(RNS) — In 2022, Pope Francis was asked about the U.S. bishops’ conference and identified one man, El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark Seitz, as an example of a “good pastor.” Seitz, who had just been named to head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee at the time, has lived up to Francis’ model, becoming a defender of immigrants without legal status in his border diocese and, with the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, the face of Catholic resistance to a harsher reprise of the president’s anti-immigrant policies.
The bishop spoke to RNS on March 31 about his approach to speaking out, the difficulty in reaching lay Catholics and his willingness to take risks. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How has your understanding of the Trump administration changed since January?
I don’t think we’ve ever seen a president that used his executive power to this degree. And we know that the courts and hopefully eventually the Congress will have their input in our democratic system of checks and balances.
Many of the actions have had and will have a tremendous impact on the poor within our country and around the world. It is going to, we believe, destabilize many countries that were able to keep some measure of stability in the past, and it will lead to an even greater number of people seeking refuge.
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