The churches are not going to back down on this...
Posted on 04/11/2006 9:25:00 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Inland area Roman Catholic priests and churches will continue to serve undocumented immigrants even if federal laws require them to review a migrant's legal status before giving aid, Bishop Gerald Barnes said Monday.
"I don't think we have a choice," said Barnes, leader of the million-member Inland diocese encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties. "What the gospel calls us to do is what we are going to have to do. And it calls us to be compassionate and to help those who are in the most need."
Rancorous debate between federal lawmakers over immigration has spilled onto the streets in recent weeks, drawing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
Barnes' comment Monday follows other church leaders, including Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who also denounced the proposed restrictions on whom the church can assist.
While Mahony has emerged as an outspoken supporter of immigrant rights, Barnes' efforts have been more measured as he promotes immigration reforms as leader of a national campaign by Catholic bishops to overhaul immigration laws.
The Diocese of San Bernardino has distributed educational materials in its parishes and to the public.
Mahony spoke at a rally in downtown Los Angeles on Monday night, one of several demonstrations nationwide urging Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration package. Mahony previously issued a call for prayer and fasting during Lent for immigrant rights, but no such call was made in the San Bernardino Diocese.
Barnes said he supports the efforts of priests and parishioners from his diocese who have participated in the protests.
"This has contributed to the debate nationwide," Barnes said. "These marches have taken place not just in LA and Atlanta but in the Midwest and in the South. This is one the beauties of our nation, that people can peacefully protest and make their dreams or ideas or desires known."
Pressed Into Action
The diocese has not joined with outside groups to organize or promote the demonstrations, said Marco Raposo with the San Bernardino Diocese's Office of Social Concerns. But Raposo said the idea of a diocese-organized vigil and procession remains a possibility.
About 70 percent of Inland parishes are taking part in the Catholic bishops' Justice for Immigrants national campaign, with the greatest participation coming from those with the most immigrants, he said.
The San Bernardino Diocese, covering two politically conservative counties, has been pressed into action by parishioners who want more active leadership, said Alejandro Murrieta Ahumada, a Yucaipa resident who is a spokesman for the coalition that put on the massive march in Los Angeles last month.
"I'd like the church to call for marches, for vigils, and that's something that the church is doing in the LA area," Ahumada said.
In the Coachella Valley, priests have been active encouraging congregations to attend marches, said Joe Mota, Southern California regional director for the United Farm Workers. Having a Catholic priest available to celebrate Mass after the Sunday, March 26 demonstration in Los Angeles improved the turnout, he said.
"A lot of people didn't want to miss the service, but we told them you can go demonstrate and at the end, fulfill your spiritual needs," Mota said.
'Asking for Information'
Barnes, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, said the issue has divided some Catholics, creating two small, diametrically opposed groups who either advocate open borders or who argue that undocumented immigrants are ruining the country.
"In the middle are the vast majority of people who may be struggling with the path the church is taking," Barnes said. "They are asking for information."
For example, Barnes said he recently spoke with a self-described conservative man who is poised to be initiated into the church. But the man said he disagrees with the church's position on immigration.
In their discussion, Barnes noted that not all Catholics agree with the church's position on abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty. He encouraged the man to study the church's teachings and pray on the issue before forming his opinion.
"The Catholic Church is not supportive of illegal immigration (but) the laws right now do not accommodate the needs of these people and the needs of this country," Barnes said.
Some Catholics, Barnes said, are thinking about undocumented immigrants in a new light amid the debate.
"People are realizing that those who we refer to as illegal and undocumented are real human beings, living the shadows of society. ... They are beginning to realize they are not this mass group that is strategizing to take over our country. These people are coming here to improve their life and have tried to come here with the proper documentation, and they couldn't."
Barnes said he received mean-spirited and vulgar letters criticizing the church's role in the immigration debate and its efforts to assist undocumented immigrants.
Barnes said the church is accused of aiding undocumented immigrants as a way of increasing church membership.
"We don't assist just Catholics. We assist all people who have needs and come to us and want care and compassion," Barnes said.
Barnes said he remains hopeful that the legislative logjam that stalled a Senate version of the immigration reform bill last week will be resolved when Congress reconvenes after its two-week Easter break.
Earned Legalization Program
In a letter to the U.S. Senate last week, Barnes described the immigration overhaul package presented by the Senate Judiciary Committee as "a good start."
Barnes and the fellow bishops support a temporary-worker program, reducing family-based immigration backlogs and establishing a program through which the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants could legally remain in the United States.
The program would require undocumented immigrants to pay thousands of dollars in fines, pay back taxes, learn English, clear security investigations and work in the United States for at least six more years, Barnes wrote.
