Posted on 12/17/2008 5:01:07 AM PST by HollyButler
NEW ULM - The Minnesota Catholic bishops are asking Catholics throughout the State of Minnesota to renew their commitment in welcoming newcomers.
It has been about two years since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid of the Swift and Co. meatpacking plant located in Worthington, Minn.
"Anti-immigrant sentiment continues to divide communities throughout Minnesota and raids continue to separate and uproot families," said Kevin Appleby, Director of Migration and Refugee Policy, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"With the raid that day the community (of Worthington) entered into a fearful state," said Sister Karen Thein SSND, Hispanic Ministry Coordinator, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Worthington. "Family members were calling by 5 p.m. that night wondering where their loved ones were. Children who had been in school were not able to see their parents. And by 8 p.m. that night the Latino community was silent ... locked in their homes and it was a very sad day."
The Minnesota Catholic bishops have recently released a statement that calls for comprehensive immigration reform and ways to reduce global poverty.
"At the same time, there are new opportunities to address the immigration issue in Washington ... with a new administration and a new congress," said Appleby.
On Jan. 4 the Minnesota Catholic bishops will launch a statewide "Immigration Sunday." The focus will be to educate Catholics on church teachings on immigration and the realities that immigrants are dealing with now in Minnesota.
"We do recognize that our government has the right to enforce its laws," said Bishop Bernard J. Harrington, Diocese of Winona, "But is also important to reflect upon the human tragedies and the sufferings ... especially to families and the children in many cases who are American citizens to such parents.
(Excerpt) Read more at nujournal.com ...
So, breaking the immigration laws is official catholic policy???
The enemy within the catholic church.This is one of the reasons I left the church.
Yes, please welcome those somali muslims — because they assimilate so well. /sarc
Spare me. Reflect on the difference between legal immigration, which everyone advocates, and illegal immigration. Reflect on how the Church caused some of those tragedies and sufferings in Latin America over the centuries with its policies. And reflect on them quietly so I don't have to listen to this sanctimonious nonsense.
Just in MN. I think our Cardinal Miada is sending all of ours here in Detroit to MN. It's cheaper than keeping them.
Unfortunately, yes Chadwimc. This will be a slow, painful, thing to change. We have many bishops who are on the wrong side of this issue.
As an American Catholic of Polish decsent ( I am second generation here- my grandparents came through ellis island as infants) the Church in America has confused illegal immigration with human rights. While we must tirelessly help our fellow man, we are a nation of laws, which for our God Given sovereignty to be protected, must be enforced.
That does not mean we should trample the dignity of those who are desperate for opportunity, it merely means the Church should be working on helping bring that dignity to them in their own country and helping them to LEGALLY come here instead of holding dishonestly titled “immigration” days.
>>It also important to reflect upon if the Catholic Church practiced birth control a lot of this poverty would not be here nor would sexually transmitted diseases,even be global problem. <<
Blaming all this on the Catholic Church is so out of the liberal playbook.
Cross your legs and take that literature that the church passes out on NFP and personal responsibility overcomes liberal speak.
The Catholic Church is helping illegals break the immigration laws of this Nation.
This disillusioned Catholic wants no part of it.
sw
Perhaps the Catholic Church should pay real estate tax on all of their church buildings in the U.S. to help pay the price for illegal immigration.....medical costs, jail costs, welfare, education, etc., etc.
These bishops should put their money where their mouth is.
Their Marxist “social justice” slip is showing.
Is it any surprise that 47% of regular Mass attendees voted for Obama? I don't think so.
If the Bishops worship at the altar of Marxist Social Justice is it surprising so many Catholic would mistake Obama for a god and vote for him?
I attended 10 years of Catholic elementary and high school, and am a graduate of the CINO Villanova University. I testify the Catholic children are being thoroughly marinated in the Marxist philosophy of “social justice”. The Obama election is the fruit of that womb.
