Posted on 04/15/2008 6:12:28 PM PDT by Pyro7480
The following is a rush transcript of comments made by Pope Benedict XVI to reporters aboard the papal plane, on his way to his first pastoral visit to the United States....
Fr. Federico Lombardi: ...We’ll have a question from our colleague Andres Beltramo, from the Notimex agency in Mexico.
Beltramo: I’ll ask the question in Italian, but we would love to have just a greeting in Spanish. With the enormous growth in the Hispanic presence, the Catholic church in the United States is becoming steadily more bilingual and bicultural. Yet there’s also a growing “anti-immigrant” movement in America. Do you intend to invite the United States to welcome immigrants well, many of whom are Catholic?
Benedict XVI: Unfortunately I’m not ready to speak in Spanish, but I offer a greeting and blessing for all the Spanish-speakers! Certainly I’ll talk about this subject....
It seems to me that we have to distinguish between measures to be taken immediately, and longer-term solutions. The fundamental solution [would be] that there is no longer any need to immigrate, that there are sufficient opportunities for work and a sufficient social fabric that no one any longer feels the need to immigrate. We all have to work for this objective, that social development is sufficient so that citizens are able to contribute to their own future.
On this point, I want to speak with the President, because above all the United States must help countries develop themselves. Doing so is in the interests of everyone, not just this country but the whole world, including the United States.
In the short term, it’s very important above all to help the families. This is the primary objective, to ensure that families are protected, not destroyed....
(Excerpt) Read more at ncrcafe.org ...
I know his answer won't make everyone on here happy, but it's certainly a starting point for a discussion.
Catholic ping!
***
I thought the Pope's comment was absolutely as beautiful as it is true as it is refreshing as it is unexpected.
Of course. Wouldn't the solution be that all nations were just? And isn't that a picture of "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven?"
Another reason I love being Catholic is...reason.
Bingo!
As long as Mexico is a corrupt, violent hell-hole, people will risk their lives and freedom to get out.
Disincentives to illegally immigrate will help reduce the numbers (and some people will self-deport), but at some balancing point the risks of staying in Mexico will outweigh the risks of illegally immigrating. So there will always be a certain number of illegal immigrants, so long as there is such a strong incentive to get out of Mexico.
Listen to this man AMCHURCH™.
HE GETS IT!!!
I have no objection to his comments. For one thing, he makes a point of giving the U.S. credit for being a welcoming nation. This is better than many of the immigrants themselves will give us credit for.
Welcome to America, Holy Father!
So, he’s saying Mexico should clean up its own act and start building a country where more people have a say than the 1% who control 95% of the wealth?
A Mexico where they take some of those ever-increasing pertrol dollars they’re earning and actually invest it in their country instead of stealing it, using it for bribes, payoffs and other shenanigans?
A Mexico that respects the rule of law and agrees that all people are equal under it?
A Mexico that isn’t corrupt, envious of its Northern neighbor, and happy to roll up its sleeves and get busy in its own house instead of exporting problems elsewhere?
Thank you Pope Benedict!
Why? I just wrote a check to the IRS, and frankly, I don't feel an obligation to help an oil-wealthy country get it together so that a majority of their population isn't trying to break our laws to get here, costing me MORE in tax dollars.
Wow, I’m impressed.
No he doesn’t. He just has another project for redistributing what is left of our nation’s wealth.
I had tears in my eyes watching him arrive. When I first heard who was elected after JP2 died I was a little worried with the media hype he had knowing he had big shoes to fill. I’m no longer worried he is a very wise man and a very fine Pope.
The Church is free to do just that. And for the most part they have. At least for those that wanted the help from the Church. Not all Mexicans are Catholic, and in fact there is a significant anti Church sentiment in Mexico.
Our first exchange student from there told our daughter that the order of your weddings (official and church, the state does not recognize church weddings, you have to be married by a state official) makes a political statement. Ana Alejandra and Jorge Fernando, were "married" by some well padded lady from the government in Ana's house before we arrived for the real wedding, which was in a church building built in the 15th Century with the service conducted by the priest who had been assigned to her Church when she was a young child. My daughter spoke for her (as is their tradition), in Spanish. That buxom blue eyed blonde stood out like a sore thumb, but everyone (save me) understood every word she said. The couple did not live together until after the church wedding. You figure out what statement they made (aside from the fact that their mothers would have killed them if they'd done it any differently :) )
There are other ways to solve problems, or help to solve them, besides throwing money at them. Few politicians understand that, but some, Ronald Reagan for instance, do.
Mexico does have a separation of church and state wrt to their weddings. IIRC you need 2 separate officiators for a religious wedding - one from the church and one from the state. (Nearly got married to a Mexicana some years ago.)
Stopping illegal immigration from Mexico will only stop 57% of illegal entry into the US.
[...]
".. the overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.
This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help.
The class struggle as a road toward a classless society is a myth which slows reform and aggravates poverty and injustice.
Those who allow themselves to be caught up in fascination with this myth should reflect on the bitter examples history has to offer about where it leads.
They would then understand that we are not talking here about abandoning an effective means of struggle on behalf of the poor for an ideal which has no practical effects. On the contrary, we are talking about freeing oneself from a delusion in order to base oneself squarely on the Gospel and its power of realization. ...
[...]
~ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (nka Pope Benedict XVI) August 6, 1984
(With special thanks to Freeper Matchett-PI's post here)
Dunno. It certainly sounds nice. I’d love to hear an American politician say something like this about the many regimes (not just Mexico) hostile to us.
But my first response is always going to be “Who’s gonna fix it and how much is it gonna cost?”
BTTT
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