Posted on 04/23/2006 9:21:44 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Protest marches. Lobbying for legislation. Alliances with pro-immigration groups. A Good Friday Mass in which an immigrant stood before a cross to symbolize Jesus. The Catholic Church has become a force for change, with the weight of millions of Catholics behind it, in the politically charged battle that is immigration reform.
Some see the position as one grounded in moral principles, in which the dignity of people is more important than their legal status.
Others question the propriety of a faith-based organization, whose main mission is evangelization and the spiritual welfare of its flock, planting itself so squarely in the camp of migrants, some here illegally. The roots of the Catholic Church's fight for immigrant rights, and other social justice causes, run deep.
Its position, leaders argue, is buttressed by international law --- its morality grounded in Gospel. That stance, on what has been called one of the most volatile issues of the day, is also inherently political.
In a letter printed in January 2003, Catholic bishops exhorted Americans and those within the church to welcome everyone --- including those here illegally --- with joy, charity, hope and hospitality.
The letter would become the founding document on which church leaders have based their current immigration reform campaign.
In May 2005, Catholic bishops unveiled the program, dubbed ‘‘Justice for Immigrants: A Journey of Hope.'' The campaign holds that immigrants should be seen not as the enemy, but as humans with dignity.
Less than a year later, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony told bishops to ignore a proposed reform bill, which he called inhumane, should it pass.
Proposed by Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner and passed in the House in December, HR 4437 called for building massive walls between the United States and Mexico. The bill also would make illegal immigrants felons and could make helping them a crime.
The million-member Diocese of San Bernardino, which encompasses San Bernardino and Riverside counties, declared January as the month of the immigrant. The diocese formed teams that are implementing the campaign in parishes.
Some within the church call the activism an inappropriate blend of politics and religion though faith-based organizations, including the Catholic Church, long have rallied behind causes of social justice.
History of justice
From the Revolutionary War to the labor movements of the reform era to civil rights, religious leaders have stood behind --- and sometimes led ---campaigns for equality with the belief that silence is a form of moral complicity.
Bill O'Neill, a priest and professor of Catholic social teaching at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, said there's a long-standing tradition of bringing the ethical beliefs of the Gospel into the public realm.
‘‘I think the demands of Christian love will always be political,'' said O'Neill, who has worked with refugees in Africa. ‘‘The question is having the wisdom to speak effectively.''
Church leaders argue they are following a higher law, one that sometimes is in conflict with man's law.
‘‘We have to be humble prophets, deeply committed to the heart of our own religious convictions but do so in a way that respects democracy and a . . . pluralist society,'' O'Neill said.
O'Neill points to Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to civil disobedience in his letter from Birmingham Jail. Addressing clergy who criticized his timing and who said a pastor shouldn't encourage people to break the law, King explained the difference between just and unjust laws.
‘‘A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God,'' King wrote.
‘‘There was a time when the church was very powerful . . . when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed,'' King said. ‘‘In those days, the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.''
There are differences between the civil-rights movement and the plight of immigrants, however. Blacks had no choice in coming to America and had been citizens for generations at the time of King's letter.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the UC Riverside, said immigrants desire to come to the United States. The reason they want to come here, however, is partly America's fault.
No one is pulling people across the border and taking them against their will, he said. ‘‘In some sense, immigrants are responsible for being here, but to some extent their choices are made in a context where employers (and) the U.S. government all engage in a policy of looking the other way to serve their own interests.''
Some Catholics are confused by the church's willingness to disregard a law it terms unjust.
If Catholics are morally obligated to care for the vulnerable, to what extent are immigrants morally bound to respect a country's laws, they ask.
‘‘To incite people to ignore the law that's being (proposed) to help the illegal immigrants -- that in my opinion is wrong,'' said Vincent Kilbride, who is a lifelong Catholic. ‘‘The teachings of the church say help the people that need help; nowhere in the Bible does it say illegal.''
Tax-exempt
Though church leaders argue that they're trying to help the most vulnerable in society, some, including parishioners, argue they're helping the most lawbreaking.
Kilbride, 81, said if the church wants to be so political, it should forgo its tax-exampt status. It bothers him that donations are being used to help those in the country illegally.
According to the tax code, it is legal for nonprofits, including churches, to engage in political activism under the Constitution and federal law and still remain tax-exempt.
They may not be involved in a political campaign on behalf of one candidate or become so involved in politics they lose sight of their charitable and religious missions, IRS officials said.
Some faith-based organizations have been scrutinized by the IRS for unlawful electioneering, most recently during the 2004 presidential election.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed several complaints against churches who endorsed candidates and took on the Catholic Church when bishops declared that parishioners who voted for John Kerry could not receive communion.
Last year, a church in Pasadena caught the eye of the IRS after rector emeritus George Regas of All Saints Church gave a politically charged sermon before the election.
Jeremy Leaming of Americans United said the organization is hesitant to criticize houses of worship for political activities. Only when violations appear flagrant do they step in.
Leaming quoted several recent public opinion polls that show a large majority of Americans don't want their houses of worship to become too political, whether on issues of abortion, gay rights or immigration.
‘‘The bishops are welcoming divisiveness and turmoil'' by supporting one side in the immigration debate, he said. ‘‘Many, many people go to their places of worship not to be lectured on the political topics of the day.''
Catholic doctrine
In the ‘‘Strangers No Longer'' pastoral letter from 2003, the egregious human rights violations committed by current law, including the separation of families, requires the faithful to speak up.
Professor John McGreevy, who teaches on the history of Catholicism in America at Notre Dame, said the church's long-standing ties to Latin America and its adherence to international law make its position on immigration understandable.
