Posted on 04/21/2006 1:23:57 AM PDT by catholicfreeper
The question of immigrants
65. In its history, America has experienced many immigrations, as waves of men and women came to its various regions in the hope of a better future. The phenomenon continues even today, especially with many people and families from Latin American countries who have moved to the northern parts of the continent, to the point where in some cases they constitute a substantial part of the population. They often bring with them a cultural and religious heritage which is rich in Christian elements. The Church is well aware of the problems created by this situation and is committed to spare no effort in developing her own pastoral strategy among these immigrant people, in order to help them settle in their new land and to foster a welcoming attitude among the local population, in the belief that a mutual openness will bring enrichment to all.
Church communities will not fail to see in this phenomenon a specific call to live an evangelical fraternity and at the same time a summons to strengthen their own religious spirit with a view to a more penetrating evangelization. With this in mind, the Synod Fathers recalled that "the Church in America must be a vigilant advocate, defending against any unjust restriction the natural right of individual persons to move freely within their own nation and from one nation to another. Attention must be called to the rights of migrants and their families and to respect for their human dignity, even in cases of non-legal immigration". 236
Migrants should be met with a hospitable and welcoming attitude which can encourage them to become part of the Church's life, always with due regard for their freedom and their specific cultural identity. Cooperation between the dioceses from which they come and those in which they settle, also through specific pastoral structures provided for in the legislation and praxis of the Church, 237 has proved extremely beneficial to this end. In this way the most adequate and complete pastoral care possible can be ensured. The Church in America must be constantly concerned to provide for the effective evangelization of those recent arrivals who do not yet know Christ. 238
The Pope also understood the dangers of misguided policies also that was done in the name of nationalism THe above I think are pretty General Principals that bind Catholics and must be used in their political thought process. Also I think its instructive to read this in conjuction with the Catechism. THe CCC states 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.
Now what is of interest is that the Church puts duties on all parties here. I think that many people that are concerned about illegal immigration can agree with much that is said in the CCC. But, its important to remember , that we must actin accordance with all the Christian principles stated. Lets say your not Catholic, or maybe a Catholic, and don't really give a big darn what the Church says. More power to you. But be aware that this isn't some Liberal Jesuit theology that is in vogue. This is a Christian Tradition from Scripture and through the fathers itself.
Scripture states "So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19).
This and many other scriptures are part of the foundation of the Church's view on this issue. So in the spirit of Christian Brotherhood I present this post. Please understand that the few of us on this board that have concerns about certain proposals circulating as to immigration. This in part shows where some of that concern is based. I will post a seperate thread as to his more extensive public statements on illegal immigration.
A nation without borders is no nation at all.
I'm all for legal immigration and I want people to have a chance at a better life.
But only those people who desire to become part of this great nation and live its traditions and contribute to its greatness.
Not those who want to make it the same as from where they came.
The illegal immigration reference in the above address is this "Attention must be called to the rights of migrants and their families and to respect for their human dignity, even in cases of non-legal immigration". 236 "
For those looking for it.
Off to bed. If there is more confusion on the Church's view toward this or needless spouting of how the THe Rcc is off its rocker I will repost these s. Articles. I think there is food for thought here. My favorite Catholic Blogger is the Anchoress. She is great. Her Thoughts are my thoughts. I couldnt say it any better.
Our lady Of Guadulpe Pray for us and this Nation
Now from the anchoress
"Perhaps America, like Solomon, needs to raise its hands to heaven and ask for the same - for Wisdom. And we’d better ask soon.
Why? How about for Wisdom for the Nation on the issue of Immigration (or, as a pal emailed me, “migration…”)
This seems like a situation in which partisanship should be put aside in favor of a genuine, workable and realistic solution that will recognise both the dignity of the human beings we’re dealing with, our duties to our nation and to our core values, and our duty to God, as well.
People are gassing away on both sides - some are sure they have the answer, and the answer is “Ship them all back to Mexico, every one of them.” (That means go up to Boston and out to Montauk Point and ship the illegal Irish immigrants back to Eire, too, right? Illegal is illegal!) There are others saying, “let ‘em all in!” There are suggestions of walls rivaling the Great Wall of China (with 40-foot footings sunk into the ground to prevent tunnels?) There are suggestions of amnesty, suggestions of felony.
