Gina Christian
OSV News
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Ohio's bishops are urging Catholics and all people of good will to "turn to God and ask for eyes to see the infinite dignity of every person" amid false claims surrounding Haitian immigrants in that state's town of Springfield, which have prompted bomb threats and hoaxes.
"Today, our nation is divided by partisanship and ideology, which blind us to the image of God in our neighbor, especially the unborn, the poor, and the stranger," said the bishops in a Sept. 19 statement.
"These negative sentiments are only exacerbated by gossip, which can spread quickly across social media with no concern for the truth or those involved," the Ohio Catholic bishops said in their statement.
During a Sept. 10 televised presidential debate, former President Donald Trump — referencing an influx of some 15,000 legal Haitian migrants to Springfield — declared before 67 million viewers, "In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating — they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country."
When debate moderator David Muir of ABC News countered the town's city manager had advised the network there were "no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community," Trump repeated the...
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