“We Will Come to You” is the title of a recently published inspiring and prophetic pastoral letter by the Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio, Gustavo García-Siller. Based on his own story as a Mexican immigrant and his years of ministry among immigrants, he articulates a bold and clear challenge for the Church to “console those who suffer, awaken the indifferent, and confront injustice with the courage of the gospel.” While recognizing our nation’s history of deportation that often targeted people of color, the Archbishop calls out the present policies and actions of our federal government as qualitatively different in its brutality and immorality:
Detention is not an incidental feature of the present climate but central to it…My brother bishop, the Most Rev. Steven Biegler of the Diocese of Cheyenne, recently made clear that “the current campaign of mass detention and deportations is immoral.” Detention facilities operate as the mechanism by which large numbers of people are held, processed, and moved from one site to another, sustained in large part by private corporations that profit from every occupied bed. A Senate investigation from the U.S. Immigration Detention Oversight Committee published earlier this year documented more than 1,000 credible reports of human-rights abuses in immigration detention since January 2025, including medical neglect, denial of food and water, overcrowding, sleep deprivation, and the separation of breastfeeding mothers from their infants…Patterns this widespread are neither accidental nor marginal. As St. Paul urges, we must expose the works of darkness rather than conceal them (Eph 5:11). The Church must confront the truth and name these injustices for what they are.
The urgent and heartfelt call of this pastoral letter is not based on political partisanship or an ideological agenda. Rather its foundation is the presence of God embodied in Jesus:
If human dignity tells us who we are, the Incarnation tells us who God is and where He chooses to dwell. God did not enter history from privilege. The Word became flesh in the vulnerability of a stable, and before the child could walk, His family was already forced to flee: “Rise, take the child and his mother; flee to Egypt” (Mt 2:13). Jesus, saved from Herod’s persecution, and His exiled family remain the model of every refugee family. The trauma of flight, the urgency of departure, and the reliance on the mercy of strangers are woven into the earthly life of the Son of God, who moved among us and ministered on the road (Mt 9:35).
The pastoral letter includes a call to immigration policy reforms as well as guidance for supporting and accompanying migrants as they face daily fears of abduction, arrest and deportation. You can read the entire letter by clicking here. It is a great example of how deep faith in Christ and commitment to human dignity and justice are two sides of the same coin. The final quote I want to share comes from the conclusion of the letter and serves as a clear call of God for living the Way of Jesus in our time:
The road ahead will not be easy. But fear cannot yield to passivity. Be bold and courageous in Christ! Unjust systems do not correct themselves overnight, and accompanying sisters and brothers in migration will come with a cost: time, toil, and the comfort of standing still. We were not baptized into comfort but into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who taught that losing our life is the way we find it (Mt 16:25).
The first video posted below is a local news report from San Antonio about the Archbishop’s pastoral letter. The second video features the Archbishop introducing the letter the day of its release.