sources: IRTF, El Paso Matters, Romero archive
On Sunday March 23, 1980, Archbishop Romero preached his final Sunday sermon, which was broadcast by radio throughout El Salvador.
His homily concluded with these powerful words:
I would like to make an appeal especially to the men of the army, and concretely to the National Guard, the police, and the troops. Brothers, you are of part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos, and against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail: «You shall not kill!»
No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to observe an immoral law.
Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying daily Mass the following day.
Forty-six years later, Catholic bishops are making similar pleas, calling on US federal agents conducting immigration enforcement and detention to stop the repression. On March 15, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, TX, called mass detention and mass deportation a “grave moral evil” as he called on Catholics in the diocese who work in immigration enforcement to follow the Gospel over the orders of the Trump administration.
Here are excerpts from the letter that Bishop Seitz ordered be read in all Catholic parishes in the Diocese of El Paso:
Neighbors are being snatched as they walk out of immigration court proceedings downtown. Workers are being taken from construction sites across the city. Mothers and fathers are no longer able to work because the government has taken away their legal work permits. Young women are languishing in mental torture for months in private detention centers, even when, coerced by the conditions of their imprisonment, they beg to be deported. So many people are once again being made to feel like they are less than American. People are dying in El Paso’s Camp East Montana immigrant detention center.
An unjust immigration system that leads to deadly outcomes is destructive of our shared humanity. No one has to obey an immoral order. I implore all involved to carefully discern the moral requirements of the Gospel at this moment with integrity and honesty. When we take off our masks and encounter each other as neighbors, we can reclaim our common dignity.
Policies, laws and borders must always be at the service of human dignity, genuine community security and human flourishing.
For these reasons, I must make clear, the current national campaign of mass detention and deportations is a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful action and acts of solidarity with those affected. In these acts, we touch the wounds of Jesus Christ, and in this solidarity, we carry forward the hope of the Resurrection. God is on the side of justice, and as we journey towards Easter, we know that God is fashioning a new humanity that reflects God’s blessings for all people.
To commemorate St Oscar Romero’s dedication to the Gospel, Bishop Seitz invited Catholics and “all people of conscience and goodwill” to join him on March 24 2026 for a prayer gathering and march for an end to mass detention. “I ask all who enjoy the privileges of US citizenship to participate, as an act of Lenten solidarity with those who are unable to march and pray with us, because they are afraid.”
El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz condemns mass detention and deportation, tells Catholic agents to reject immoral orders
March 15 2026
Mass detention and mass deportation are a “grave moral evil,” El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz said Sunday, calling on the faithful in the diocese who work in immigration enforcement to follow the Gospel over the orders of the Trump administration.
“No one has to obey an immoral order. I implore all involved to carefully discern the moral requirements of the Gospel at this moment with integrity and honesty. When we take off our masks and encounter each other as neighbors, we can reclaim our common dignity,” Seitz said in a pastoral letter issued Sunday.
The El Paso diocese said Seitz’s pastoral letter, issued during the holy season of Lent, is the first by a U.S. bishop on the subject of mass detention and mass deportation of those in the country without authorization. Bishops issue pastoral letters to inform and guide their dioceses on pressing issues of faith.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – which oversees immigration enforcement, border security, detention and deportation – said the real moral evil is people who kill Americans after entering the country illegally.
“Open borders have deadly consequences. We will continue to fight to stop another senseless tragedy from happening to another American family,” the spokesperson said.
Seitz’s letter also seeks to reassure frightened immigrants that the Catholic Church stands with them.
“In recent months, I have heard your fears, sufferings and worries about deportation. I have heard the stories about families being separated and of members being taken away from our community,” the letter said.
He cited people “snatched away” as they appeared at immigration court proceedings, workers taken from construction sites in El Paso, and parents who can’t go to jobs because the government took away their work permits. He also cited the deaths of three people at Camp East Montana, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at Fort Bliss.
“To those of you affected by hatred and discrimination and afraid of what comes next, know that the church stands with you. As your Bishop, I carry your pain daily in my heart and in my prayers. I stand with you,” the pastoral letter said. “Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, told me personally to stand in solidarity with suffering migrant families and not to remain silent. I will do everything I can to uphold the God-given dignity of every person in our borderlands community.”
But the most pointed message in the letter is aimed at El Paso Catholics working in the Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection and ICE, as well as with contractors running detention centers.
More than 415,000 El Pasoans identified as Catholic in 2020, accounting for more than three-fourths of El Pasoans who were affiliated with a church, according to a study by the Association of Religion Data Archives.
Seitz said in the letter that law enforcement and immigration enforcement agents perform vital work to keep the community safe.
“But the death of those in immigration detention is unacceptable. An unjust immigration system that leads to deadly outcomes is destructive of our shared humanity,” he wrote.
“Mass deportations will not make our communities safer. They separate families, divide neighbors and threaten our economic wellbeing. While we do need significant immigration reforms, it is an injustice to make families, children and the vulnerable pay the price of our inaction,” the letter said.
Seitz said “the current national campaign of mass detention and deportations is a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful action and acts of solidarity with those affected.”
