Posted on 11/20/2014 2:30:39 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Often at odds with the Obama administration over religious liberty, abortion, and gay marriage, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has come out on the president’s side this month, pleased with his decision to act unilaterally on immigration, a move they’ve been encouraging for some time.
In a little-noted September letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, they chided Congress for its inaction.
“We write to urge you to use your authority to protect undocumented individuals and families as soon as possible, within the limits of your executive authority,” the letter began. “With immigration reform legislation stalled in Congress, our nation can no longer wait to end the suffering of family separation caused by our broken immigration system.”
The letter asked specifically for deferred action for immigrants with “strong community ties and equities in the United States and [who] have lived in the United States for ten years or longer,” those with approved family and employment petitions, parents of children who are U.S. citizens, and parents of DACA recipients. DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a 2012 administration memo authorizing “prosecutorial discretion” when dealing with those who illegally entered the country while under 18.
The letter was signed by Eusebio Elizando, Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle, Washington, and Kevin Vann, Bishop of Orange, California. Elizondo is also Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, while Vann is Chairman of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
“The Administration has the opportunity to provide this relief to families who have built equities in this country,” the letter concludes. “As Congress has been unable to pass immigration reform legislation, we urge you to exercise your authority—as conferred by, but also limited by, the federal Constitution and statutes—to protect these families from separation and exploitation. As pastors concerned with the physical and spiritual welfare of our people, we can no longer wait to end the human suffering caused by our current immigration system.”
“It would be derelict not to support administrative actions…which would provide immigrants and their families legal protection,” Elizando said last week. “We are not guided by the latest headlines but by the human tragedies that we see every day in our parishes and programs, where families are torn apart by enforcement actions especially.”
“It may be necessary for the president to step up and to act in a way that addresses the needs of families,” Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas told Catholic news site Crux. “The preference would be to have a bipartisan solution, and a comprehensive solution. But it seems as if for whatever reason there is a paralysis existing right now, and in the meantime, people are hurting, families are being separated.”
Sean O’Malley, Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Boston, famously held a mass at the U.S.-Mexican border in April of this year, distributing communion wafers through the fence to the faithful on the other side.
“We have lost a sense of responsibility to our brothers and sisters,” he said in his homily at the time. Afterward, in an interview with The Washington Post, he said that as a D.C. priest during the 70s and 80s, “most of my parishioners were undocumented refugees. To me, they’re not statistics; they’re people, and I’ve seen the kinds of sacrifices and the suffering they’ve endured.”
O’Malley drew criticism from some for the move, including Catholic commentator George Weigel, who said “It’s not clear to me how holding Mass in these circumstances can be anything other than politicized.”
USCCB support for executive action — and hope to influence it — goes back to June, when Obama first announced his intention to act unilaterally. Kevin Appleby, director of their Migration Policy and Public Affairs Office, has consistently pushed for a “progressive” solution, according to Aleteia, another Catholic news site.
“As pastors, bishops and priests are charged with ensuring that all Catholics and those of good will have the opportunity to know God and to be with him,” Appleby wrote in a 2013 op-ed. “It is also an obligation of all Catholics. Advocating for immigration reform is yet another way for the Catholic clergy, joined by the Catholic faithful, to fulfill that responsibility.”
Thank you Girlene.
Catholic Charities will suffer the same fate as Catholic schools and hospitals; Caesar doesn’t face competition, and will simply drive them out of business with taxpayer-subsidized programs controlled by the government instead of a quasi-independent competitor.
When I was an active Catholic, I dutifully gave to Catholic missions operating in Mexico, Central and South America. This on top of the billions in tax dollars given in foreign aid. These countries either pizzed the money away or crooked politicians siphoned it off for themselves. Now that these people have let their homelands turn into hellholes, they expect us to let them just waltz in and further drain our already overburdened resources.
It's time we say, no more. If the Catholic Church wants to take care of these “refugees,” let the Church take them in. I'm sure there's room for some at the Vatican. Maybe the Church can sell off some of its artwork and jewels to provide for these freeloaders.
Sorry. I and most of America are tapped out.
the Catholic churches in US will be as empty as the ones in Europe at this rate.
Why are you rephrasing it?
Why do you ask?
Yep immigration is largely Catholic immigration, even of the Mexican immigrants living in America about 70% of them are still Catholic.
No wonder they are throwing their support behind Obama. Where's all the Bishops' money going to come from if taxpayers no longer fund them?
I just ended up in a position where I’m dealing with bills and debts raising a family, and see no point in giving to an organization that is doing fine financially. This isn’t a rant about the wealth of the Vatican or anything like that; I’d simply rather pay my bills than give it to my parish which is doing fine. I have no savings to speak of, I’ll have college/higher education costs coming up, with nothing set aside for them; I live paycheck to paycheck, slowly paying down debt, driving old cars, and I trust God will understand.
Ever since I’ve had children and can’t afford the parish school, I’ve seen no reason to subsidize the Catholic education of others’ children in that school via the Sunday collection.
Somehow these pointy hats forget the lesson of St Paul who valued his Roman Citizenship and demanded to be tried as one. Never hear them complain about what happens to an American citizen if and when they enter for example Mexico illegally.
Immigration prevents that, it is why as American born Catholics have been leaving Catholicism, the Catholic percentage of the population has remained pretty much the same.
The Bishops have been wrong before and they are wrong now. I believe we should treat all immigrants humanely which does not preclude making sure proper immigration procedure is followed and deporting those who do not bother to follow them.
The bishops spreading socialism in direct opposition to Catholic Doctrine is to blame.
I kind of doubt that. I am sure many are non religious or members of the Evangelical and Pentacostal churches which are growing very strongly in Mexico and Central America. What you want find is many members of mainline Protestant churches.
Catholicism approves of lawlessness?
Who knew?
The minute the Bishops refuse to hand out contraceptives or abortion referrals to the immigrant womyn they risk having the money yanked. So I wonder when that shoe will drop.
Mexico is not part of Central America, and why do you keep going on about Central America anyway?
The immigration laws were rewritten in 1965 to import more Catholics from the Catholic nations south of our border and they do, tens of millions of them and their offspring.
Immigration is what keeps the Catholic percentage fairly stable and what is costing us the nation, with Texas in the sights of the democrats.
Mexico - North American:
The last census reported, by self-ascription, that 94.5% of the population is Christian. Roman Catholics are 89% of the total
Mexico is part of North America.
It seemed like an odd thing to do since it has nothing to do with anything in either case but makes more sense in the former rather than the latter formulation.
See posts #36 and #37 above from ansel12 and Graybeard58
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.