Cardinal Tobin Urges Catholic Bishops to Investigate Detained Children

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Michael Sherrard, Executive Director of Faithful America, the "largest and fastest-growing online community of Christians putting faith into action for social justice" is inviting ethical and moral people of all persuasions to sign a petition encouraging Catholic bishops to investigate the treatment of refugee children:

"At last week's meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, Cardinal Joseph Tobin publicly urged that a delegation be dispatched as a 'sign of our pastoral concern and protest against the hardening of the American heart.'

Cardinal Tobin's suggestion was well received and referred to committee. But with the crisis at the border deepening and the Trump administration in chaos, there's no time to waste.

By following the pope's example of showing personal solidarity with migrants, the bishops can make headlines and help pressure the Trump administration to roll back its "zero tolerance" policy that's putting these children in detention."

A few of Faithful America's recent successes:

Fought Back Against Hobby Lobby: After Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit claiming a religious objection to providing insurance coverage for contraception, we delivered tens of thousands of petition signatures to their corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City. Our spokesperson was a local evangelical pastor who was dramatically turned away by corporate security--resulting in some of the earliest national media coverage demonstrating Christian opposition to the "religious freedom" attack on birth control. Later, we held a vigil outside of Hobby Lobby corporate headquarters the night after the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case.

Convinced Google to Drop World Vision: When World Vision - one of the world's largest Christian relief and development organizations - announced plans to stop discriminating against gay and lesbians, they were met with a furious outcry from the religious right. World Vision quickly reversed themselves - so more than 17,000 Faithful America members called on Google to find new Christian partners that don't discriminate. Within days, Google's director of corporate giving resigned from World Vision's board of directors.

Forced MSNBC to Drop the Family Research Council: FRC, which the Southern Poverty Law Center named a hate group for spreading outrageous lies about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, has long exerted a poisonous influence in the media. Seeking to delegitimize the FRC as legitimate representative of the faith community, we mobilized more than 20,000 members in a sustained months-long campaign -- including petitions, phone calls, and in-person events -- that ultimately forced MSNBC to stop inviting the FRC's president, Tony Perkins, on the air.

Helped Students Win Justice for Fired Principal: When hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the firing of a gay vice-principal at a Seattle-area Catholic high school, we amplified their message with 20,000 petition signatures delivered to the archbishop's doorstep. Within days the school's president resigned (even while a lesbian teacher came out and kept her job), sending a potent message to Catholic schools nationwide.

Defended an Unjustly-Defrocked Pastor: Pennsylvania United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer was put on trial and defrocked for officiating at the wedding of his gay son. But after local Methodists made headlines with a petition signed by 35,000 Faithful America members, his bishop publicly committed to do everything in her power to prevent future trials, helping prompt other bishops to make the same promise. (Schaefer's defrocking was ultimately overturned on appeal.)

Fought the Fracking Industry: When the Sisters of Loretto, a Roman Catholic order in Kentucky, refused to allow the fracking industry to build a dangerous pipeline on their land, 30,000 Faithful America members joined in signing a petition in solidarity. The state's religious leaders delivered the petition to the governor's office, making state and national headlines--and plans for the pipeline were eventually halted.