Catholics more anti-illegals than their bishops

The Washington Times ^ | 4/18/2006 | Julia Duin

[wiley]

"Were they "party hacks" when they were refusing to grant pro-choice politicians Holy Communion?"

Those are a different set of bishops. The bishops of Lincoln, Denver, and St. Louis in particular. The one's vocal on this issue of immigration were notoriously silent on the issue of abortion during the election.

"Which is why I make the argument that the "common good" would mandate legalizing those already here."

If that action encourages lawlessness and anarchy, the argument against it is just as strong. Prudential judgment can come to such a conclusion and that is why this is not a theological issue, but a political one.

"Never? We have, in the past, shut down all immigration - and several on these threads want to do that again."

I've only heard that they want to shut down illegal immigration, by its nature a violation of the law, and immoral on its face. The immoral nature of the act can under the natural law be nullified by urgent human need, but the possibility of criminals and terrorists entering the same way is sufficient to warrant safeguards even in such cases. The evil inflicted on those who are justified in entering illegally is a secondary effect. The primary effect of the legislation is to keep out the persons intent on doing harm.

"If said laws would have authorized the arrest of Priests for simply saying Mass and offering Holy Communion to illegal aliens, I fail to see how opposition to that is fostered more by politics than religion."

My reading of the pending legislation gives no indication that such a ludicrous objective is even being postulated. It's a red herring.

"I completely agree that Priests will go to jail over their "violations" on Man's law on this point - not sure you want that PR crisis on your watch though ; )"

The problem is that they are violating a just law and nothing they have offered to date indicates otherwise. Nothing in the pending legislation can be infallibly called 'unjust' under the natural law. Nor is there any Church legislation that would argue otherwise, since the Church can not pass legislation that dis-establishes any natural law precept.