Posted on 05/06/2010 7:06:36 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Arizona's new immigration enforcement law, roundly criticized by many Catholic leaders as repressive, offers the country an opportunity to rally behind - and the Catholic Church to lead the quest for - comprehensive and humane immigration reform legislation, Cardinal Roger Mahony said May 3 at Fordham University in New York.
"The Catholic community is central to victory and justice on this issue," said the cardinal. "We are an immigrant Church ourselves, since the founding days of the Republic. The immigrant experience is our own, having come to these shores from all parts of the world. We should be front and center in leading the charge for immigration reform - not only because it is a matter of justice but also because it is part of our identity, of what we are as a Church."
Jesus Christ himself was an itinerant preacher with "no place to lay His head" and a refugee who fled the terror of Herod, the cardinal pointed out. "When we welcome the newcomer, in person or through our advocacy efforts, we welcome Him," he said.
Cardinal Mahony's talk, entitled "Immigration Reform: A Moral Imperative," was co-sponsored by America magazine and the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. Attended by a standing-room only crowd of nearly 500 in the Lincoln Center Campus' Pope Auditorium, it included a brief video presentation featuring two immigrant stories (available for viewing at www.facesofimmigrants.org).
In his address, Cardinal Mahony said Arizona deserves credit for expediting the process that will hopefully result in long overdue federal legislation.
"With the stroke of her pen," he said, "Arizona Governor Jan Brewer not only signed into law the country's most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant legislation, her action has helped to reinvigorate the comprehensive immigration reform movement, and has made clear the consequences of the failure to fix our nation's broken immigration system."
The cardinal asserted that the central feature of reform should be to bring the 12 million undocumented immigrants "out of the shadows" and offer them a secure path to legal status. In return, he said, "these immigrants must learn English, pay a fine, and work for several years before earning the right to receive permanent legal status. Some have described this grueling journey 'amnesty' - they are wrong. What is being proposed is a path forward which will require enormous sacrifices on the part of the immigrants every step of the way.
Another feature of reform would provide for a new worker visa program that would allow more migrant workers to enter the U.S. legally, said Cardinal Mahony. "Improvements to our family-based reunification system should also be included in any reform bill," he said.
He asserted that enacting comprehensive immigration reform "also makes economic sense." In January, he noted, the Center for American Progress released a report showing that enforcement-only policies actually perpetuate unauthorized migration and exert downward pressure on already low wages. "But immigration policies that result in worker empowerment, legal status and labor rights would exert upward pressure on all wages, yielding at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years," he said.
The cardinal also cited a March poll by the Public Policy Institute of California which revealed that 70 percent of Californians said illegal immigrants who have been living and working in the U.S. for at least two years should be allowed to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status. Fifty-four percent believed that immigrants were a benefit to California because of their hard work and job skills.
"Attitudes toward immigrants are beginning to change," said Cardinal Mahony, "but we need to do more to ensure that we do not become a nation that treats those who 'look foreign' as suspect and to be investigated, even arrested, merely on the basis of their appearance.
"This is where Catholic leaders and institutions like Fordham University come into the equation. We need to continue to educate Catholics who are ambivalent or undecided about immigration reform. We need to urge them to 'come out of the shadows' themselves and become involved in the solution."
Cardinal Mahony noted that in fighting for justice, it is essential that people listen. "In the Bible," he said, "injustice is often discussed as a serious 'hearing problem' --- both our own inability or even unwillingness to hear the cries of suffering from our own brothers and sisters, [and] the fact that Scripture teaches that God most certainly does hear the cries of suffering."
He cited several Old and New Testament references, including Proverbs 21: 13: "If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard."
"Scripture is clear," said the cardinal, "that even when we do not hear the cry of the immigrant, God most certainly does."
I believe all Muslims in war-ravaged countries ought to invade Vatican City. I hereby give them squatter’s rights to the property.
"....The Catholic community is central to victory and justice on this issue," said the cardinal. "We are an immigrant Church ourselves, since the founding days of the Republic. The immigrant experience is our own, having come to these shores from all parts of the world. We should be front and center in leading the charge for immigration reform - not only because it is a matter of justice but also because it is part of our identity, of what we are as a Church."
Ping for later
All ILLEGALS should go to hell. They broke the law of a Christian Nation.
US Catholic Latino leaders meet with Vatican officials, discuss ‘Hispanic reality’
Catholic News Agency ^ | 5-6-10 | Catholic News Agency
The Church should receive Mexicans in the Vatican Nation.
And also make arrangements for them in other Catholic Banana Republics.
sigh..ty
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