Bishops at the Tex-Mex Border Bishops Meeting, Feb 29-Mar 2, consented that since we are tied to the border, the critical question of immigration needs to be regarded as a common pastoral issue for the bishops and archbishops of the 16 border dioceses and archdioceses represented at the meeting.

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller eloquently delivered his homily at the noon Mass, March 1, at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in San Angelo and urged us to not convert "faith, dignity and family" values into a political issue.

"Our border is in the path of the migration of thousands of people who flee from Mexico and Central America," he said. "These migrants need to be treated with compassion and unbending principles for the sake of their own self-respect. We need to strengthen our social and pastoral bonds with them as they arrive at our borders. Our solidarity with them, especially the vulnerable minor children from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, will protect these children from further harm as they settle in a new country in a Catholic environment."

One of the priests at the bi-annual meeting, Father José Guadalupe Valdéz Alvarado from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, has proposed the following four points in order for us to maintain the maternal presence of the Church alive in our faith and in the spirit of charity:

1. Establish shelters to make migrants feel at home and maintain a clear dialogue with the municipal, state and federal authorities as we participate and denounce any type of violation to human rights.

2. Find ways to maintain the dignity of the migrants by proposing laws and more humane and just treatment for the migrants.

3. Commit ourselves along with the dioceses of the migrants in our pastoral work to open our churches to restore the dignity of these people.

4. Strengthen the pastoral and social relationships, such as the support that was given by Archbishop García-Siller to the Central American minors who were mutilated on the "La Bestia" train in Mexico.

In his recent trip to Mexico, Pope Francis declared that "we need to bathe with balm the tired feet of these migrants who traverse our frontier when they abandon their roots in search of a better life. As brothers we need to follow them and reach their souls beyond the border."