Posted on 06/30/2007 8:27:21 AM PDT by hardback
WASHINGTON, June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. bishops decried failure of immigration reform and its implicit exploitation of millions of people.
The position was voiced by Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, California, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration.
"As a nation, we cannot continue to employ an immigration system that leads to the exploitation of millions of our fellow human beings," bishop Barnes said.
"We cannot accept the toil of a large underclass which does not have full rights in our society. This strikes at the very character of our nation and lessens us as a people."
Bishop Barnes called on "Congress not to abandon this issue and to return to it as soon as possible." "The status quo is morally unacceptable and should not be allowed to stand," he said. "The U.S. bishops shall continue to point out the moral deficiencies in the immigration system and work toward justice until it is achieved."
The June 29 statement follows. On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), I am deeply troubled that fair and comprehensive immigration reform legislation has failed to move forward in the U.S. Senate.
I applaud those U.S. Senators of both parties who showed courage in working for comprehensive reform legislation and encourage them to continue their efforts to fix our broken immigration system.
As a nation, we cannot continue to employ an immigration system that leads to the exploitation of millions of our fellow human beings. We cannot accept the toil of a large underclass which does not have full rights in our society. This strikes at the very character of our nation and lessens us as a people.
I urge our elected officials in Congress not to abandon this issue and to return to it as soon as possible. The status quo is morally unacceptable and should not be allowed to stand. The U.S. bishops shall continue to point out the moral deficiencies in the immigration system and work toward justice until it is achieved.
SOURCE U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
It's a reference to past. Indulgences, and all that.
The Catholic Church in Mexico is very much in that past, unlike the CC in Europe and the U.S. now. The CC in Mexico is still tied into the oligarchy in ways that would be totally unacceptable to us.
I agree.
Send the illegals home and NEVER allow them or anyone from their extended families to ever become a citizen of the United States.
Send them home now.
Illegals risk their lives to be exploited - it degrades them and it degrades us. Say NO to slavery lite. Say NO to second class citizens.
Illegals need to go home and reform their own country.
If the Catholic church wants to do something good, they can send the oh-so-concerned priests to Mexico with the illegals. There they can minister to the poor rather than to the guilt ridden.
In Mexico they can help create a just society.
If the Catholic Church wants to stay here and push these people to break the law, stop donations to them...
And the "bishops"" Are these the same bishops that protected pedophiles? Now they want to protect illegals. Stop the money flow.
It's hard to admire the Catholic Church when many of its representatives are preaching the destruction of America.
Back in the '80s, when I was in the USMC, one of our sergeants was a subscriber to "MaryKnoll". MaryKnoll was a liberal, but very CATHOLIC, magazine.
They hated Reagan and hated the military.
"Members of the Church who are in the military must examine their lives closely, to determine if they are in keeping with the teachings of Christ."
Or some such rot. I can't quote it word-for-word, but they definately were spreading mutiny amongst their "faithful".
Before anyone accuses me of anti-catholic bigotry I must say that most of my family IS catholic. I just happen to be a FReethinker with a long memory.
Catholics need to take back their Church from those who encourage law breakers. Maybe the Church hasn't rooted out the pedophiles yet... There's still too much evil in that Church. You know the tree by it's fruit.
Send illegal alien to Cardinal Roger Mahony’s Cathedral in L.A.!
Ask Cardinal Mahony to post his social security Number along with all the Bishops on the internet so that Illegal aliens can steal the idendification and get jobs!
Why do the Priests have a double standard? The Vatican has the right to protect itself, but not the US?
Let these priests collect money and send the illegals to the Vatican. I'm sure the Vatican would welcome 20 million of these people... NOT.
“Send illegal alien to Cardinal Roger Mahony’s Cathedral in L.A.!
Ask Cardinal Mahony to post his social security Number along with all the Bishops on the internet so that Illegal aliens can steal the idendification and get jobs!”
Sounds like a plan!
;)
As an American who was baptized and raised in the Catholic faith, I just want to wince every time I hear things like this. For the record, I had to put up with Roger, Cardinal Mahoney and his big mouth. Thanks to what I consider severe liturgical abuse in my former parish (in San Bernardino County, no less), I quit going.
I’ve started attending non denominational women’s Bible study, thanks to an invitation from my neighbor. So far, so good :)
When I attended Mass regularly, I went to the Spanish Mass. I am not fluent in Spanish, therefore I didn’t have to put up with nonsense that I could understand.
The last Mass I attended was in English. Funeral Masses don’t count.
LOL!!! Good point!
My contention, is that once they have them in this country with their families permanently they hopefully can then induce them to become good tithing church goers but...the most likely motive is that they see them as a political force that can be manipulated to further their leftist ideology. This is more important to their scheme than their tithe. Control the politics and the money will come
I live in a very Catholic area of the country and their approach has been to get government funds to carry out their benevolence and enhance their influence. Many programs the Archbishop is lauded for are paid for by the taxpayer when the source of funds are disclosed. Good politicians just wanting to impress their priests and influence votes. A dangerous circle.
No, I think you are a little bit of a bigot. Do not confuse a handful of left wing bishops and wayward priests (who are quite representative of their Democrat family upbringing) with the bulk of the church clergy and hierarchy.
Two of the most disproportionately representative groups serving in the US military are the Catholics and the Mormons, yet they are the groups most criticized by others as being “less than good Americans”.
Would that other religions have as many of their flocks in the military - our shortfalls would disappear overnight.
In all seriousness, do you think the people pay much attention to that? The ones who already agree derive some moral support, but those of us who called our last Bishop “Walter the Pink” didn’t really pay much attention to him.
As you will, the quote from MaryKnoll really did happen. They were preaching sedition and mutiny.
One think that is hard even for US Catholics to get is that the US is an amazingly charitable country. We support our various institutions of worship pretty well, and accomplish pretty astonishing acts of giving. In Germany they still levy a tax to support churches, which blows my mind. It would be interesting to know in how many places the carious churches are supported by voluntary giving.
The RC Church in the US still hasn't shaken off the financial paranoia of being a po' folks immigrant church. But more and more they are discovering, and I see it in this diocese, that if they don't hector and nag they get plenty of loot to pay for the clergy and schools and hospitals and outreach. Sure the places with big settlements for sexual abuse are hurting. I personally think that when the financial dust settles it will be the best thing that ever happened to them.
The MaryKnoll guys and gals really are commies. But they are NOT representative, and certainly not of the rank and file.
However, truth be told, I bet there are at least some bishops still who are all over the MaryKnoll attitude.
BTW, I resent being called a 'bigot'. I surely did not start this name-calling.
If I were to call names, I would call 'foul craven', to oldfool.
Well, we can all agree on that. It's the solution that we disagree on. The Senate's idea of "comprehensive reform" was obviously not the solution the public had in mind.
There was certainly a lot of "I" in this PR release for something that is supposed to express the thinking of a group.
There is a reason I have slowly stopped going to Church but still try to live my life by the lessons I learded as a child in Catechism classes.
No, it’s just that many American Catholic Bishops are bleeding heart liberals.
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