Pope Francis named Dorsonville as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington on March 20, 2015. He was ordained to the episcopate a month later at the Cathedral of St. Matthew by the former archbishop of the diocese, Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
Dorsonville was a tireless advocate for migrants and immigration reform. In 2020, the Colombian-American prelate, who previously served as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration along with Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, former president of the USCCB, urged the Trump administration to reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The program, which started in 2012 during the Obama administration, allowed for certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to apply for a delay of deportation, where they could also receive a work authorization, despite a recent decision by the Supreme Court.
“Many [dreamers] were brought to this country as infants and young children, and they have grown up in our schools and parishes and now are making important contributions in the Church and in almost every area of American life,” the bishops said in a joint statement.
Dorsonville was active in calling on the Biden administration to continue prioritizing immigration reform, both on the executive level and through bipartisan congressional legislation.
On Oct. 8, 2021, the Biden administration increased the refugee cap for fiscal year 2022 to 125,000, the highest the figure has been since 1993.
“Whether fleeing war, natural disaster, or persecution, the positive contributions of refugees to our society have been well documented,” Dorsonville said at the time. “First and foremost, however, we recognize them as vulnerable members of the same human family to which we ourselves belong.”
Matthew Santucci is a CNA Rome correspondent based in EWTN’s Vatican bureau. He grew up in Connecticut and has been living in Rome since 2020. He has a B.A. in History from Fordham and an M.A. in International Relations from Luiss Guido Carli.
