On immigration rights, gun control, and racial equality, Camden's bishop is a progressive voice for change

All eyes were on the bishop of Camden, though he was not there to preach, but to listen.

He sat at a roundtable at diocesan headquarters and asked more than a dozen young people gathered there to "tell us what you're going through … what's in your hearts."

Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan said he understood that these so-called Dreamers – illegally brought to the United States as children – were terrified of being deported from the only country they know as their home.

"They are just as American as I am," he said.

The moment was vintage Sullivan, a progressive prelate who has championed a variety of social and religious causes and embraced sometimes controversial views on important issues in the nation's public discourse.

This bishop, who since 2013 has led a diocese of about 475,000 parishioners in six South Jersey counties, is as down-to-earth as he is opinionated. The son of an Irish immigrant mother, he is outspoken about the country's anti-immigrant backlash. He has stood up for Dreamers, railed against racism, and taken up the cause of gun control, something he said was ever more pressing in an age of school shootings and the carnage in Parkland, Fla.

Last month, he met with students from local Catholic high schools and told them he was "not opposed" to their joining in the National School Walkout, organized by students pushing for laws to rein in gun violence. And when the day came, he joined students at Paul VI High School in Haddon Township during their 17-minute march around the school track to honor the 17 students and school staff who were killed in Parkland.

"We walked out in prayerful reflection," he said in a recent interview. "I was told there were about 1,000 kids and it was deafeningly quiet. … I had a hard time controlling my emotions."

The bishop does not shy away from engaging with his flock and does so in myriad ways. This month, his schedule took him to the Salem County jail to celebrate Mass with prisoners during Holy Week. A few weeks later, he joined nearly 1,000 people from across the diocese in saluting the work of seminarians and religious leaders at a daylong event at a park in Washington Township, Gloucester County.

"The bishop is a man of the people," said Patrick McGrory, the vice chairman of the diocese's finance council.  "… Everyone likes him, his personality, his style, and his leadership."

Sullivan, 73, has spoken out against violence, racial intolerance, and injustice and in support of human rights and immigration rights.

In December, he participated in a rally to protest the deportation of an undocumented immigrant couple who had lived in Bridgeton for 30 years before being deported to Mexico and forced to leave behind their three children, all born in this country.

Then in February, he met with a group of Dreamers and later joined the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in calling for bipartisan action to protect them from deportation and to provide a path to citizenship. President Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy last year, putting the Dreamers in danger of being deported. The courts stepped in, but the litigation and debate continue.

"It's cruel what is happening to these young people. … When I hear things like these kids are criminals, it feels like a stab in the heart," the bishop said.

Pedro Garcia, a Dreamer who attended the meeting with Sullivan, said last week that he was grateful the bishop took the time to hold the session. It brought comfort, he said, because it helped him realize that "there are people out there who care about us and our situation." The bishop, he said, "is a really good person" for trying to help.

Sullivan feels strongly about his own immigrant roots and his role as an "American Irish bishop."  He was raised in the Bronx, with three siblings in a predominantly Irish neighborhood. "We weren't poor, but we were struggling," he said.

His father was a cabdriver, and his mother was a waitress who was born in Ireland. She was one of 14 children and was sent to America, "in the hull of a boat," because her parents had difficulty caring for such a large family, he said.

The bishop still finds himself singing the Irish songs she taught him when traveling in his car, and he sometimes belts one out at a church event.

When he enrolled in Iona College, in New York, he said he had planned to become an English and literature teacher. But then, he said, "a voice kept saying, 'You should be a priest,' " and he transferred to seminary.

Mike Walsh, a diocesan spokesman, said the bishop's background as a priest has had a big influence on how he runs the diocese. "Unlike many bishops, he served as a church pastor for more than 20 years," Walsh said. "He is spry and likes to visit all the parishes and schools in the diocese and engage with parishioners."

As a young priest, Sullivan volunteered to go to Puerto Rico to learn Spanish and later went to a small village in the Dominican Republic to immerse himself in the language so he could minister to several Hispanic neighborhoods in New York. He started the first Spanish Mass in one New York parish. His fluency in Spanish has served him well in the Camden Diocese, too, and he still preaches in Spanish in some churches.

While still in New York, Sullivan learned a little Mandarin and Cantonese as well so he could converse with Chinese and Asian immigrants in the neighborhoods.

"I've ministered to a lot of immigrants," he said. "I got to know a lot of their desperate situations."

Sullivan was later elevated to vicar general for the Archdiocese of New York and served under Cardinals Edward Egan and Timothy Dolan.

Last month, the bishop returned to New York after being invited to deliver the sermon at St. Patrick's Cathedral on St. Patrick's Day. He spoke proudly of his Irish heritage and seized the opportunity to tell the roughly 3,000 people who filled the ornate hall that they should follow St. Patrick's example by welcoming immigrants and respecting their diverse cultures.

"I got my little digs in about the immigrants," Sullivan said during the interview, adding that the crowd included several dignitaries. Immigrants should be treated with respect, he said.

But he said anti-immigrant sentiment persists. After he hosted the meeting with the Dreamers in Camden, some parishioners wrote him letters suggesting that he should not get involved with such political issues. But he said he didn't view his actions as political.

"I'm being a pastor," he said. "… This is a human need and these people are being victimized."

World events also hold the bishop's interest, and he reads the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal daily. He also enjoys attending plays and movies, and recently saw Hamilton in New York.

While Sullivan has drawn praise for his advocacy on some issues, he has faced criticism on others.

When a transgender youth from Williamstown applied to Camden Catholic High School as a female in 2016 but later asked to be treated as a male, the application was rejected. The bishop supported the principal's decision to deny the student admission, saying the Catholic Church teaches that "God gives you gender."

"It's not about being accepted. It's about not being able to provide for what she or he needs," the bishop said. "How would that student feel sitting in religion class and hearing those teachings?"

An abortion foe, Sullivan participates in the annual Right to Life march in Washington each year.

He has served on various national councils and boards that tackled issues facing the Catholic Church, including one that examined sexual abuse by clergy.

"Terrible mistakes were made, and have been rectified," the bishop said. "It's a horrible page in church history, but the church has seized the moment and I would hope that other groups that serve children would do the same."