A Pastoral Letter on Immigration from Archbishop Shawn McKnight, Bishop Carl Kemme and Bishop Gerald Vincke
14 August 2025
Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe
To the people of God in Kansas and to all people of good will: Greetings to you in the Peace of Christ!
As Catholic bishops serving in Kansas, we speak with one voice to affirm the sacred dignity of every human person, especially those fleeing hardship, who now call our state home. Amid political division and fear, we remind our communities that at the center of every immigration debate are real people: families in our pews, children in our schools, workers in our neighborhoods and volunteers in our parishes. Their bishops see, pray and stand with them.
Treating all migrants and refugees as if they were violent criminals is simply unjust. They are human beings made in God’s image: mothers, fathers, children and grandparents, motivated not by malice but by a desire for safety, stability and the chance to provide for their families. Like generations before them, including our ancestors, they strengthen the fabric of our society through hard work, perseverance and faith.
Furthermore, when we allow ourselves to see other people as less than human, as mere problems to be solved, we degrade our own humanity. When we consider an unborn child only as a complication to be eliminated, and when we confsider new arrivals only as problems to be removed, we become less merciful, less just, less human.
The Church teaches that when people are driven by poverty or violence to leave home, they retain their full dignity and must be treated accordingly. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2241) affirms that while nations may regulate borders, they must also welcome those seeking security, especially when home countries cannot provide it. This balance demands just and merciful policies.
We support the role of law enforcement in protecting public safety. Violent crime and unsecured borders must be addressed, no matter a person’s legal status. Criminals are taking advantage of our country’s broken immigration system to abuse those most vulnerable and cause chaos in our communities. Working migrants, those volunteering in our parishes, paying taxes, sacrificing for their families and following our laws, deserve not fear and intimidation but protection, solidarity and a welcoming community.
We call on public officials to use existing legal discretion to treat undocumented migrants humanely. Unnecessary raids, mass detentions and family separations betray the values of our nation and the Gospel.
We urge the faithful to encounter immigrants as neighbors and build welcoming parishes where politics never poisons compassion.
We are called to serve Christ in the poor, the alien and the outcast. May we never forget his words: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).
With gratitude to God for you and the good works you do, we are
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Carl Kemme
Bishop of Wichita
Most Reverend Shawn McKnight
Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
Most Reverend Gerald Vincke
Bishop of Salina
It is ironic that our bishops are more concerned about immigration than they are with winning souls for Jesus. Since I was a boy my Church has been in disarray. After 2000 years my Church doesn’t seem to know what being a Catholic means. We have had constant fads from communion rails, to church architecture, to guitar masses, to arguing about ordaining women, gay priests and seminaries, sexual abuse…on and on it goes. The Church under your tutelage has been hemorrhaging parishioners for fifty years or more in North America and Europe. The bishops have not seemed to notice. Jesus speaks to us individually not as Catholics or Americans or politicians. Charity is an individual virtue and responsibility, Not a corporate one. My mother, who came to America alone at 14 across the Atlantic was a legal immigrant. My wife’s parents who were prisoners of war and slave laborers, through a laborious, years long struggle came here as legal immigrants. You insult them with wishy washy drivel about immigration today. Immigration is no business of yours. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” – Jesus. Maybe you forgot about him. Immigration belongs to Caesar. I am an old cynic and I suspect the Bishops’s uptick in concerns about immigration arises not from faith but the loss of billions of dollars in income from the Federal Government. The Bible is full of passages about false prophets and priests. You would be wise to pay attention.
Illegal migrants are eligible for a free flight home and a $1000 stipend from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That is a very humane offer and solution to the problem created by illegality of federal authorities who allowed this to happen in the first place.
Thank you for such clarity. Very proud to follow you!