US: The Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles has vowed to instruct priests to defy any law requiring churches and other social organisations to ask immigrants for legal documents before giving them help.
Cardinal Roger Mahony told the Los Angeles Times that the church had a duty to oppose the "hysterical" anti-immigrant feeling sweeping California and to help those in need, regardless of their legal status.
The House of Representatives has passed an immigration control Bill that would punish those who offer social services or shelter to illegal immigrants and a Bill under consideration by the Senate contains a similar provision.
"The whole concept of punishing people who serve immigrants is un-American. If you take this to its logical, ludicrous extreme, every single person who comes up to receive Holy Communion, you have to ask them to show papers.
"It becomes absurd and the church is not about to get into that. The church is here to serve people. We're not about to become immigration agents," Dr Mahony said.
Most estimates suggest that at least 11 million immigrants are living in the US illegally and immigration reform has become one of the biggest political issues in advance of this year's mid-term congressional elections.
Thousands of Irish immigrants and their supporters have attended rallies throughout the US to call for a reform that would give those currently undocumented a chance to work legally and eventually apply for US citizenship.
A Bill proposed by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy includes such a provision and president George Bush has called for a six-year guest worker programme for immigrants.
Dr Mahony asked the five million Catholics in his diocese to consider during Lent the contribution made by immigrants to American life and has sent information packs to parishes on how to preach and lobby on the issue.
"There is enormous ignorance out there . . . this is a teachable moment to help people understand that all of us are immigrant people," he said.