Denver, Colo., May 31, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a commentary in Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, Archbishop Charles Chaput decried the actions of those who, as he sees it, are using illegal immigrants as scapegoats for the slaying of a Denver police officer earlier this month.
The Archbishop, who presided at the funeral of Donnie Young, a Denver police officer gunned down last month while working security for a baptismal party, began by praising the bravery of those in uniform and the outpouring of support from the Denver community toward Young’s family.
He said however, that “the aftermath of the funeral” and “though what we do with our anger over his killing; whom we blame and why -- will prove just how deep our character as a community really goes.”
“Overnight,” the Archbishop wrote last week, “some public officials and media sources began using the Young murder to hammer away at U.S. immigration realities. They keyed especially on undocumented Hispanics. One media commentator claimed that if anything good were to come of Young’s tragic death, it would be highlighting the problem of illegal immigration.”