The legislators left their state last week to disrupt GOP attempts to redraw U.S. House district maps, but Catholics for Catholics President said that it’s just political grandstanding.
By Catholics for Catholics
Three Texas lawmakers who left their home state to allegedly take refuge in Illinois, attended a Sunday Mass at a Catholic church, where they spoke about their quandary.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the trio of legislators left their state last week to disrupt GOP attempts to redraw U.S. House district maps.
As she walked up to the pulpit, Texas Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins began to cry. “We ran right into the fight,” Gervin-Hawkins said to the parishioners of St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham “We’re fighting against this racist gerrymandering.”
🚨Just In— Texas House approves arrest warrants for House Democrats who fled to Chicago to block the GOP’s redistricting plan. pic.twitter.com/OQZW6QNumM
— Rochellemaryn 🌹🕊️ (@RochelleAz) August 4, 2025
Gervin-Hawkins was joined by fellow Reps. Ron Reynolds and Charlene Ward Johnson at the service, along with U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill.
But Catholics for Catholics President, John C. Yep took issue with Gervin-Hawkins comments and her two Texas lawmaker colleagues.
“No one is buying the grandstanding of these Democrat lawmakers who have “fled the state” out of fear of reprisals and gone to the liberal bastion of Chicago. On the contrary, these democrats have fled the scene of a crime that they have committed,” Yep said. “That crime was standing by and allowing the open borders which flooded the country with immigrants during Biden’s administration. This has brought a tremendous destruction. This has been a grave injustice to the citizens of this country.”
By permitting the entrance of countless illegal immigrants during Biden’s open borders, the Democrats were able to nab many seats in the House, Yep said. He added that many of the people that the Texas Democrats represent are not in the state legally.
“This effort by the GOP is actually an act of justice for the people of this country,” Yep said.
At St. Sabina, pastor Michael Pfleger said that while the proposed map changes can look like something that is just a problem in Texas, Illinois must fight to protect the lawmakers who have sought protection in the state.
“Texas House Democrats are demonstrating what it means to fight for the preservation of our constitutional republic,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said of Democratic members who fled the state over a GOP redistricting plan. https://t.co/Y3ewRYJzvg pic.twitter.com/ojFLnRNIb9
— ABC News (@ABC) August 5, 2025
“There is a madman in the governor’s office in Texas,” Pfleger said, according to The Tribune. “When so many are being silent, your witness is a civic lesson.”
Yep begged to differ. “As the president of a Catholic organization, I am in shock that this Catholic priest [Pfleger] who has a long track record of going against core fundamental Catholic teachings has allowed these Democrats to stand in the Holy Altar of Mother Church,” Yep said. “These are the same Democrat lawmakers who are in favor of abortion and the destruction of life. The fact that this priest allowed them there has defiled the sanctuary of God.”
“Lastly, to his Eminence, Cardinal Cupich, who oversees this priest, we the Catholic people are once again scandalized by your inaction of allowing this priest to continue, as he herds the sheep that he has been ordained by God to protect,” Yep said.
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