The new archbishop of Detroit appointed Tuesday by Pope Francis criticized President Donald Trump's decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development and once suggested that Catholics "involved" in Trump's border policies could receive "canonical penalties," including excommunication.
The appointment of Bishop Edward Weisenburger came on the same day that the Pope in a letter to U.S. bishops criticized Trump's policy of mass deportations of illegal immigrants and urged American Catholics not to lean into anti-immigrant sentiment. Francis also warned that criminalizing immigrants over their legal status deprives them of their dignity and "will end badly."
"What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly," the Pontiff wrote.
In his first remarks Tuesday since replacing Archbishop Allen Vigneron at the Detroit archdiocese, Weisenburger, 64, talked of the U.S.'s responsibility to care for those suffering around the world.
"In our culture, when we don't have to see that person, see that process, we can kind of close our minds to it, but I don't think a Christian can do that," said Weisenburger, who previously led the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, according to Crux, an independent Catholic news outlet.
"I think we have to keep it in our minds, and I would say that the amount of help that we as the wealthiest nation in the world, the most blessed nation, that amount of assistance we've been providing, typically around the world, to the world's very poorest is a part of who we are, it's in our DNA as American people, and I hope that we never stray from that."
In 2018 during Trump's first term, Weisenburger suggested at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Spring Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that Catholics who "are involved" in the detention of immigrants and separation of families at the U.S. border might receive "canonical penalties," usually used in "life issues" cases, which could include excommunication.
"For the salvation of these people's souls, maybe it's time for us to look at canonical penalties," Weisenburger said, according to LifeSite News, a Canadian Catholic anti-abortion advocacy and media outlet.
Following Trump's reelection in November, Weisenburger joined a number of Arizona Christian leaders in expressing "grave concern" in an Arizona Republic opinion piece over an apparent "threat of mistreatment of undocumented persons who are our neighbors and contribute to our communities."
Weisenburger, who will begin his tenure as archbishop of Detroit in a Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on March 18, was among the ardent supporters of closing churches and implementing mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic while also encouraging Christians to take the vaccine, according to LifeSite News.
Weisenburger in September 2021 instructed all priests within his Arizona diocese "not to cooperate with any individuals seeking our endorsement of an exemption from vaccine or facemask mandates based specifically upon our Catholic faith." He added that "all current anti-COVID-19 vaccines may be received by the faithful without moral compromise."
He also has aligned himself with an LGBT activist group and is in line with Francis' view on alleged man-made climate change, calling it matter of "life and death," according to LifeSite News.
Newsmax reached out to the White House for comment.