The bishops, in their role as teachers have a duty to lay out our responsibilities as christians and to call us to accountability when we fall short. As I see, if we refuse to do what we can to help those who need our help, especially the poor and displaced, then there are really only two possible positions here. Either you have read the bible and believe that Jesus and the prophets of the old testament were just being disingenuous or deceitful when they spoke of our duty to the poor and to immigrants, or we can admit that we know what we should be doing and just choose to selfishly ignore it. No amount of "rationalization" can change this.
Happily, Mr Bannon provoked the bishops to come out and say something they should have been shouting from the cathedral door all along.