"The earned legalization program ... represents sound public policy because it would not only enhance our national security while stabilizing the labor force in many important industries, but it would also allow families to remain together," he wrote. "Contrary to the claims of opponents, the (legalization)... program is not an 'amnesty' or 'giveaway.' Instead, it would provide an opportunity for hard-working immigrants to earn their legal status over time."
Barnes also underscored several proposed measures that he and the bishops oppose, asking lawmakers to strike "harmful" provisions that call for the mandatory detention of illegal immigrants, an expedited removal program, restrictions on judicial review and an increase in the authority of state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.
Perhaps the Church ought to do more to help those people in their own countries. But it seems their MO hasn't changed. Keep them poor and keep them ignorant.
The forget "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
The forget "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
I can't wait to see Phony Mahony do the perp walk.
Jesus said "give unto Ceaser what is Ceasers" (or something along that line)
Now lets have a close look at that exemption from taxation for churches / religious sites ?
You know, we do have a deficit that needs attention.
Just what part of ILLEGAL is it that these people don't understand?
The laws now don't support Pedophiles. I assume the next logical step is to legitimize NAMBLA what is the difference in the law.
Whatever the laws are, they haven't been enforced by the federal or state governments. So, there are millions of illegal immigrants in the United States.
This isn't the doing of the Catholic Church. Let's face it, folks, this is the doing of the federal government and lots of state governments.
Nonetheless, there are now 10 or 12 million illegal immigrants here in the US, and some of them experience material distress. The Catholic Church provides free services to folks who are in need. The Catholic Church didn't read in the Gospel that we are only to provide food to the hungry WHO ARE LEGALS or drink to the thirsty WHO ARE LEGALS or clothing to the naked WHO ARE LEGALS.
If the federal government wants to enforce the law, great! Go do it! But don't recruit priests and volunteer workers whose mission it is to relieve immediate material suffering as your unpaid deputies. Do the job yourselves.
Oh wait. I forgot. The feds don't have the guts. The states don't have the guts. We know that the Minuteman Project proved that by increasing the surveillance of the border, we can dramatically reduce illegal immigration. It'd take a few billion bucks to hire enough Border Patrol folks to do the job. In a budget of $2.7 trillion, I'm sure they could come up with the cash.
But noooo!! Can't do THAT!! So, let's conscript every Catholic aid worker to do our job for us! says the government.
Well, screw them. It isn't the Catholic Church's job to do the federal and state governments' jobs of law enforcement.
Is the government next going to force the Catholic Church to turn in drug users when they come to Narcotics Anonymous meetings in our churches, or for rehabilitative services in our hospitals? Are we going to be required to inquire as to whether you have any unpaid parking tickets before we may provide services to you? Review your tax returns to see if your a tax cheat?
I won't defend everything every Catholic prelate is saying in this debate. But I will defend the right of the Church to offer material assistance to the destitute WITHOUT HAVING TO INQUIRE ABOUT THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS.
Gerald Barnes is not following the Holy Word of G-d.b'shem Y'shuaHe is in rebellion against Y'shua
Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, andGerald Barnes needs to repent for his sin and seek the face of G-d.
with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.Ephesians 6:6 Obey them not only to win their favour when their eye is on
you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from
your heart.Ephesians 6:7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,
Ephesians 6:8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for
whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.He is damning himself as he as a leader.
As he is leading others into rebellion against the Holy Word of G-d.
If Mahoney will break all manners of law to protect child molesters, of course, he'll advocate breaking the law to protect his family's slave market.
>> Perhaps the Church ought to do more to help those people in their own countries. But it seems their MO hasn't changed. Keep them poor and keep them ignorant.
<<
As angry as I am at Maphony for his stance, your comment is outrageous, baseless, and achieves primarily the same objective as those gag T-shirts that say, "I'm with dummy" and point to the wearer's head.
Catholic schools and universities are top-rate and offer massive subsidies to the poor. Catholic adult ESL progams probably serve more people than all other adult ESL programs combined. And Catholic charities stress education almost to a fault. I don't know of any religion which places a higher emphasis on education. If there's a flaw, it's that American Catholic educational organizations seem to stress education more than they stress worship.
By lumping in abortion and euthanasia with illegal immigration and the death penalty, Barnes proves himself to be not only a fool, but a destructive fool.
If the Holy Family could subject themselves to traveling for the census, illegal immigrants can be encouraged to return home and immigrate legally. Criminal behavior shouldn't be enabled by the Church.
The clergy should also be pressuring Fox and his government to get off the snide and improve their own economy thus affording their people more opportunities in their home of origin.
We are bound to God's Law of Love first, not the secular state or federal Government. When the two do not meet (such as in abortion), we are called to protest and refuse to allow such to continue. The government does not provide for morality. You can't enforce love at the end of a stick or a fine. As you note, if the government really is concerned with illegal immigrants, they'd do something about it - 20 years ago.