Let’s get real. There are millions of illegal immigrants here, and some of them have been here for decades. If you’re telling me that the solution is to “arrest and ship out every one of them,” I have to disagree with you. While the “ideal,” of course, is that illegal immigrants don’t immigrate illegally, the fact is, our government, our “leaders” have ignored this issue and refused to enforce existing law for 30 years - hence, genies out of bottles don’t get put back in. Some of these people have made lives here, respectable lives, wherein they have worked and paid taxes, contributed to church and community and raised families - are we going to round them up and “ship them back?” How, exactly? How do you prevent them from coming back, when NOTHING is in place to prevent them? When it is unlikely that our feckless, dispassionate and distracted political “leaders” cannot see this situation as anything but political fodder - ammunition for the season - and are lacking in both ideas and courage.
More importantly - for the soul of America - Are we going to put together massive trains and - at gunpoint - load these people and head them south? Is this what we want America to be?
We have to think long and hard about what it means - and what it will FEEL like - to gather people together at gunpoint and put them on trains to send them to a place they do not want to go. Our intentions could be the purest and most noble in the world…that scenario still still smacks of history we don’t want associated with us. It sets a precedent we dare not embrace. I don’t want to see such pictures in our history books. That is not America. That cannot be America, if she is to survive.
Gerard Vanderleun is suggesting that the only way to halt the illegals, and to stop the street party which seems to be a warm-up for a long, hot summer, is to arrest those who hire the illegals. That’s one solution. Dry up the money flow. I think it can work in a limited way, but there are simply too many - too many - small businesses or greedy employers or crooked town commissioners…people who will slip a little money to someone who will look the other way while the law is circumvented. All we’ll really be accomplishing creating a “little Mexico” of local/state corruption which will rival that of Tijuana, or Baja, or Mexico City.
It’s an idea. It’s a start. Unfortunately, it is limited. And Vanderleun doesn’t think anyone in government will even embrace the idea until people start dying. Which we really don’t want to see.
Maybe the solution is a combination of many different ideas. Maybe arresting and prosecuting employers, combined with “grandfathering-in” those illegals who have been here for a certain amount of time and have demonstrated stability - give them citizenship and increase the tax-base, allow them to compete for jobs which offer health care, to take the burden off of our hospitals and clinics which are currently treating too many for free and breaking the backs of the insured in order to make up the difference. Maybe along with those ideas, we should create a registry of some sort, plus ship back those illegals who are not managing to create a stable life, or who have not been here long. Heh. As if we’d find them all. As if they wouldn’t be back here within weeks, because - again, and most importantly - nothing is in place to prevent their return.
I think this problem is simply too large to be effectively solved with “one” solution. Moreover, I don’t think the politicians who have allowed this problem to fester and become the massive running sore it now is can be trusted to bring serious solutions to the table. Possibly, though, a coalition of businessmen, lawyers, community leaders and church leaders could sit down and put together a plan. If you give them a few years, they might come up with a realistic and workable program.
We don’t have years, of course.
A friend emailed me that he was feeling very hopeless, that if we could not “ship ‘em out” we - as a nation - are doomed.
I think if we do “ship ‘em out” without concern for their humanity, for their dignity (and for our humanity and dignity - and for our souls) we may well be doomed. We cannot stop seeing these people as people. We must protect the borders, absolutely, but there is currently no effective program to do that, and none on the horizon that won’t be laid up in courts for a decade. And we cannot undertake a mass-eviction process without protecting ourselves against what we might become. We must protect the very generosity of spirit which has made us great.
I wrote elsewhere that God is never outdone in generosity - and America (naysayers aside) is a massively generous nation - both economically and spiritually. It is one of the reasons she is great. She cannot become insular, isolationist, cold and distant without freezing her own heart.
And so, let us pray. Let us stop running on emotions and fomenting rage and focusing on where the flag is on the flagpole. (Of course I am offended by those pictures, but they are - in the end - a distraction, a misdirection - a way to get us feeeeeeling and not thinking. Take them with a grain of salt and keep your guts steady.)
I think God has a way of turning things topsy-turvey when He wants to. We know the Holy Spirit has a habit of using what is before us to His advantage, confounding us in every age, turning profound negatives into something else. Wouldn’t it be funny if all of these Catholic, Our Lady of Guadalupe-loving Mexicans (remember, she is patron saint of the Americas ) came into the country and, unexpectedly, over time - completed the domination of the conservatism over progressivism?
It could happen, but not if they get mired in victimology. Wheels are turning, everywhere - it’s like a cosmic gear and pulley are being put into place. Tipping points everywhere.
“Doom, doom, doom” writes my pal. “America is (dying) and I don’t see her coming back.”
Well…that’s no way to be. The fact is, if the America of 40 years ago is not the America of today, well…we who are here, who love her, have a duty to look at the world as it is, the reality of things as they are, and do our best to re-create (or re-instill, re-establish, re-emphasize) all that is/was the best of America - her values, her industry, her heart - in order to keep the nation alive.