For those working as part of mass detention and mass deportation efforts, he said: “I promise the pastoral support of our priests, chaplains and myself as you navigate the demands of conscience with sincerity. You are also in my prayers.”
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Pastoral Message on Mass Detention & Mass Deportations in El Paso (March 15 2026)
Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. (Ephesians 5, 8-9)
In this holy season of Lent, God invites us to journey with the suffering Jesus to the Cross and to new life in the Resurrection. For this reason, I take this opportunity to speak to all the faithful in our El Paso Catholic community, and in particular, to immigrant families.
God’s people began as a people on the move. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we encounter Abraham and the prophets, people of the tent, forced to move by famine, drought and conflict and always on a journey towards freedom. In the Gospels, we meet Jesus as a child living in exile and as an adult with no place to lay his head. In his ministry, Jesus called his followers to join him on the road, and we Christians have always been a people on the move.
Here in the borderlands, we have seen generations of migrations, each with their faith, their struggles, their culture and their hopes. Together, we have worked to forge a common home. Building community at the border has always been an act of hope, whether against the desert's dryness or manufactured fears about those who are different. The fiesta that we celebrate has always been a dance that challenges division and death, a reminder of our Eucharistic hope.
In recent months, I have heard your fears, sufferings and worries about deportation. I have heard the stories about families being separated and of members being taken away from our community.
Neighbors are being snatched as they walk out of immigration court proceedings downtown. Workers are being taken from construction sites across the city. Mothers and fathers are no longer able to work because the government has taken away their legal work permits. Young women are languishing in mental torture for months in private detention centers, even when, coerced by the conditions of their imprisonment, they beg to be deported. So many people are once again being made to feel like they are less than American. People are dying in El Paso’s Camp East Montana immigrant detention center.
To those of you affected by hatred and discrimination and afraid of what comes next, know that the church stands with you. As your Bishop, I carry your pain daily in my heart and in my prayers. I stand with you. Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, told me personally to stand in solidarity with suffering migrant families and not to remain silent. I will do everything I can to uphold the God-given dignity of every person in our borderlands community.
Our El Paso Catholic Church will redouble our ministries with those in the downtown courthouse, in the detention centers, in Ciudad Juárez and with families in our parishes. We will continue to celebrate your contributions to our community, to defend your human dignity, and to work to end racism and make immigration reform a reality.
I am blessed with many friendships with our local law enforcement and immigration enforcement agents. Their work to keep our community safe is vital. But the death of those in immigration detention is unacceptable. An unjust immigration system that leads to deadly outcomes is destructive of our shared humanity. No one has to obey an immoral order. I implore all involved to carefully discern the moral requirements of the Gospel at this moment with integrity and honesty. When we take off our masks and encounter each other as neighbors, we can reclaim our common dignity. I promise the pastoral support of our priests, chaplains and myself as you navigate the demands of conscience with sincerity. You are also in my prayers.
Mass deportations will not make our communities safer. They separate families, divide neighbors and threaten our economic wellbeing. While we do need significant immigration reforms, it is an injustice to make families, children and the vulnerable pay the price of our inaction. Policies, laws and borders must always be at the service of human dignity, genuine community security and human flourishing.
For these reasons, I must make clear, the current national campaign of mass detention and deportations is a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful action and acts of solidarity with those affected. In these acts, we touch the wounds of Jesus Christ, and in this solidarity, we carry forward the hope of the Resurrection. God is on the side of justice, and as we journey towards Easter, we know that God is fashioning a new humanity that reflects God’s blessings for all people.
Finally, I ask our entire diocesan community, our clergy, religious women and men, our Catholic students and teachers, all our Catholic faithful, and all people of conscience and goodwill to join me and Bishop Celino as we pray and march for an end to mass detention and deportations and plead for respect for human life at 6 o’clock in the evening, on Tuesday, March 24th at the Plaza de los Lagartos downtown. I ask all who enjoy the privileges of US citizenship to participate, as an act of Lenten solidarity with those who are unable to march and pray with us, because they are afraid.
May Mary of Guadalupe, who challenges us to build up a common home of tenderness and love, pray for us.
I order this to be read in all parish churches and chapels during the Sunday Celebrations of the Eucharist on the 15th of March, 2026. Given on the same day, the IV Sunday of Lent, at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick.
✠ Mark J. Seitz Bishop of El Paso
ROMERO – March 23 1980
On Sunday March 23, 1980, the archbishop preached his Sunday sermon which was broadcast by radio throughout the country.
His homily concluded with these powerful words:
I would like to make an appeal especially to the men of the army, and concretely to the National Guard, the police, and the troops. Brothers, you are of part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos, and against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail: «You shall not kill!»
No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to observe an immoral law.
It is time now for you to reclaim your conscience and to obey your conscience rather than the command to sin.
The church defends the rights of God, the law of God, and the dignity of the human person and therefore cannot remain silent before such great abominations. We want the government to understand well that the reforms are worth nothing if they are stained with so much blood.
In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise up each day more tumultuously toward heaven, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression!