Regards
Excellent post, sitetest.
The churches are not going to back down on this...
Dear A.A. Cunningham,
In principle, I agree with you. However, that obligation, to my own mind, is significantly attenuated when the federal government doesn't do a damn thing to enforce the laws on the books. Why are Catholic priests and laity obligated to spend significant time and energy instructing illegal immigrants to obey the law when the government makes a mockery of the law by failing to make any real effort to enforce the law?
In what way is the law still law when the federal government permits 12 million individuals to violate it with virtually complete impunity?
One might say that federal refusal to enforce the law makes a nullity of the law. Indeed, to me it appears that the federal and state governments consciously look the other way, because, let's face it, the power elites don't want to lose their cheap nannies, maids, and landscapers.
To me, it appears that the folks who run our country let these laws stay on the books so that the rest of us can think that there is some real mechanism for reducing illegal immigration, but that it hasn't ever been the intention of the elites to actually enforce this law.
So, what obligations do Catholic priests and laity have to instruct folks where the people who run the government have no intention of enforcing the law?
"The clergy should also be pressuring Fox and his government to get off the snide and improve their own economy thus affording their people more opportunities in their home of origin."
I'm sure that Mexican bishops probably say things to that effect. However, considering the historic murderous antipathy of the Mexican government toward the Catholic Church, one wonders just how effective their voice might be.
As for American bishops saying that sort of thing to the Mexican government, I'm sure all it would do is further inflame anti-Catholic prejudices amongst the elite of Mexican society.
sitetest
Thanks.
Nor should they.
Sensenbrenner opened a can of worms with the harsh bill he sponsored in December, and by allowing the Catholic Church to correctly jump to the logical conclusion of holding that those who aid illegals as felons who can be punished by imprisonment would include ministers and priests.
No sane American is going to support punishing priests for assisting illegals.
The House bill is going to have to be reworked, or these bishops are going to continue to beat the hell out of it.
Look up the case of No More Deaths members Chanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss. They are being charged with violating Federal law, and are being treated as felons.
The proposed law you appear to despise is already the law of the land.
LOL!! Is that why the first we heard of that was last Sunday, from Peter King, who was backpedaling like mad, insisting that Mahoney was reading more into the provision than was there?
The damage was already done.
That sounds like they've taken this right out of GWB's compassionate "guest worker" play book! Ain't that special!
I'm not familiar with what Peter King said, to be honest.
I just know that the BP can and does arrest those who aid and abet illegals.
It happened to a Minuteman volunteer back in October in New Mexico, too.
Great post. Thanks for the ping. Very interesting.
"As for American bishops saying that sort of thing to the Mexican government, I'm sure all it would do is further inflame anti-Catholic prejudices amongst the elite of Mexican society"
What they're saying and doing here isn't inflaming anti-Catholic prejudices in the US?
The problem with the Church hierarchy seems to be they've distanced themselve from Christ. Or, at a minimum, cherry picked which of His teachings to follow and which to reinterpret to meet their own ends.
Dear EDINVA,
"What they're saying and doing here isn't inflaming anti-Catholic prejudices in the US?"
Well, Mexico has a very long, very harsh, and very recent history of oppressing Catholics and the Catholic Church. The Mexican government has murdered countless priests and faithful laity. The Mexican elites are not far removed from this bloody history.
I would have liked to have thought that the United States was beyond this level of anti-Catholic bigotry and hatred, but are you trying to persuade me that I'm wrong? I'm certainly willing to listen.
"The problem with the Church hierarchy seems to be they've distanced themselve from Christ."
There are days when I would agree with you. But not this day. I don't agree completely with everything that Bishop Barnes said, but I think he has it right, in the main.
I think it is the Gospel that requires us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, care for the sick, without regard to immigration status. If the government wants to deport these folks by the millions, they can have at it. Better yet, how about keeping the millions of illegal immigrants out of our country in the first place?
Look at what Bishop Barnes says:
"The Catholic Church is not supportive of illegal immigration (but) the laws right now do not accommodate the needs of these people and the needs of this country."
Bingo! The Catholic Church IS NOT SUPPORTIVE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION! However, once the folks are here, once the federal government refuses to do its job, and permits these folks to slip in by the millions, simple Christian decency requires aiding those in distress.
For the most part, the Catholic Church is trying to ameliorate a problem caused by the US government. The US government permitted millions of these folks to come into the United States to provide cheap labor for those that want it. A lot of the folks who want the cheap labor are the folks who have power in our society. These power elites wanted their cheap labor, and didn't mind getting it from illegal immigrants, since illegal immigrants are hard-pressed to ask for better working conditions, decent benefits, fair and equitable treatment, etc.
