Cardinal Timothy Dolan reinforced his support for migrants, refugees, and displaced people, denouncing “animosity and suspicion against our newcomers,” in a column published on The Good Newsroom Thursday.

Referring to the Holy Family — Jesus, Mary, and Joseph — Cardinal Dolan wrote, “Yes, they were ‘refugees’: coerced, by a hostile government, to leave their home in Nazareth, a genuine hardship for a pregnant woman and her husband, to undertake an arduous, long journey to register in a backwater village, a ‘little town’ named Bethlehem.”

He drew a parallel between the difficulties of the Holy Family, who were forced to shelter and give birth in a stable, and the Jews of the Book of Exodus, who fled slavery in Egypt for freedom in Israel, and the treatment of migrants today. 

“This is why I worry as a pastor when I hear of animosity and suspicion against our newcomers. Unfortunately, it’s far too rampant today, I fear. It’s a cloud dulling the Christmas star,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

While noting issues in the current immigration system, Cardinal Dolan called for unified action as the best possible solution. “Let us come together with our differences to address this crisis – compassionately and fairly. We need to do so for the sake of those who have made this nation home for many years, and for those recently arrived who seek to make this nation and New York their new home,” he wrote.

Read the full column here.