Christ the King at the Border

A new flashpoint in the Trump Administration’s feud with the Catholic Church has broken out over custody of Mt. Cristo Rey, a devotional shrine straddling the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico, near El Paso. Mt. Cristo Rey features a nearly 30-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ, accessible via a winding footpath, and has been the site of an annual Good Friday pilgrimage since its construction in 1940. Due to the site’s position on the border, with the famous border wall extending in both directions from its sides, the Trump Administration has sought to use its power of eminent domain to federalize part of the mountain. This way, the wall could be connected, closing the 2.5-mile gap that exists around Mt. Cristo Rey.

The Administration’s efforts have rankled the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, which has sued the government on grounds of protecting the religious liberty of Catholics in the area. As the Church argued in court, “The erection of a border wall through or along this holy site could irreparably damage its religious and cultural sanctity, obstruct pilgrimage routes, and transfer sacred space into a symbol of division.”

Although the Church’s discomfort is understandable, this move by the Administration is not arbitrary. The director of the volunteer group that manages the site, Ruben Escandron, told the local news in El Paso in 2018 that “people that are into the drug smuggling and alien smuggling use this as a corridor to bring people across because there is no fence.” As a notable gap in the high-traffic border between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mt. Cristo Rey is an attractive option for illegal crossings, which also threaten the security of the historic monument.

“I know it’s a stretch to pull up this multimillion-dollar wall up there or fence to protect immigration, but I think for our purposes it would protect the monument.” Escandron noted.

Despite local demand for greater border security presence and the government’s reaffirmation that “the access easement and the land along the border are not near the Cristo Rey Shrine and will not impact activity or use of the Shrine,” the annexation has continued to draw outcry. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso), stated, “There are a number of other ways to provide border security. Instead, the Trump administration prefers to destroy this sacred site.”

Escobar’s reaction, falsely claiming that the shrine is to be destroyed, is unfortunately also mirrored by many in the Catholic hierarchy in the region, serving to obfuscate the true reason for opposition to the project. Much like previous immigration moral panics, such as the dust-up over the sacramental rights of detained immigrants in Illinois last year, some in the Catholic Church are again using arguments of religious liberty to agitate against immigration enforcement. For these pro-migration activists, the fate of the shrine on Mt. Cristo Rey is less important than the ability of the Church to frustrate the completion of the border wall in the area.

Yet the Administration is far from blameless in inciting local Catholics to anger. The original plans for the site were unclear, relying on a later clarification to demonstrate the great distance between the statue and the proposed border installation. Locals have also expressed concern about heavy construction in the area during the otherwise solemn Good Friday pilgrimage. The Administration ought to take these objections more seriously, such that its efforts are not seen as a mean-spirited attack on the faithful.

For Catholics removed from the situation on the ground, moments like these are lessons in prudence. Some seek to weaponize the faith, forcing Catholics who favor a strong border to choose between their Christian values and the national interest of their country. In reality, this distinction is illusory. Catholic social teaching affirms both the right of people to migrate and the right of nations to secure and regulate their borders. The completion of a border wall on the Southern border in no way impedes the mission of the Church to comfort the stranger and offer Christian hospitality. As it stands, fifteen percent of the U.S. population is immigrants, offering ample opportunity to demonstrate the love of the Church without insisting on expanding their numbers.

In this case, Catholics need not accept the false choice offered by the loudest voices on either side. The shrine should be respected, the pilgrimage protected, and the border secured. To demand anything less is not a defense of religious liberty, but another attempt to make the Church a permanent obstacle to the enforcement of American law.

More from IRD:

Are National Borders Ungodly?

Detained Immigrants and Eucharistic Protest

Is it morally right to deport millions of people?