At their annual meeting this week in Baltimore, the nation’s Catholic bishops approved a special message calling for compassion toward immigrants and reform of the U.S. immigration system . It was the first time in 12 years that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had issued a pastoral message of this kind.

The message expressed alarm over heightened fears of profiling and deportation within immigrant communities. The bishops also pledged to advocate for humane treatment in detention centers and access to pastoral care for those in custody.

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the statement reads. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigr

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