Posted on 06/30/2008 10:48:22 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
We must tread very lightly through this part of our journey. The terrain here has many pitfalls. We do not want to stumble and fall into the sin of racism or ethnocentrism. Sometimes people trip themselves up and are unable to continue on the path toward solidarity. This can be likened to spraining an ankle. Although we may have the intellectual desire to continue, we have become injured and it seems impossible to go on.
(Excerpt) Read more at liguorian.org ...
ping
“Thousands of families like the one I described at the beginning are searching for a new life. They have journeyed many miles through dangerous territory to pursue a promise, a dream for tomorrow. Our personal journeys of solidarity help us cross the borders of our own hearts toward them.”
There are several billion people on this earth who could find a better life in America, Father. How many of them do you propose to “cross borders of our own hearts toward them”?
And, you can cross to even more of them by moving to where they live and ministering to them there. Bringing the poor to America is not the answer to the world’s problems of poverty and lack of opportunity, but do enough of it and it sure will turn America into what these people wanted to leave behind.
More like invaders from another country.
The physical, emotional, and spiritual scars often experienced by immigrants, and felt most acutely by the poor, are not seen or known by the rest of the population.
Oh, that's right. Non-"immigrant" never experience those things.
Just as that young family was in flight from danger toward security, we, too, will make a journey from the attitude of indifference and apathy toward the promise of communion and solidarity.
Fine. I will admit to solidarity of Faith . Just as long as they remain in their own country or come here legally.
God! What a crock of gówno!
If a church uses its resources to support and help the unfortunate, then it is good and worthy of the call of Christianity, and a church generally has the right to use its resources the way it sees fit. However, when the church lobbies for law changes, tacitly overlooks illegal tapping of the host country resources by illegal immigrants, uses its resources to defy the laws of its host country or to promote demonstrations and/or violence intended to change the host country, that church loses my goodwill. And I wonder this: does the Catholic Church support all illegal immigration, or just those from Catholic countries?
Should read: “A Liberation Theology Vision of Immigration.” There is nothing “Catholic” about encouraging and rewarding law breakers. If they were true Catholics they would help them get back to their home countries and try to improve the situation there.
Pope John Paul II called this global economy the North-South contrast, the richer nations of the Northern Hemisphere and the poorer nations of the Southern Hemisphere. Referring to Matthew 25 and the Final Judgment at the end of the world, the Pope also commented that it would be these poorer nations of the South who would judge the nations of the North for monopolizing economic supremacy at the expense of other nations (homily in Canadian airport, September 1984). These are strong words that must be taken seriously. Because of this great wealth we must also accept the responsibilities that come as a consequence.
Ping to read later
The Catholic Church does not run America, thank heavens!
Agree. Or any of the other mystics either.
I don't see a sarcasm tag, so I'll respond as though you were being serious:
No.
I don't.
But because charity is a good thing, and because I've already paid the rent this month and contributed (voluntarily) to some local needs;
I'd be glad to send them some nails and two by fours, plant seeds, or fishing tackle so they can help themselves, where they are at, somewhere other than here.
(I somehow lost a really good response I'd drafted to #10, think it was because my jaws locked up when I inadvertently read #11 before posting.)
Excellent line. Exactly what I was thinking, and worth repeating in bold:
Bringing the poor to America is not the answer to the world’s problems of poverty and lack of opportunity
People need to realize that normally throughout the world, when there is poverty, there is a powerful government making the poverty happen. Shuffling people geographically doesn't solve the problems of power-hungry governments.
Someone please get the Vatican a good macro-economics textbook.
“You don’t think we, the developed world, having reached a stratospheric level of success, owe a duty to try and improve the lots of those less fortunate than us?”
We already do.
BUT.... we must not do so at the expense or risk of our own sovereignty and security. Many religious Open Borders folks use your words to shame others into compliance. Folks who understand what we have to lose aren’t biting.
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Oh. Right. Helping the undeveloped world doesn't necessitate letting its denizens into ours - it means HELPING them, giving from our abundance of blessings. Whether that is going to them and educating, supplying money, books, or material - all of it helps. It is our duty, not because we are Christian, but because we are human.
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
That's pretty much what the Pope said when he was in the US- the solution is to create economic, and societal stability in the immigrant's homeland thus preserving families, cultures, etc.
Absolutely! As a practical matter, I think it behooves us to not only heed the words of the Church in her call for compassionate immigration regulation, but to actually follow her lead and adopt immigration laws which mirror that of her own nation, the Vatican.
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