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I’m sure Tancredo will get a ton of flak for this, but he’s right.
Thanks to Tom Tancredo. Somebody had to say it. On this subject, the Pope’s time would be better spent on a trip to the Latin countries where he’d insist on needed reforms and an end to the widespread corruption in the police forces and throughout their governments.
Tell those few corrupt oligarchs to start spreading their nations’ wealth around.
MR. POPE.....TEAR DOWN THE VATICAN WALL.
Pope to Tancredo: “Who are you? Security!”
That is an idiotic statement. If they are Catholics in Mexico then they are Catholics wherever they go.
Tancredo is right. The pope is wrong and pandering to the Latin Americans.
Pope Benedict XVI: ‘The fundamental solution... that there is no longer any need to immigrate’
National Catholic Reporter ^ | 4/15/2008
Benedict XVI:
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.
Sounds like something Tanc could agree with
(It also puts the ball in Mexico’s court)
The Church holds these teachings for all immigrants everywhere, regardless of their faith.
Tancredo and all who raise this charge against the Church are spectacularly ignorant of Church history and teaching on this subject. The issue, from the view of the Church, is the human dignity and social justice due to all men, not the Catholicity of immigrants.
He's fearless
Save your ammunition, Tancredo. For the first thing, the Pope has no power over our policy, and even his opinion doesn’t have much influence. The Vatican has opposed the Iraq war, too; look how influential that was.
For the second...he’s the Pope. Pick your immigration fights with someone else. How much traction is your policy going to get from picking on the Pope?
Lombardi:: Thank you, Your Holiness. Another theme upon which we had many questions from our colleagues was that of immigration, reflecting the growing presence of Hispanics in the society of the United States. We’ll have a question from our colleague Andres Beltramo, from the Notimex agency in Mexico.A link to the transcriptBeltramo: 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. I recent had the ad limina visit from the bishops of Central America, also South America. I saw the scope of this problem, above all the grave problem of the separation of families. This is truly dangerous for the social, human and moral fabric of these countries.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. Whatever can be done, must be done. Naturally, we have to do whatever’s possible against economic insecurity, against all the forms of violence, so that they can have a worthy life.
I’d like also to say that although there are many problems, so much suffering, there’s also much hospitality [in America.] I know that the bishops’ conference in America collaborates a great deal with the Latin American bishops’ conference. Together they work to help priests, laity and so on. With so many painful things, it’s also important not to forget much good and many positive actions.
Tom supports McShame who supports Amnesty. Tom’s cred is shot.
Tancredo could start to rebuild the tattered shreds of his lost credibility if he repudiated his endorsements of the pro-amnesty John Judas McCain and the leftwing former Governor of MA, Mitt Romney.
But the fact of his endorsement of McCain, up against this criticism of the Pope, just makes him look like a raging hypocrite.
Somebody needs to educate the Pope about this issue. Coming from Europe, he just can’t imagine what a big, open land we have at our border. They can’t picture any country that doesn’t have a closed and well guarded border. I envision a conversation with him that would go something like this:
American: Do uninvited people occasionally try to get into the Vatican?
Benedict XVI: Yes, of course they do.
American: What happens?
Benedict XVI: They get turned away by the security people at the gate, because they don’t belong there and they don’t have any right to be there. Sometimes they get past the gate, but the guards locate them, and send them packing.
American: Oh yeah? Well, we have a similar problem, but we don’t have a secure wall with well guarded gates. See? Here’s a picture of our border (Show photo of open land at the border.) And here’s another picture of heavily armed drug lords driving freely across our border, see? Here are some sex slavers going over the border in this picture. Here’s a picture of some Muslims from the Middle East who got over our border illegally. And here, see all these people running across our land? And do you know how many murders and rapes and how much prostitution we have had in the last year by these folks? Do you know that they are depositing their sick at CATHOLIC hospitals which cannot legally turn them away? Do you know how many hospitals near our border have had to close their doors? Now how do you propose we deal with people like that?
Benedict XVI: Looks like you need a big wall, with a few gates and some reliable guards.
American: BINGO!
Tom Tancredo, as usual, is correct.