By CHRISTOPHER MANION
Two weeks ago as this is written, Texas National Guardsman Specialist Bishop Evans died in a heroic attempt to save two illegal aliens who were drowning in the Rio Grande River near the town of Eagle Pass.
This past Saturday, Specialist Evans was laid to rest in his hometown of Arlington, Texas.
Mr. Evans, a veteran who had experienced danger in Kuwait and Iraq, did not attempt to avoid danger at home. His heroism truly reflects the words of Christ: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Specialist Evans didn’t even know the men whose lives he was trying to save. But strangers in danger were friends indeed, and he gave his life for them.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, curious anomalies arose. First, most national news media ignored what should have been an inspiring story about a valiant and selfless American.
Why?
Yes, Evans was a hero, but he was the wrong kind of hero: He was protecting the border as part of Operation Lone Star, a program initiated by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to replace the enforcement that Joe Biden had withdrawn as part of his “open borders” policy.
But for the Bidenized media, anyone working for Abbott must be pilloried, not praised.
So Bishop Evans’ heroism was sent down the Memory Hole.
Biden’s White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki followed suit: Evans worked for Texas, not the United States, she said — so his death merited only the back of her hand.
Even more curious was the absence of any attention from Black Lives Matter. One would think that they would rally around such a hero. Yes, Mr. Evans was black, but he was the “wrong kind of black” — you know, like Clarence Thomas.
No money for the BLM grifters there, so — no go.
More curious indeed was the absence of praise from the Catholic bishops of Texas. The Wanderer asked several of them for comment, and, as we reported last week, Archbishop Gustavo Garcia Siller of San Antonio, responded. The archbishop is a strong advocate of immigration, but he did not let that get in the way of his paying a gracious tribute to Evans’ heroism.
Other Texas bishops were not so gracious. Those who did not respond to our request included Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, whose diocese includes Evans’ hometown of Arlington, and Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo, whose diocese includes Eagle Pass.
Are Bishops Just Coyotes In Clerics?
The lack of a reply from El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz was most surprising. Bishop Seitz achieved some notoriety — including a congratulatory call from the Holy Father — when he was pictured kneeling in reverence before a “Black Lives Matter” placard two years ago. Seitz’s silence is simply puzzling: This BLM supporter had no words of comfort for this black hero’s family.
OK, how about Bishop Seitz the brave rescuer of illegal aliens? He is famous for his support of illegal immigration and his opposition to the Rule of Law. Yet here was a valiant black man who gave his life for Seitz’s most favored population — illegal Hispanic immigrants — and we receive only silence from the El Paso chancery.
To top it off, Alice in Wonderland would no doubt find it “curiouser and curiouser” that, in spite of their silence, Texas bishops would still refuse to celebrate Specialist Evans for at least this: the two men whom Evans died trying to save were not only illegal aliens, they were criminal drug smugglers, allied with the Coyote Cartels operating on both sides of the border.
We have previously reported how the bishops, with Seitz in the lead, operate as the silent partners of the Coyotes. The relationship is crucial: These criminal traffickers deliver to Catholic Charities (CCUSA) the immigrant clients for whom the secular agency receives federal taxpayer millions.
Unsurprisingly, the bishops never publicly criticize their criminal business associates. Instead, their NGOs cover the windows of their offices and darken those of the vans they use to take illegals to Texas airports. From there, illegals are secretly flown by night for “resettling” in communities nationwide.
Like the CCUSA resettlement operation, the sex-and-child trafficking network of these Coyote Cartels stretches throughout the United States. The Fentanyl drugs they sell kill 100,000 Americans a year. Moreover, the illegal immigrants settled by the cartels’ Catholic Charities partners in communities nationwide suffer profound trauma, abuse, rape, and assault at the hands of the cartels on their journey to the border.
Why don’t our bishops criticize these murderous terror gangs, instead of working with them?
No American community is exempt from the results of this. These cartel casualties impose a huge nationwide burden on public school systems alone. Again, no word from our bishops, who celebrate the “International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking” on February 8.
The other 364 days of the year, they quietly collect their government cash.
Immigration, Not Abortion, Is Bishops’ “Preeminent Issue”
In his February 2, 2017 testimony in Austin, Bishop Joe S. Vasquez, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, made it clear that the bishops’ conference endorsed “sanctuary cities” — cities whose officials refuse to enforce state and federal immigration law. Such “sanctuaries,” operating with Catholic bishops’ blessing in several states, protect criminal illegals guilty of crimes ranging from document fraud and extortion to murder.
And those illegals include drug traffickers like those Guardsman Evans died trying to rescue.
Bishop Vasquez delivered the above remarks in February 2017. For the next four years, in that spirit, the USCCB repeatedly challenged a broad range of immigration policies followed by the Trump administration. Since January 2021, they have cheered Joe Biden’s reversal of those policies with equal vigor.
And that diehard support abides. Last November, bishops elected Bishop Seitz to succeed Bishop Vasquez as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration.
Readers might recall how, five years ago, Bishop Seitz branded a prominent group of pro-life state attorneys general as “hypocrites” and “Pharisees” for opposing Obama’s illegal DACA diktat.
We recall that we spoke with then-Cong. Beto O’Rourke at the time. O’Rourke, who served as Seitz’s congressman for six years, told The Wanderer that he often appears with Seitz at pro-immigration rallies.
Has Bishop Seitz ever publicly criticized O’Rourke, a pro-abortion Catholic, as a “hypocrite” or a “Pharisee”?
Never.
While Bishop Seitz hasn’t criticized O’Rourke, he has often criticized Gov. Abbott on immigration — sometimes in concert with other Texas bishops. In this, he reflects the approach of the U.S. hierarchy — a position which he articulated five weeks before the 2020 presidential election in the pages of America, the Jesuit magazine:
“For far too long, in pursuit of ‘single-issue’ strategies to end abortion, many Christians have scandalously turned a blind eye to real breakdowns in solidarity and dehumanizing policies, including crackdowns on worker rights and voting rights, the slashing of social support for the poor and sick, racism and the exploitation of immigrants and the environment” (America, September 30, 2020).
In March, O’Rourke was named the Democrat nominee to challenge Gov. Abbott, a pro-life Catholic. What are the chances that USCCB Chairman Seitz will publicly address the issue of abortion with the same vigor that he celebrates illegal immigration?
Time will tell.
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