When Mercy Ignores Justice: Bishop McAleenan, Epping, and the Fears the Church Refuses to Hear

In the face of serious social instability, the Church must not dismiss the instinct to protect — it must speak to it, evangelise it, and direct it toward the common good.

Over the weekend, protests erupted outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, after a 38-year-old Ethiopian man, recently arrived by small boat, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young girl. The Bell Hotel, like many similar sites across the UK, had been converted into temporary asylum accommodation — often without local consultation.

The public response was swift: outrage, fear, protest. Some, no doubt, acted unwisely. But the deeper reaction was a primal and protective one, especially from the fathers, brothers, and husbands who demanded to know why such a man had been placed in their community at all, and why it took a tragedy to get anyone to listen.

Into this volatile situation, Bishop Paul McAleenan, the Catholic Church’s lead bishop on immigration, issued a statement. His words were no doubt well-intentioned. But for many ordinary Catholics, they rang hollow, not because they lacked compassion, but because they lacked comprehension.

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The Bishop’s Mercy — and Its Blind Spot

In his statement, Bishop McAleenan condemned intimidation and hatred (rightly), called for due legal process (also rightly), and urged us to remember the humanity of asylum seekers. These are all points any Catholic can support in good conscience. What’s missing, however, is everything else; the other half of Catholic teaching, and the real experience of the people he is speaking to.

The Bishop made no reference to the growing body of evidence that points to uncontrolled migration being a serious destabilising force in some parts of Europe, including our own country. We are not speaking here of generalities or vague suspicions, but hard and tragic facts. In countries like Sweden and Germany, mass migration has coincided with measurable increases in violent crime, especially sexual violence, with young women and girls disproportionately affected. In the UK, while government figures remain frustratingly vague, the pattern is similar. Serious criminal incidents involving asylum seekers do occur, and when they do, they affect local communities most acutely, communities that are almost always working class, and already overburdened with housing shortages, overstretched public services, and diminished political voice.

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A Widening Gulf Between Public Experience and Church Rhetoric

In the UK, major scandals like the Pakistani grooming gang networks in Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford revealed a shocking truth: Local authorities and police deliberately avoided tackling the crimes for fear of being accused of racism. The cost of that cowardice was borne by hundreds, if not thousands, of abused girls, many of them white and working class. This silence, this unwillingness to speak hard truths for fear of offending modern sensitivities, is the very reason so many ordinary people, including Catholics, have lost trust in the authorities and institutions that claim to represent them. That includes, tragically, the Church.

I suppose the one comforting thing about Bishop McAleenan incompetent statement is that it will be read by so few. We should be grateful for small mercies.

This growing disillusionment is backed up by polling and public opinion. A majority of British citizens now believe the government has lost control of immigration. A large number support border restrictions, offshore processing, and deportations for those who arrive illegally. These are not views fuelled by hatred or racism, they are born of real experience. They come from people who see their communities change overnight, without consultation or explanation. People who are told they are bigoted for noticing the obvious, or “hateful” for wanting their children to be safe.

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The Forgotten Catholic Teaching: The Right to Defend

Catholic teaching does not stop at abstract compassion. It also includes the rights of nations to defend their borders and protect their citizens. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states clearly that political authorities, for the sake of the common good, may regulate immigration according to their responsibilities. But Bishop McAleenan made no mention of this. Nor did he acknowledge another central Catholic truth: the duty of a father to defend his wife and children.

The Catechism teaches that legitimate defence is not only a right, but a grave duty, for those responsible for the lives of others. The fathers and husbands protesting in Epping, though some may have used crude language or acted rashly, were fundamentally expressing something good, an instinct placed there by God Himself. To defend. To protect. To refuse to remain silent when children are put in danger. That instinct should not be dismissed as “fear and hatred.” It should be respected and refined, not rebuked and ignored. Yet Bishop McAleenan does not even acknowledge it.

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What About Conversion? Where is the Evangelistic Vision?

There is a deeper irony here. The very migrants who come to Britain seeking asylum are, in many cases, fleeing societies without the rule of law, without women’s rights, without a culture of justice grounded in the dignity of the person. The very virtues they now seek refuge in: Equality before the law, protection from violence, freedom of conscience, are fruits of our Christian heritage. That heritage must be preserved. And yet the Church, while rightly calling us to welcome the stranger, seems strangely unwilling to invite that stranger into the truth of the Gospel.

Where is the call to conversion? Where is the evangelisation? When did it become acceptable for the Church to offer bread and shelter, but not the spiritual nourishment they most need, that is, Christ?

The truth is that if migrants are to be integrated into our society — not merely placed in it, they must come to know the moral and spiritual foundation that made Britain what it is. And that is Christianity. The Church should be leading here: not only calling for fair treatment and dignity, but calling all people, native and newcomer alike, to the higher freedom of life in Christ.

Instead, we are treated to statements that sound more like NGO press releases than the words of a shepherd. And when bishops speak in such a way, they do not ease tensions. They deepen them.

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Finally: A Prophetic Church Must Also Be a Listening Church

A truly prophetic Church must understand both the duty to show mercy and the need to uphold justice. It must affirm the dignity of the migrant, while also acknowledging the legitimate fear of the family who feels unheard. It must call on governments to act justly and compassionately, not one without the other. And it must remember that its mission is not merely humanitarian, but salvific

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What happened in Epping is not just a local story. It is a flashpoint that reveals a deeper malaise. The people of England and Wales are asking questions that deserve serious answers. They are not being hateful. They are being human. And many of them are Catholics, too.

If the Church cannot find the courage to speak to them — to console, to affirm, to protect — then it should not be surprised when they stop listening altogether.

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