Illegal Aliens

For reference:

2241 The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.

Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.

Okay.

Father Z has in a post today a Catholic World News article on Cardinal Mahoney's criticism of the Arizona bill that would require state and local law enforcement to check immigration status. I have my own thoughts on Cardinal Mahoney's stance, but regardless of one's thoughts, the article is more about His Eminence's comparison of the bill to Nazism and communism and the reaction to such a comparison.

I only glanced through the article and Father Z's personal comments. He was evenhanded in his dissection of the article. What was more interesting were the comments after the post. As of this writing, there are seventy of them, so I'm not going to attempt to sum up the different threads of argument beyond the fact that they largely focus around the interpretation of the quoted paragraph above from the Catechism. What are the rights of illegal aliens and what are the rights of citizens of the receiving country in light of the Catechism?

Immigration in Rhode Island

The bishop of Providence, Thomas J. Tobin and various members of the clergy of that diocese, have released a statement that urges "Stephen Farquharson, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), Boston Regional Office, to declare a moratorium on immigration raids in Rhode Island. The clergy also encouraged ICE to allow agents to excuse themselves from participating in raids if such actions are not in conformity with their faith and conscience."

It then goes on to say, "The bishop and pastors met at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Providence on Tuesday afternoon to: assess the current situation with the immigrants in various communities throughout the diocese; determine their needs; and discuss possible diocesan assistance."

Along with the statement are excerpts for the letters sent by His Excellency and the pastors to Mr. Farquharson which you may go and read yourself.

Of note is this quote from the letter in the release: “We the undersigned…urge you to declare a moratorium on immigration raids in the State of Rhode Island, until our nation can implement a comprehensive and just reform of our immigration laws,” wrote Bishop Tobin and Catholic priests. “It is our hope that such reform will make immigration raids obsolete. Until then, we believe that raids on the immigrant community are unjust, unnecessary, and counter-productive.”

Notice the lack of distinction between legal and illegal immigration except insofar as the bishop hopes that 'reform' will eventually render the raids unneeded. Very subtle.

Yawn

"Unfortunately, among them there are immigrants in an irregular situation, who, however, independently of their legal status, have inalienable human dignity. Therefore their rights must be safeguarded and not ignored or violated. An irregular migration status, in fact, does not mean criminality. The solution is better international cooperation that discourages irregularity, with increased legal channels for migration."

-Archbishop Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, during the Global Forum on Migration and Development, held in Brussels, Belgium from July 9 to 11 [bolding mine]

Right, so if I live in Country A and I want to enter Country B and Country B has certain laws regarding immigration and I choose to circumvent those laws when I enter Country B, I am not breaking the law, I am simply irregularly entering Country B...

And when I commit a sin, I don't need to go to confession because I didn't actually commit a sin, I committed an irregularity...

The Vatican speaks out... where exactly?

Vatican official expresses concern about proposed US immigration reform

Mexico City, Mar. 28, 2006 (CNA) - The chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, Msgr. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, said this week that the Holy See is concerned about legislation on immigration reform currently before the US Senate which includes proposals to build a wall on the US/Mexican border and to make it a crime to help illegal aliens.

Really?

He said he did not intend his comments to be “a statement against a law,” but emphasized that “man has the right to immigrate and communities and nations have the right to receive those who immigrate and the right to establish certain norms.”

Msgr. Sanchez added warned against allowing immigration to “become clandestine” because that would mean a further trampling of human rights.

They're his comments, okay...

That last part about not allowing immigration to become clandestine... Since the Monsignor makes no distinction between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration in his comment, I can only theorize as to what he is referring to here. Because as it stands, human trafficking is ALREADY clandestine because ILLEGAL immigrants are doing something ILLEGAL, so they do it out of sight of law enforcement.

IT'S SEDITION!!!

The debate continues to rage over Cardinal Mahony's instructions to his priests to ignore future immigration laws while cloaking his justification in biblical verse. He is not the first to do so. Cardinal McCarrick the archbishop of Washington, DC, has also made a similar claim about current immigration laws. It is this author's opinion that such exhortations are prima facie evidence of preaching and practicing sedition. It is further suggested that the rampant, willful continuance of unlawfully 'aiding and abetting' illegal aliens by the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities and others, is ALSO a form of sedition.

Read the complete article Catholic Church & Charities ~ Preach & Practice Sedition from American Chronicle.

Despite the tenor of the article, it's rather quite informative in its look at the definition of sedition and how Archbishop Mahony's comments and efforts pretty much fit the bill. The quote of Romans 13 in bright red text is also quite powerful when taken in the context of what author Daneen G. Peterson, Ph.D. is arguing. Ms. Peterson also examines how the Church's non-profit status could be in jeopardy.

Included in my parish bulletin yesterday that I picked up as Mass was an insert entitled 'MYTHS ABOUT IMMIGRATION'. Made up of various sections, each one starts out with a myth and then an answer to that myth. It represents what I think is a disconnect between what the Catholic Church is telling the public it supports and what it actually supports.