Covenants signed in 1948 after the Holocaust guarantee individuals basic human rights, regardless of domestic laws.
What moral weight these rights have is still a question.
Chilton Williamson Jr., author of ‘‘The Immigration Mystique: America's False Conscience,'' writes from the perspective of a longtime Catholic and self-styled neoconservative.
In an essay on St. Augustine's ‘‘City of God,'' Williamson says the 1,000-page tome, by one of the most influential fathers of the church, actually makes a case against globalization and unfettered immigration.
‘‘It was nothing less than a fifth-century precursor of the modern debate on maintaining distinct national identities and preserving the integrity of the Western world,'' Williamson wrote. ‘‘St. Augustine . . . held a view much closer to that of us present-day anti-globalist, anti-immigration reactionaries than the universalist dream that all too many Christians have been persuaded is integral to their faith.''
Augustine writes, ‘‘The earthly city will not be everlasting; for when it is condemned to the final punishment it will no longer be a city.''
Williamson says, ‘‘This seems a clear prediction that the destroyer of the present world will be neither fire nor ice but social chaos --- the end of national identity, Babel unbound.''
Such arguments find resonance in some Catholics, who ask whether the need to preserve and enhance a national identity outweighs a moral obligation to welcome immigrants, even if they're trying to escape poverty or feed their families.
Yet a population of 11 million people can't be ignored.
San Bernardino diocesan officials said the church has no official programs to help immigrants apply for citizenship, though developing them is part of the Justice for Immigrants campaign.
For now, immigrants are referred to Catholic Charities, a nonprofit organization with services for refugees and immigrants. My-Hanh Luu, director of the immigrant program, said about 1,300 people sought help at its office last year, up about 5 percent from the year before.
"That Church is only out to solve one problem: it isn't in absolute control of the world yet.
You're certainly in the running for the "Dumbest Post of the Day" with this one."
Wait and see. They've done it before.
The Catholic Church has never "controlled the world."
Did you read that in some anti-Catholic rag somewhere?
I suspect that is not a big source of conversation among Cardinals.. or that they even care.. They're(illegals) children might be more circumspect.. in that respect.. Asses in pews are the first step to any attrition..
Whether is its GOOD for the U.S. is trumped by is it good for the American Roman Catholic church.. I think.. in church leadership circles.. Roman Catholic Cardinals are RC first American second or somewhere further down the list.. AT least most no doubt are...
"The Catholic Church has never "controlled the world."'
The Jesuits have succeeded in revising history books enough to convince you.
In the Middle Ages, the Vatican threatened any ruler who was reluctant to do its bidding with "inderdict": that is, telling everybody at the only church allowed, on Sunday morning, "Don't obey your ruler. We'll fix things up with God for you"
The ruler would be out of a kingdom. Is that not control of the known world? (I realize China was "known') My point is, if they did that, and if they get the chance again (they have never renounced the condemnation of Christian beliefs pronounced at the Council of Trent) I don't doubt they will grab the reins, and God help anyone who doesn't obey the Pope!
Here's a good site:
http://www.christianwebsite.com/cgi-bin/search/jump.cgi?ID=96553
Roadtest, Your so naive. We are in control of the World!!! Don't you read those funny Chick publication comics that are left everywhere. The Jesuits control everything. I am member of Opus DEI. Oops I shouldn't have said that. Now I will have to kill you.
So deport American citizens and have them starving in the streets of Mexico?
I am sure that they will be able to get all the welfare payments they are "entitled" to, stealing more money from legal citizens. You seem to have no concept of personal responsibility. I didn't have my children expecting others to support them.
well, us Christians are on the horns of a dilemma on this to an extent. remember back when the Prolifers would peacefully block abortion clinic doors to save unborn babies ??
many agreed with that action despite its illegality, as it paralleled civil disobedience against slavery & nazi antisemitism. it expressed compassion & mercy to those who otherwise would receive none.
now we're faced with helping foreign adults, not unborn babies, into a better life. some may cite past civil disobedience as a justifying precedent for helping these illegal immigrants enter the country illegally.
i think there is a difference. babies are defenseless & helpless. most illegals are adults & responsible for themselves... far from helpless.
out of compassion for our American economy, citizen & economic success, may i suggest that US catholic charities show their compassion & wisdom by providing means for mexican nat'ls to immigrate legally while discouraging illegal behavior. unless they desire perception as collaborators to foreign invaders.
Yeah, that would be tough to do with illegals having 14 kids on the public dole and all.
Hey, it's all good.. you'll see 'em all in church.
Probelm with that is, the churches would be breaking the law:
One MUST be a Mexican citizen (IIRC, both parents must also be citizens.) to work as a priest or pastor in Mexico.
It is written into their constitution.
Oh, lest I forget, it is also constitutionally forbidden for noncitizens to speak publicly on ANY Mexican political issue.
Heaven forfend, however, that any of these ecclesiastical leaders spend any breath, let alone time or money, on THAT double standard.
"Roadtest, Your so naive. We are in control of the World!!! Don't you read those funny Chick publication comics that are left everywhere. The Jesuits control everything. I am member of Opus DEI. Oops I shouldn't have said that. Now I will have to kill you."
You may laugh now because this is your time. But time will run out.
"But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision." (Psalm 59:8)
Heathen: "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do" (Matthew 6:8) The Rosary is "vain repetition" and those who pray it are heathen.
Also, since you have read the truth in the Chick tracts, you are responsible for that knowledge. You won't be able to plead ignorance.
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