Archbishop Wenski recognized the validity of fears many in the U.S. have of being deported, but exhorted them to stay calm.
In 1980, when President Reagan was elected, the archbishop recalled he met with Haitian detainees who were crying in fear. He recalled telling them, "don't worry, nothing's changed," pointing to other countries where violent riots might take place during a transition of power.
"We have a rule of law," Archbishop Wenski said on Monday. "Nobody can arbitrarily try to send out of the country, in one fell swoop, 11 million people."
"Those people [Haitians] are still here," he added, saying that "it's time to take a deep breath" and to "continue our advocacy."
"If they build a wall, we have to make sure they put some doors in that wall," he said, referring to Trump's campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Catholics should also support those who have been helping immigrants all along, Archbishop Kurtz added. Many Catholic Charities workers have been serving immigrants for a long time, and we must "encourage and even salute in some ways" these workers, he said.
Plus, there is public support for immigration reform which would include a "path to permanent residency" and "eventual citizenship," Archbishop Wenski said.
The bishops were also asked about the implementation of Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on love in the family, and if it would uphold Pope St. John Paul II's teaching in Familiaris consortio that the divorced-and-remarried may receive reconciliation in the sacrament of Confession only if they have repented of having broken the sign of the covenant and, if for serious reasons they cannot separate, they agree to live in complete continence, living as brother and sister.
Archbishop Kurtz instructed Catholics to "read first chapter four and five" of the letter, and pointed to what "our Holy Father has said," that "very clearly that there is no desire on his part to make any canonical changes or any new doctrine."
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.