The Church sees this, and comes to the immediate aid of those getting the shortest end of the stick.
The Church should not be blamed for trying to reduce the suffering of those cynically permitted to come here illegally to provide cheap labor for the power elites, Republican and Democrat alike.
sitetest
You and me both, but I ain't holding my breath.
Inland area Roman Catholic priests and churches will continue to serve undocumented immigrants even if federal laws require them to review a migrant's legal status before giving aid,...
Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles also denounced the proposed restrictions on whom the church can assist.
If you accept federal dollars, you accept the strings attached to them. Break the government's hold on you, Roger. Set yourself free!
Anywhere public money flows, public control soon follows. This is a cost that has long corrupted Catholic Charities USA. Indeed, calling it a charity stretches the truth, given the extent to which it has grown dependent on taxpayer-conscripted capital to support its social services. (Sixty-seven percent of its $2.3 billion budget was derived from government in 2000.) Today it is little more than a nominally Catholic branch of Housing and Urban Development – a shadow welfare system that grants a degree of ecclesial legitimacy to socially destructive wealth redistribution schemes.
As I understand it, the House-passed immigration reform bill does not penalize priests, ministers, rabbis, and other clergy or church groups for aiding the illegals. It goes after the cayotes.
So why have Mahoney and others inserted themselves into this debate? I hate to even think this, but it seems their interest is like that of the Democrat Party, i.e., we can't attract the people we used to to our Church/Party, so we can work on this new, mostly poor and uneducated group to fill the pews/voting booths.
I am sure these bishops believe in what they are doing/saying, but have to marvel at their choice of issues to suddenly champion so vocally. I really don't remember their becoming so outraged over other affronts to basic Catholic beliefs, like abortion, euthenasia, gay marriage, etc.
then, the churches need to start paying taxes...
I can tell you this much: If I were a district attorney in Los Angeles, I would note very carefully the fact that the Cardinal has instructed his priests to break the law, obstruct justice, and stonewall enforcement. After all, what he is stating is the opposite of what was stated in the encyclical, Rereum Novarum, which describes what his family farm did with illegal aliens as "a crime which cries out to the Heavens for vengence."
>> (Sixty-seven percent of its $2.3 billion budget was derived from government in 2000.) <<
I can't imagine that to be true, but it does make me realize that it is unethical for the government to financially support any organization which advocates breaking federal law.
By the way, you did notice my new tag?
Mahoney has done NONE of those things.
He has said that, if the law is interpreted in such a way that the ministry of his priests to ANYBODY is subject to interference, his priests will simply ignore the interference.
How many were in crayon?
This vehemently anti-illegal agrees with you. ;-)
This vehemently anti-illegal AGNOSTIC agrees with you. ;-)
Speaking for myself, I don't consider Roger Mahony the embodiment of all things Catholic any more than I think Fred Phelps speaks for Baptists or that money-grubbing televangelists represent Christianity.
Dear EDINVA,
I hadn't understood the article to speak about any specific piece of legislation, merely a specific principle: Catholic clergy and aid workers are not agents of the state.
sitetest
Thanks.
I share your frustration with the lack of enforcement of the law by the government. However, that in no way justifies the behavior of Mahony, et al of thumbing their noses at civil law and encouraging and enabling those who break the law. Mahony, specifically, has grossly distorted the issue and this is just one more example of his hypocrisy. We all were appalled when Bishops ignored the law when dealing with pederasts. We should all be just as upset now with how they are ignoring the law regarding illegal aliens.
Bishops and Priests, just like the rest of us, are bound to speak the truth and obey just and moral law, regardless of the consequences or the inconvenience.
Dear A.A. Cunningham,
It wasn't my intention to defend any inappropriate actions on the part of Cardinal Mahoney, merely to make clear that it is not the duty of the Catholic Church to enforce the secular laws.
If there are priests who actively conspire to assist illegal immigrants to come over the border, and thus illegally enter the United States, I condemn that.
However, in that those responsible for enforcing this law have not done so, the law in this case loses moral, if perhaps not legal force. It's difficult for me to see that members of the Church have much obligation toward these laws when offering material assistance to illegal immigrants, or even assistance to help regularize and legalize the status of individual immigrants.
I also wonder about the morality of deporting 12 million souls who came here "illegally" when our government made it pretty darned clear that no one cared if they were violating US laws in entering our country. It makes me angry that our government, whether run by Dems or Republicans, more or less turned illegal immigration into little more than a "technicality" to be ignored or dispensed with. But I'm not sure that there is now a moral basis to apply retroactively a much tighter enforcement against those who have already made their lives in this country, based upon the unspoken assurances that they could come here without legal documentation.
It is not the fault of illegal immigrants who took the opportunities offered them, it is the fault of the government that made those opportunities available by failing to enforce the laws.
sitetest
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