There is a strong movement growing of conservative and traditional Catholics, I hope they fill the whole earth. Hopefully, their sons will take control of the Church, but it will be at least another generation before the Catholic Church sees serious reform.
By the way, if you worship Christ instead of Marx DO NOT send your precious child to Villanova University!!! And...be very careful of your local Catholic school as well.
The enemy within the catholic church.This is one of the reasons I left the church.
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Same here.
Of course we must welcome newcomers always, even if they are illegal immigrants. However, we must also obey the law as did Jesus in Matthew 17:24-27. Although the Lord was exempt, he paid the tax anyway in order to avoid scandal. It looks like the bishops are not avoiding scandal.
The problem that I have today with amnesty is because we did it in 1988 with the promise that the borders would be closed, and illegal immigration would be stopped once and for all. That entailed 2 million illegal immigrants. The government lied to the people then about borders, language, and culture. Today we have the same problem only multiplied twenty fold. Are laws just guidelines; is our Constitution just a guideline to be selectively applied to the enemies of the people currently in power? Where are our church leaders leading us?
It also important to reflect upon if the Catholic Church practiced birth control a lot of this poverty would not be here nor would sexually transmitted diseases,even be global problem.
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It is the American Catholics who have the large families who not only will save the Church but together with the Evangelicals, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews and their large families, who will save this nation and the world’s freedom.
Sadly yes. During the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s the Jesuits and Maryknolls started the "sanctuary movement" which brought draft evaders, communist sympathizers and their families to the US and provided them sanctuary in Catholic churches while perusing legal residence for them.
After six Jesuits were killed by death squads in El Salvador the FMLN negotiated what amounted to a surrender in return for amnesty with the El Salvadoran government. (It was almost as if their entire political leadership had been wiped out leaving the movement with no direction.) Despite this peace agreement the El Salvadoran refugees brought to the US by the good sisters and the Jebs (many of whom became members of a social organization called MS13) were not required to return to El Salvador. Unfortunately The Church has been in the illegal immigration business ever since.
Where are our church leaders leading us?
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Down the road to a Marxist hell.
It will be the traditional Christ worshiping Catholic who will not only save the Church but the nation as well.
It depends on who the church leaders are. I'm convinced that the cancer is confined to a few orders and many of the bishops and priests in certain western countries, including this one.
I think it is for instance time for the Pope to shut down the Society of Jesus again. It worked wonders in 1773.
Pope Benedict gives me hope but the big question in my mind is; who controls the seminaries? If the Marxists control them then they control the training of the priests and The Church is in very serious trouble.
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If I am not mistaken the so-called Marxist “Liberation Theology” of Present-Elect mr. creepy and his church originated in latin American countries by a certain church -
I am not well versed in this but I here relate what I have read on FR and elsewhere - feel free to correct or edit my above comment -
If these illegal actions by a self-appointed quasi-government cult are not proof illegally acting in clear violations of federal laws and the United States Constitution I have no idea what could be -
Bailing out the treasury and finances of a property-wealthy religious group by unlawfully importing illegal aliens from South of the Border is a twisted and perverted scam that is a mixture of Karl Marx and enlightened self-interest by a criminal clergy intent on destroying our borders and the United States of America -
Sadly I believe the Bush daughters are in agreement with these criminal activities as are the rest of their families -
It would take complete revocation of all tax exempt status and retroactive property taxes at state and city levels to cure this - but nobody in government has the guts to follow through on this -
A church is not supposed to be a profit making business or landlord or a criminal enterprise or the political enemy of honest American citizens -
Immigration or ILLEGAL immigration?
There is a difference. To try to guilt people into accepting ILLEGAL immigration is a sin. Got some priests and Bishops who need a short trip to Rome and the confessional booth. This is liberal liberation theology creeping into US Catholicism. It’s already been dismissed by Rome as unChristian and unCatholic Tradition.
Wow!
The scales have fallen from my eyes. I never looked at it this way.
Can I spell t*r*a*i*t*o*r? Yes, I can.
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