Cardinal O'Malley calls for immigration reform at Catholic prayer breakfast

National Catholic Reporter ^ | 5/13/14 | Mark Pattison

[BlatherNaut]

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, the keynote speaker at the 10th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, issued a call for immigration reform. O'Malley recalled his early years of ordained ministry as a Capuchin Franciscan priest at the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, not far from the hotel where the breakfast was held.

The work there "was an uplifting experience in my life," he recalled in remarks made Tuesday at the breakfast. "Most of my parishioners were undocumented workers, refugees from the wars in Central America," he said. "We received thousands of immigrants from all over Latin America" during that era, he added.

"They were not evil invaders but people seeking to feed and clothe their families in safety, much like the immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany and Poland."

O'Malley said a just solution for those immigrants would be similar to that for Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Les Miserables: "Not to punish them but to initiate new and more just laws to replace a system that is broken and woefully inadequate."

[Salvation]

Both were discriminated against by other settlers. Read the early history of the Catholic Church in America.

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[Arthur McGowan]

I wouldn’t be surprised.

[Arthur McGowan]

When I said “no matter their origin,” I was referring to nationality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if committed Protestant hispanics were more pro-life than Catholic hispanics. The Catholic bishops in the U.S. have been mostly anti-pro-life for fifty years, and the most influential bishops, like Cardinal Bernardin, have been pro-abortion.

[Iscool]

Haven’t you ever heard of the discrimination against immigrants? Especially for the Italian and Irish?

So you are for amnesty for the illegal Mexicans then...

[RobbyS]

Be that as it may, the real issue is whether reforms would hold to account the businessmen who want cheap labor. It was they who discredited Reagan’s amnesty. Make them obey the law and pay what the market will bear, and the immigrants will not come. Let them stay at home and reform the governments who refuse to give them the benefits they deserve,