Gathering in Northern Kentucky focuses on immigration, Catholic teachings

Date:2025-08-20 18:10:08 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

Nuns hosted a gathering at the Diocese of Covington Curia Monday evening that included presentations by an academic and an immigration attorney, Aug 18, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Granger/LINK nky)

What do Catholic social teachings say about immigration, especially in the face of increased federal emphasis on immigration enforcement?

That was the subject of a special meeting at the Diocese of Covington Curia on Monday night. Hosted by the Sisters of the Inter-Community Justice and Peace Committee, which is made up of members of the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Benedictine Sisters and the Sisters of Divine Providence, the meeting was the second in a series of meetings for local congregants on the issue of immigration.

Diocese of Covington Curia. (Photo by Nathan Granger/LINK nky)

This meeting focused on what Catholic social teachings had to say about the issue and gave advice on how local Catholics could get involved.

Bishop John Iffert led an opening prayer, which expressed the central quandary the speakers at the meeting hoped to unpack, namely that Catholic teachings emphasize the dignity of human beings, regardless of their origins, while also granting nations the right to protect their own borders.

“We live in a time where we are caught between high values,” Iffert prayed. “We recognize that God calls us to hospitality, to respect human dignity, to love our neighbor and to welcome even the foreigner as our neighbor. And we gather in the bosom of the Church that recognizes that nations have a right to control their borders, and sometimes we struggle to know how to balance these great values.”

The meeting was well-attended and featured several speakers, as well as some local nonprofits that provide services to immigrants.

Sister Kay Kramer spoke about the history of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and pointed out that many in the room were likely descended from immigrants.

“A lot of what’s happening across the country now is demonizing and degrading human beings who are made in God’s image and likeness, just as we are,” Kramer said.

Sister Kay Kramer gives a presentation on Aug. 18, 2025. Kramer points out that even the current pope, Chicago-born Leo XIV, is descended from immigrants to the United States. (Photo by Nathan Granger/LINK nky)

Hannah Keegan, the director of the Center for Faith, Mission & Catholic Education at Thomas More University, pulled from both modern and classical Catholic writings to describe what is expected of practicing Catholics as it relates to immigrants.

Keegan emphasized that treatment of immigrants in the community was “not primarily a political question, but a question of justice and mercy. It’s a question of love, ultimately a question of relationship.”

Jessica Ramos, an attorney and the manager of the immigration team at the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, discussed the complexities of immigration law, which she characterized as Byzantine and overly punitive. She projected a flow chart up at the front to show how complex immigration processing in the United States could be.

“I just like to use this graphic to show you that immigration law is extremely complicated,” Ramos said. “I have cases where we have been battling over whether someone is a U.S. citizen for over a decade, right? Just to prove that someone’s a U.S. citizen. I have other cases that it takes two decades to wind through the system.”

Jessica Ramos used this flow chart to show how complex immigration law can be in the United States. (Photo by Nathan Granger/LINK nky)

“The law in place today is very harsh and punitive compared to centuries past,” Ramos said, “and, honestly, if most of our ancestors tried to come today, they would be denied entry.”

Organizers distributed literature summarizing Catholic social teachings and providing citations, along with information about local organizations that support immigrants. Sister Alice Gerdeman asked the attendees to reflect on the session and consider how they could contribute to the issue, whether through volunteering, donations, or any other way.

“We cannot all do something about everything, but if we want to be hopeful people, we have to find something we can do about some issue because otherwise we get depressed and we lose our energies,” Gerdeman said.

People interested in learning more about the committee’s work on immigration can contact Sister Kay Kramer at [email protected].

The organizations cited at Monday’s presentation are listed below: