USCCB’s new vice president once compared mass deportations to abortion

(LifeSiteNews) — In a stunning development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly, the bishops have elected Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City as their new president and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, as vice president.

But it’s Bishop Flores’ past words that are already making waves – words that equate Republican-backed mass deportations to nothing less than formal cooperation in abortion. Yes, you heard that right: he’s calling it mortal sin to back mass deportations – equivalent to abortion.

It was back in a 2016 Crux interview, as the U.S. grappled with immigration debates, that Bishop Flores claimed GOP proposals for mass deportations amount to “formal cooperation in intrinsic evil,” comparing it directly to “driving someone to an abortion clinic.”

I have to note here how false that is. To paraphrase from Cardinal Ratzinger’s 2004 letter to the bishops of the U.S.: “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia…. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.” (And obviously the issue of mass deportations falls into that same category.)

READ: USCCB elects Archbishop Coakley as president, Bishop Flores as vice president

Now this election comes at a pivotal moment, with immigration and capital punishment front and center in America’s divided landscape, with Pope Leo taking Francis’ lead and weighing in heavily.

Even though both the new USCCB president and VP oppose both mass deportations and the death penalty, Flores is much more radical. And Coakley, for his part, is known for a strong pro-life stance. Back in 2014, he told LifeSiteNews outright that he supports denying Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Maybe that is why Archbishop Coakley was elected on the third ballot, 128 to 109, while Bishop Flores secured the vice presidency on the first go-round from a field of nine.

Let us know what you think. Drop your thoughts in the comments. For Sign of the Cross Media and LifeSiteNews, I’m John-Henry Westen. God bless you.

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John-Henry is the co-founder and CEO of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.