Wuerl eyes humanity for illegals

TWT Video: Archbishop discusses Papal visit

"We would like to be able for him to leave the world's wealthiest nation, the world's one superpower, with a gift he could use for the poor around the world," he said.

Addressing some of the issues on the minds of the some 67 million U.S. Catholics, he predicted that America's Catholic schools will continue to close without government vouchers. The Washington archdiocese will close seven schools this spring and turn them over to be run by a charter group.

"The whole idea of vouchers is that the money that we all pay in taxes for education should follow the child," he said. "The child is being educated at the school the parents decide on. Until that happens, we're just going to gradually see a continual challenge to the ability of the church to sustain all of these schools, particularly in the poorest, urban areas."

When asked his position on stepped-up efforts — especially in Virginia's Prince William County — to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, the archbishop said the reasons why immigrants came to the U.S. are "history."

Meanwhile, "they are here, their children are American citizens, and they are part of our family," he said. "Is the next step some sort of regularizing of their situation or a collection of these people to deport them? Those are questions to be resolved by people we elect.

"But while they are resolving them, we have to keep in mind that these are human beings. If you say, should we round up all 10 to 12 million people simply because they are here and deport them? I do not think that is a humane answer."

As for the war in Iraq, "we're there," he said.