destruction that eats away at the soul of our nation. Ultimately, it is a moral problem that requires a moral remedy—a transformation of the human heart—and compels us to act. “The evil of racism festers in part because in our nation there has been very limited formal acknowledgement of the harm done to so many, no moment of atonement, no national process of reconciliation and all too often a neglect of our history.” (Open Wide Our Hearts)

Raids, such as those conducted on Wednesday in the central part of Mississippi, only serve to, as Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote last month in a letter to President Trump, "cause the unacceptable suffering of thousands of children and their parents, and create widespread panic in our communities." We, the undersigned, condemn such an approach, which, as he rightly states, "has created a climate of fear in our parishes and communities across the United States."

When the angel of the Lord declared unto Mary that she would conceive and bear a son, she did not hesitate to say ‘yes.’ What a wonderful world we would live in if every parent could feel free to echo that ‘yes’ when they learn of a new life in the womb. We, the Catholic bishops of Mississippi, applaud the Legislature for passing and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant for signing into law the six-week abortion ban. This so-called heartbeat bill protects the tiniest and most vulnerable of our citizens.