John Paul II used to say that. In encouraging Solidarity, in evangelizing, he would say, “you have to deal with the world as it is, not as you would ideally like it to be.” He was right. And the world right now - as it is - is in flux, due to a systemic lack of interest in addressing this problem for decades. Point the finger at the government - every part of it. Point the finger at ourselves, too, for tuning this problem out for too long.
Speaking of JPII, remember - he made an abrupt trip to Mexico City in 1999. He decided to insert it into his schedule -his advisors and handlers said, “can’t do it - there’s no time in the schedule; you’re too weak.” He said, “make it happen.”
Perhaps he made that abrupt and insistant trip to for a reason. I think he knew what he was doing when he consecrated OLGuadalupe to the Americas - and when he named her feast day. He was grim, serious and purposeful while in Mexico. And it’s worth noting that the first celebration of Guadalupe’s feastday was also the day the Great Election Debacle of 2000 ended. December 12, 2000. Maybe America needs Our Lady of Guadalupe and her devotees more than we realize.
I am coming to the conclusion that all of the noise and handwringing and the certainties that all will be well if “only the right POLICIES are put into place” is horse manure. Focusing on public policy is helpful, but I don’t expect the government to suddenly, magically be able to solve an unweildly problem it has steadfastly ignored since the 1970’s. The government is not going to get us out of this anytime soon. If I look to them, I see insincerity, confusion and political opportunism, on both sides.
The solution is going to have to come from inside of us, the can-do, pragmatic, realistic, problem-solving American people. And I hope our better natures manage to overcome our baser ones.
I don’t like being in the middle of all of this, to be honest - I’d rather be in Brooklyn, circa 1942 - but…this game is afoot - these gears and pulleys are moving, and we do not understand it, and we cannot fathom all that God brings to it. How many times has something happened in your life that seemed awful, but ended up being providential?
We cannot comprehend and know what “negatives” of today will become “positives” tomorrow. All we can do is ask for wisdom and direction, come to this problem as honest brokers seeking real, lasting, humane solutions, and then understand that nothing will happen overnight.
http://theanchoressonline.com/category/illegal-immigration/
We talk about rights of illegal aliens but we do not talk about the responsibility to obey the Laws of the USA?
Does the illegal alien have the right to obtain and utilized forged social security documents and not face the legal consequenses of his actions?
Does the illegal alien have the right demand changes to the laws of the country when by his very action he is in violation of these laws?
"With this in mind, the Synod Fathers recalled that "the Church in America must be a vigilant advocate, defending against any unjust restriction the natural right of individual persons to move freely within their own nation and from one nation to another."
That sentence seems a lot more relevant. The natural right of individuals to move freely from one nation to another? Apparently they left that one out of the Bill of Rights for some reason.....
I really don't care what the Catholic Church thinks about illegal aliens. I am really offended by the Catholic Church, letting pedophilia run wild. It is ridiculous to even listen to them anymore. Clean your own house before criticizing others.
hmmm this is the second thread and your post is almost the same as your first, trying to make a point or spam?
As I said in your first thread, butt out of politics, separation of Church and state and keep the anchors around your necks not ours.
Tell the pope to open up the vatican and its treasury. We'll ship the illegal aliens there. We'll then see how much dignity and respect these people get.
The folks that run the catholic church live in splendor while telling the rest of us we have to pay for illegal mexican aliens. I don't think so.
We have many, many disadvantaged people here in America. They should be first in line for our help. There are many young black men in the inner city who would benefit from a living wage construction job. Illegal mexican aliens are taking the jobs away from them. This should not be.
Tell the pope to get involved politically in mexico to fix the corruption and then the people will stay there.
: )
Hmmmm, I think I made that point at the top of my comment if you read it. The articles were similar and I copied the comments because they were related closely to both writings. I said I left those because some people might not want to engage both works. I was pretty open about that.
The Pope is talking about Natural LAw rights there. Similar to the principle of what Reagan was talking about via Eastern Europe
Are you equally offended with all the public schools that let child molesters teach and work at their schools? Are you equally offended with all the other organizations that have had scandals in them?
I really doubt he's living in a single wide trailer in the vatican. Him and the rest of the catholic big wigs live in pretty comfortable surroundings, supported by poverty-striken peasants from all over the world.
Let the vatican and every other religion lead by example. If they want to see illegal aliens cared for then they should be emptying their treasury to take care of them, not telling us to empty ours. Put up or shut up - It is one or the other .
America is the most generous country on earth and we have a huge national dept. We need to stop and fix our own problems first before we can take on more.
Just for clarification. THe Vatican often runs a deficit. Its budjet is less than many Arch Diocese here in the USA
We'll see how fast the vatican's swiss guard guns them down.
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