Posted on 01/27/2012 5:23:10 PM PST by moonshinner_09
The Bay Area's biggest religious institution, the Catholic Church, is throwing its weight against a federal immigration dragnet that in the past two years deported more than 6,500 people from the region.
As Republican presidential contenders clash just days before the crucial Florida primary over the harshness or softness of their stands on illegal immigration, Catholic priests here and across the country are championing a humanitarian approach and condemning what they describe as "selfish" demagoguery.
"It is heartbreaking to hear the painful stories of unjust deportations pouring in from our congregations. California can do better," San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer said in a statement ahead of a Saturday gathering of immigrants and their supporters at St. Mary's Cathedral in the city.
Both pastors and politicians have reason to appeal to a growing Latino and immigrant constituency.
An estimated 24 percent of Americans, including GOP candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, say they are practicing Catholics. Adherents vary greatly in their political and social views, but recent polls show that Catholics have a more favorable view of immigrants than most Americans.
Fifty-five percent of Catholics believe today's immigrants strengthen the country more than they create a burden, compared with 45 percent of all Americans and 37 percent of Protestant Christians, according to a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Catholics are also divided within their own community: Only 40 percent of white Catholics say that immigrants strengthen the country.
The church leadership, however, is increasingly making a public stand on immigration.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Separating so many people from their U.S. families defies Christian teachings about human dignity, say many Bay Area priests.
Isn't it a felony to keep coming back when one is deported numerous times, regardless of why one is deported ?
Aside from pro-life issues, the church has gone pretty liberal.
Buried in every one of these sob stories is a crime. I'm not even talking about illegal entry, visa overstay, or ID theft which all these people commit. I'm talking about drug trafficking, burglary, vehicle theft, etc.
If you are a legal immigrant and commit those crimes you would get deported too.
Old principle: Follow the Money
The Catholic church is probably the world’s oldest continuous business operation. More illegals=more congregation members=more cash for the church. Basic math.
How can there be “unjust deportations” when these people came here illegally in the first place?
What would this church call a ‘just deportation’????
No wonder why I don’t understand the Catholic church.
They lost me 60+++ years ago when a woman had to go to a CELIBATE priest for sex/marriage counseling. That seems awfully stupid to me at the time & I haven’t changed my mind on that.
That would be the deportation of an American citizen. If that's not the case then STFU! Pack your crap and go to Mexico with them if you don't like it.
A statement on immigration matters from an Archbishop in California is not necessarily the official Church view in this issue of the American Roman Catholic Church or Our Father in Rome. The Church is reluctant to take stands on political matters, especially those in active political campaigns.
All Church priests and higher officials are asked to avoid politics, but some may speak out of turn due to personal views. If they do this repeatedly, they would be counseled not to continue as it is against the vows taken when joining God’s Church.
It’s stand on the sanctity of Human life and opposition to abortion is longstanding and from the Church’s interpretation of God’s word in Scriptures. This is a core belief and not one merely political.
“They lost me 60+++ years ago “
With me it was about 45 years ago. I had 4 kids under 4 and asked a priest about birth control.
He told me to take tranquilizers. That was it for me.
The result of analyzing an issue utilizing fecal logic is that you've accepted the prudential statements from individuals in the clergy as being in harmony with the teaching of the Church which they are not.
Basic math.
Basic ignorance.
Using your logic Elizabeth Taylor would have been a much better marriage counselor due to all of her experience.
NFP and periodic continence never crossed your mind, did they?
A statement on immigration matters from an Archbishop in California is not necessarily the official Church view in this issue of the American Roman Catholic Church or Our Father in Rome. The Church is reluctant to take stands on political matters, especially those in active political campaigns.
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Hey, you evidently do for the Roman Catholic Church what Axelrod does for Obama — but I am not buying it.
You cannot tell me that the Archbishop of LA is such an insignificant cleric that — despite his pronouncements against upholding US law having been posted on the Internet — that your “Holy Father” and/or his staff is not aware of what is going on.
In other words, the Vatican’s failure to rebuke the LA La Raza-flavored Archbishop by telling him to zip it makes it obvious to me that they are permitting him to to be their mouthpiece while they can still cling to “deniability.”
Not buying: As the time-honored saying goes: “Silence implies consent.”
To hell with the pro-La Raza Archbishop, and the horse he rode in on.
What did you expect him to say?
“Old principle: Follow the Money”
One of the principle reasons we have illegal immigration is that the Catholic Church in Mexico and points South takes much of the meager incomes of the poor peasants. Go into any backwater Mexican village where the streets aren’t paved and the public facilities are non-existent and you will find a Catholic Church building filled with all manner of gold stuff. I know, I’ve seen it. The Catholic Churches motto seems to be keep them poor and pregnant.
Ha. The last mass I went to in Milwaukee was more a cumbaya songfest than a religious event.
when i was a little kid i went to catholic grade school. back then almost all our teacher were nuns who had escaped the commnists in poland,hungary and east germany. they told us when we got older,we would see communists posing as priests all over the united states.
they told us that thousands of priests were training to come here and destroy the catholic church. the nuns said the communists spoke perfect english and would tell us that they had been born in america ... that is what is happening right now...
the church feels that a celebite priest would give beter advice to a couple then a married man would.....it is human nature. a married man would sympathize with the man, a married woman would favor the female...
every church in south bend that had been taken over by mexicans has gone bankrupt due to lack of donations...
the idea that the church keeps mexicans “poor and pregnant “ is prety lame IMO..HAHHAHAH
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