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Illegal immigrants are first 'mothers and fathers, sons and daughters,' says Archbishop Gomez (Marianne Medlin, Aug 4, 2011, CNA/EWTN News)

Archbishop Gomez made his remarks at the Knight of Columbus' 129th annual convention, this year held in downtown Denver, Colo. from Aug. 2-4.

"Many of you are fathers or mothers," he told members of the order. "So the question to have to ask yourselves is this: What wouldn't you do to provide for your loved ones? To feed hungry mouths? To give your children a better future?"

"Our perspective on this issue will change if you begin to see these 'illegals' for who they really are - mothers and fathers, sons and daughters - not much different from yourselves."

The archbishop said that if everyone in North America traced their genealogies, it would "lead us out beyond our borders to some foreign land where each of our ancestors originally came from."

"In my personal case, the first members of my family came to what now is Texas in 1805," he noted.

Archbishop Gomez underscored that our "inheritance" as American citizens comes "to us now as a gift and as a duty," which means that we must have "empathy for this new generation of immigrants."

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