Pope Francis’s ‘US Messenger’ Praises Obama Exec Amnesty, Concerned about Privacy of Illegals

On Sunday, the Chicago Archbishop who has been described as “Pope Francis’s American messenger” praised President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty and expressed concerns about the privacy of illegal immigrants who will be coming out of the shadows.

Archbishop Blase Cupich, who was recently chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Catholic Church in Chicago, has said that amnesty for illegal immigrants is on God’s agenda. He stated that the bishops of the United States are “very much in favor of action being taken to protect people who need to come out of the shadows.

“It’s been too long of a time for people to wait for comprehensive immigration reform. And so we see this as an important first step hopefully to jumpstart what’s happening,” he said on CBS’s Face The Nation. 

Cupich was also concerned about the privacy of illegal immigrants, worrying that illegal immigrants may be deported if a future president reverses Obama’s executive amnesty. Cupich said that “my concern would be that we would have a policy and a procedure that would have a confidentiality provision because if people come out of the shadows and sign up and give their names and information they want to make sure that that is going to be protected in the future should the executive order change by another administration.”

“So, I think it’s very important that this be done very carefully but we applaud it as a good first step,” he continued. “But more needs to be done. And we encourage the president and members of Congress to get this work done.”

When asked about his recent remarks in which he said “the work of comprehensive immigration reform is not important because it is on my agenda, but because it is on God’s,” he replied: 

Well, it means that the aspirations that people have for better life for their children in which they are reaching out in hope as many people who have come to this country have. Those aspirations were placed in their heart by God. We have to attend to that. This is not just something that they’re wanting on their own, but God has always called us to a better life. Has always called us to experiencing how we can provide for our families in a better way. And I think that being a grandson of immigrants I feel that very deeply.

When Pope Francis named Cupich to be Chicago’s Archbishop, news organizations noted Cupich was in the “Catholic Church’s progressive wing” and hailed Pope Francis’s “most important U.S. appointment to date” as “one that could upend decades of conservative dominance of the American hierarchy.” Cupich, news outlets noted, succeeded “Cardinal Francis George, a doctrinal and cultural conservative who has headed one of the American church’s pre-eminent dioceses since 1997” and also “became a vocal leader among the bishops and earned a reputation as a feisty culture warrior in line with the Vatican of the late St. John Paul II and retired Pope Benedict XVI.”