For example from the insert:

MOST IMMIGRANTS CROSS THE BORDER ILLEGALLY
Around 75% of today's immigrants have legal permanent (immigrant) visas; of the 25% that are undocumented, 40% overstayed temporary (non-immigrant) visas.

On the one hand, as this insert with its facts and figures pointed out, most immigrants in this country are legal, law-abiding people who are integrating, working hard and basically living the American Dream. With the facts and figures about these legal immigrants, the Church seems to want to tell us that all is well.

The disconnect comes when one looks at what Cardinals Mahony and McCarrick are suggesting when it comes to disobeying the law. They want Catholics to be convinced by information on legal immigration to support their efforts to subvert US efforts at dealing with illegal immigration.

Is that supposed to make sense?

The church-state line

The First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Keep the above in mind as this goes on.

By Don Collins
Friday, February 10, 2006

WASHINGTON

Writing in the online magazine American Chronicle ("Above the law," Jan. 27), Barbara Anderson points out the strong influence the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has had on immigration policy.

It has caused Catholic pulpits nationwide to urge open borders for legal and illegal aliens alike, she notes. "The Catholic Campaign for Human Development uses money from generous Catholics to train illegals to lobby and agitate for 'rights' for illegals," says Anderson.

This is far from new business for this powerful Vatican-directed agency. Despite the new pope's encyclical disclaimer about trying to influence public policy, Rome and these bishops have been hard at work trying to shape U.S. public policy for decades. And, to a large degree, they have succeeded. Let me illustrate.
[...]

Those who occupy chairs in the citadels of religiosity are naturally covetous of the "true faith" they embrace -- not because it represents the truth but because it represents temporal power of the most useful kind. That, for example, the world's richest institution, the combined resources and property of the Catholic Church, exposes the obvious basis for its biases on contraception, abortion and male-only priests as a means of flock control -- particularly over women but also in a much broader sense over the American body politic.

The one question that was not raised at the Alito hearings was whether he felt that the activities of his church were legal under current statutes.
[...]

The column goes on to describe the supposedly huge political machine of the USCCB that has infiltrated all levels of government in an effort to end abortion. Only in the last paragraph does the author get back to the immigration question.

Samuel Alito has been confirmed and installed, and this behind-the-scenes plan should get much of the credit. And if the bishops have their way, real immigration reform as proposed in House Resolution 4437 will not occur. The most recent example of its efforts can be found in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on migration (www.usccb.org/mrs/stranger.shtml). The pastoral plan can be read in its original text at www.population-security.org/16-CH8.html.

Read the complete article Catholic bishops cross church-state line from Pittsburgh Live.

First of all, I should just state that I never realized the Catholic Church had so insidiously infiltrated the federal, state and local governments in such a thorough way! Second, I am not as liberal-minded when it comes to immigration as the bishops of the USCCB.

My purpose though is not to debate these policy points, but rather to reflect on the underlying theme of the column, namely that the line between church and state is a bright one. Scrolling up and looking at the First Amendment and specifically the bolded part directly referring to religion, the framers' intent is really quite clear. Congress is prohibited from establishing a 'Church of the United States' and Congress cannot prohibit the free exercise of one's religion.

Life and public policy making would be a lot easier for one and all if it were that simple.

Papabili: Rodriguez Maradiaga

Oscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, who is considered to be a papabile, visited Houston, Texas yesterday and spoke at the local Catholic university. Speaking first in English at a morning session and then in Spanish in the afternoon/evening session, Cardinal Rodriguez called for mercy for immigrants.

[...]
In his talk at the Catholic university, held in the morning in English and in the evening in Spanish, he told the crowds that wealthy nations have "a greater obligation to adapt to migratory flows" and that all countries must provide opportunities for their citizens so they do not have to leave their homes to earn a living.

"Although the sovereign right of the states to monitor their borders is recognized, this cannot be done at the expense of the human rights of migrant individuals, regardless of their legal status," he said. "All legislation must take into consideration the value of human rights in an increasingly violent world where war and terror, sometimes tragically carried forth from the very structures of the state itself, fight for the throne of suffering."

Rodríguez, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, was one of the papal advisers who helped the late Pope John Paul II draft major statements on immigration. In April, he was one of 115 cardinals from around the world who participated in the election of Pope Benedict XVI and was considered a possible candidate to become pope himself.

Some watching the papal election had hoped the cardinals would choose a Latino pope. Rodríguez said that they would — someday.

"For us we have our own calendars, but the Holy Spirit has a different one, and so, who knows?" he said. "But I am sure the day will come."

But the Latino pope would not be him, he said.
[...]

Read the complete article Cardinal urges mercy for immigrants from HoustonChronicle.com.

In the quote cited above, the cardinal says that national soveriegnty is respected, but that 'wealthy' states must adapt... When Rodriguez stated that he didn't think he'd be the first Latino pope, I would tend to agree.