As the Islamic persecution of Christians in general and Catholics in particular intensifies around the world,1 the Archbishop of Santa Fe, Most Reverend John C. Wester, comes out in defense of a controversial Islamic project.

Local journalist Jason McNabb writes:

“A proposed Islamic mosque and school in Albuquerque’s North Valley has sparked controversy, with neighbors raising concerns about traffic and the building’s size, while others express their personal beliefs and opinions about Muslims."

After this reaction, Archbishop Wester issued a Statement Supporting Our Muslim Neighbors’ Right to Worship. Among other things, he affirms:

“[O]ur Muslim neighbors have the same God-given and constitutionally protected right to worship freely as every other faith community, including our own God-given and constitutionally protected right to worship freely as every other faith community, including our own. Defending that right is not only a civic duty but a core element of Catholic teaching.”
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Strangely, the communiqué makes no reference to the persecution of Christians in Islamic countries or in countries like Nigeria, where Muslim terrorists kidnap and kill Catholics.
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How can one think God doesn’t care if Islam and Judaism deny the Holy Trinity, that Protestantism and the Eastern schismatics deny the authority of the Papacy, that Buddhism does not have the concept of a personal God? That would be absurd. God cannot will something that contradicts His wisdom, the eternal and unchanging truth that He has revealed. God cannot contradict himself. A contradictory God would not be God and therefore could not exist.
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It is symptomatic that this same Archbishop, who is sympathetic to Islam, also sympathizes with the homosexual and transgender movement. On June 2, 2026, Archbishop Wester wrote an article in the Jesuit magazine, America, about a meeting he participated in, organized by New Ways Ministry, a pro-homosexual dissident “Catholic” organization.