The Catholic Church should return to their mission of saving souls and stay out of the political arena. If they want to help illegal immigrants they should arrange a way for them to return to their homes and provide assistance for them there. They are biting the hands that feed them while hiding under the cloak of piety. How many of their parishioners have seen their businesses go bankrupt because of the illegal immigrants the church is supporting? How many have seen their property values decline because of having hordes of illegal immigrants move into their neighborhood? How many have seen their hospitals close because of illegal immigrants. The church has a conflict: they cannot at once support their legal parishioners while providing sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

I am a lifelong Catholic and I stopped sending my check to the church about 1 1/2 years ago because of its support for illegal immigrants. I encourage others to do likewise.

As a fully lapsed Catholic, primarily due to the right wing politics and moral problems, here is a glimpse of the Church that I knew and loved - the one that led us to live Christ’s actual message.

The Catholic church is trying to fill the pews left vacant by political entrusion and moral decadence. The bishops are concerned about their own survival. The immigrant’s survival is secondary to their cause.

I wish the Post Disgrace would make up its mind…when the Archbishop points out that Pro-choice Catholic politicians and public figures are openly defying the church, he is roundly castigated and yet, when the bishops come out with a statement saying essentially the same thing about those who oppose criminal immigration, PD describe it as “calling for an end to rhetoric in which political candidates vie to see who can be tougher on illegal immigrants.”

Any more I only read the paper and this website to see if anyone I know has died.

They’ve already killed my confidence in objective journalism.

I lost my enthusiasm for dropping money into the collection basket over the pedophilia problems of the Catholic Church. If the Bishop wants to rely heavier on the donations of illegal aliens, just keep preaching.

JanetP:

“How many of their parishioners have seen their businesses go bankrupt because of the illegal immigrants the church is supporting?”

None. Not a single one. Cut off the supply of migrant and seasonal workers without providing some kind of replacement visa system, and you will see dozens if not hundreds of businesses and operations, especially in agriculture, close.

“How many have seen their property values decline because of having hordes of illegal immigrants move into their neighborhood?”

Where exactly are these neighborhoods? Did illegal immigration cause the decline in property values, or was the neighborhood “changing” and Hispanic immigrants (and you’ve checked their status to make sure they are illegal?) were just a part of the lower income flux into the neighborhood?

“How many have seen their hospitals close because of illegal immigrants.”

So the millions and millions of uninsured or underinsured US citizens (far more than all the illegal immigrants put together–and most of them avoid institutional medical care for fear of being found out by INS) and our failed medical insurance system (not to mention shifting demographics and a glut of hospital beds in most communities) aren’t the reasons why most hospitals close?

While there is a very legitimate need to secure our borders and ensure that everyone living here is here legally, this anti-immigration hysteria is just that–hysteria. Take out newspapers from the mid-18th century and replace “German” and “Irish” and “Italian” with “Mexican” and “illegals” and the screed sounds the same.

We need real immigration reform: a way to legalize (visas or citizenship) the millions of current illegals who are upstanding members of commuinities across the US, deport (and make sure they stay out) the habitual criminals and gangsters, and find seasonal and guest worker passes to provide industry and agriculture (and dozens of other fields) the workers they need.

And, all of that before you get to the nation’s history as a beacon of hope and opportunity:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

For over two centuries the United States has welcomed millions of immigrants, legal and illegal. They have enriched, shaped and powered our republic. There is no reason to believe they will do anything but the same in the future.

Regardless of whether you agree with the catholic church on this one or not, do you think they will even be listened to by Blunt and other protestant politicians?

DDJ (post #4) you are 100% correct. The Post must really think that no one reads the paper.

Garrison (post #3) doesn’t happen much, but you got this one correct. well said.

Suzyjax (post #7) would you have them listen on Abortion or Stem Cells? Silly question, I know.

Missouri Citizens to Missouri Bishops:

Stop harboring pedophile priests and tell Ed “Bunch of Mexicans” Martin to turn himself into the authorities immediately for his ruthless assault on Scott Eckersly.

Don’t preach to the rest of us when your sins are the ones corrupting this state!

Wells at 6: Couldn’t have said it better. Well put.

I’d trust the sincerity of the church a lot more if they had shown such solicitude at times when the immigrants were not mostly Catholic…noticing that now is a time when they need more church members to replace those who left due to sexual abuse…

All The Child Rapist Needs to Understand we Need laws !! Most if Not ALL The Church’s where apart of Many Century’s of Child Abuse!!! Yet Thy tell us we should obey there Laws and pity There New source of Revenue what a joke what we Really Need to do is send people out to Every Church and investigate them all they are becoming More and More like The Muslim Extremist !!!!!!!!

My two cents to the bishop is this.. the catholic church is powerful in the very wealthy Mexico and wealthy Latin American countries, yet it is silent, refusing to demand those governments raise the wage standard, or to demand those governments raise taxes on the wealthiest to provide more opportunities. The same wealthy catholic church profits from property, donations, investments like gold, oil and in corporations, makes money hand over fist from being silent when governments increase profits.. especially when those profits are created by imposing poverty. The church now is working to destroy American wage standards, and workplace protections, reducing working poor and struggling middle class American citizens to homelessness, hunger, third world status.

I know what Christ spoke of, and he would have thrown the bishop and the other fat and greedy church leaders out on their ears, the way he threw the money changers and other profiteers out of the temple.. because they are exploiting the church to increase their own profits. They are using one group of poor people to enslave another. It’s the reason Christ spoke of not putting priests on pedastels, because they are as human and as prone to sin as anyone else. These church leaders are corrupted and should be forced to humble themselves because they are not followers of Christ. Rather, they are the disciples of the almighty dollar.

JanetP:
“How many of their parishioners have seen their businesses go bankrupt because of the illegal immigrants the church is supporting?” Comment by Wells — January 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am

wells: I described in my post the events that have happened in my very small church in the Deep South where it is the only Catholic Church in the community. We have lost nine American families from the parish because of the church’s support of illegal immigration.

The church is not authorized to pick and choose which laws it will obey. If the church, or any other group, does not like a particular law, the remedy is to set about changing it. We are in dangerous territory when groups, whether in the name of religion on not, embark on a path whereby they simply ignore laws that don’t comport with their idea of justice. Those laws were passed in accordance with our democratic government and must be observed.