Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston said this at the tenth National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington on May 13.

He heads the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors set up by Pope Francis.

"People can be overwhelmed by the bad example of priests and bishops who fail to fulfill their calling," the cardinal said at the breakfast.

But he observed that while contemporary society offers the example of "superficial, self-absorbed" celebrities, the Church proposes the lives of the saints as examples of the call to holiness.

"The saints model for us the struggle to overcome human weakness and sinfulness and embrace God's will in our lives," the cardinal said.

He pointed to Servant of God Dorothy Day, who had an abortion and another child out of wedlock, as an example of how the Church "call[s] everyone to conversion".

Dorothy Day "became one of the most outstanding persons in the history of the Church in our country".

The cardinal called on Catholics to "break the habit" of presenting the Gospel in a way that "deceives people into thinking that they can be Christians and remain strangers".

The privatisation of religion and individualism is "poisonous" to the communal nature of the body of Christ, he added.

The Capuchin said Catholics must embrace Pope Francis's call to foster a "culture of encounter" and practice "the art of accompaniment" as disciples of Jesus Christ.

"Our task is to turn consumers into disciples and disciple-makers," he said.

"We need to prepare people to witness to the faith and not to send people into the witness-protection program."

Cardinal O'Malley said belief in the Gospel requires accepting the Church's teaching on the human person, which extends to immigrants living and working in the US illegally.

He called for new and more just immigration laws to replace "a system that is broken and woefully inadequate".

Sources

• National Catholic Register
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Cathnewsusa

Hundreds of would-be migrants trying to cross from Mexico into the US die each year in the desert of dehydration or hypothermia or in shootings by border patrols or vigilantes.

The bishops also gathered to urge the US Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

On April 1, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston gave the homily, speaking of the role immigrants play in US society and the suffering they endure to reach the country.

"Despite the xenophobic ranting of a segment of the population, our immigrant population contributes mightily to the economy and wellbeing of the United States," Cardinal O'Malley said in Arizona.

The cardinal quoted Pope Francis's comments on the Italian island of Lampedusa last year about the "globalisation of indifference".

"We have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters," Pope Francis said.

Cardinal O'Malley quoted Pope Francis further: "The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people."

People from Mexico attended the Mass on the other side of the border fence and received Communion through the iron fence slats.

The previous day, the bishops had walked along rough desert paths used by migrants.

They crawled under strands of barbed wire, scrunching low to walk through a culvert beneath a road, and dodged cactus and sticker bushes.

The group then met with the Border Patrol at their regional headquarters, before crossing into Mexico to serve dinner at a church-sponsored "comedor," or soup kitchen.

The "comedor" serves people who have been deported or who are figuring out whether they want to try to sneak into the United States.

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Fox News Latino

The 93 presidents have appealed directly to all 163 Catholic members of Congress, many of whom are graduates of Catholic universities.

"Catholic teaching values the human dignity and worth of all immigrants, regardless of legal status," the academics' letter said. "We remind you that no human being made in the image of God is illegal.

"The Vatican's Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church warns against the exploitation of immigrant workers and says 'immigrants are to be received as persons and helped, together with their families, to become a part of societal life'. We are part of an immigrant Church in an immigrant nation."

One of the signatories, John Garvey, president of the Catholic University of America, said: "One thing immigrants do for the American Catholic Church is they enrich the Church. They're keeping the Catholic Church fresh and the churches full. More and more they're the backbone of parish life."

Support for immigration reform from the Catholic academics comes as members of the House of Representatives are considering an immigration reform bill the Senate passed last month.

That bill would expand provisions for approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants and provide a "pathway to citizenship" as long as a series of new measures for security on the US-Mexico border, including addition of some 40,000 border patrol agents, is first arranged.

President Barack Obama has said that the House is unlikely to pass the bill before its annual August recess.

Religious leaders from some evangelical churches have joined their Catholic colleagues in advocating for reform.

One grouping of evangelical leaders, the Evangelical Immigration Table, is calling for reform that "respects the God-given dignity of every person" and "establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents".

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Yahoo! News

Religion News Service

Image: Stanford University