>>> It is very telling that you terminated your quote where you did leaving the impression that the Vatican was advocating illegal and unconditional immigration. The sentence you excepted continues:
“...with a view to safeguarding the needs and rights of individual migrants and their families, and at the same time, those of the host countries.”
So to even the “casual reader” you are either wrong or are advocating for lawless (illegal) immigration. <<<
Wrong about what? For the purpose of the argument I made in my last post, it is irrelevant whether or not the Vatican advocates illegal or legal immigration, or putting an end to all immigration, or whatever. The significant point is that it is advocating anything at all as a solution to the global “migration problem.” I didn’t quote the entirety of the sentence because I didn’t want to get sidetracked from the main thrust of my argument.
Whether you agree or disagree with the particular technical solution advocated by _CiV_, think it profound or trite, or believe it to be practical or utopian is irrelevant to the issue at hand: what is germaine is the fact that _CiV_ here is “inserting the Magisterium” into an international issue that is a political hot potato, and that it is doing so in a GLOBAL and GLOBALIST way in pursuit of a GLOBALIST end. Also, it’s obvious that this insertion arguably has a distant and tenuous relationship to our Lord’s command that we love our neighbor as ourself.
I don’t think that misrepresenting my postion or attempting to change the topic are means of honestly addressing the points I’ve raised about _CiV_.
Whether you recognize and accept it or not the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion members is a global institution. It is also the largest US faith. The Church has a duty to God and to mankind to be an instrument of Gods Word. The constitution prohibits governmental involvement in religion, but not religious involvement in government.
The "separation of Church and state" does not mean -- and it can never mean -- separating our Catholic faith from our public witness, our political choices and our political actions. That kind of separation would require Christians to deny who we are; to repudiate Jesus when he commands us to be "leaven in the world" and to "make disciples of all nations." That kind of radical separation steals the moral content of a society
All political leaders of draw their authority from God. We owe no leader any submission or cooperation in the pursuit of grave evil. In fact, we have the duty to change bad laws and resist grave evil in our public life, both by our words and our non-violent actions. The truest respect we can show to civil authority is the witness of our Catholic faith and our moral convictions, without excuses or apologies.
INDEED TO THE MAX.