Missouri bishops to pols: Curb your anti-immigration talk
Monday evening, Missouri’s Catholic bishops jumped into the state’s ongoing debate over illegal immigrants by issuing a statement “delivered to Governor Matt Blunt and state legislators, calling for an end to rhetoric in which political candidates vie to see who can be tougher on illegal immigrants.
“The statement urges a more positive discussion of immigrant-related concerns and how our state might best address these issues,” the bishops said in a release.
The release doesn’t mince words. Here’s the rest:
“In the statement the bishops recall the Gospel story in which a lawyer asked Jesus ‘Who is my neighbor?’
“In response Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, who recognized the neighbor in distress while others ignored him. Even those lacking legal status in our country merit our compassionate response, according to the bishops.
“While respecting national sovereignty, the bishops stated ‘that each person has a basic human right to migrate when faced with circumstances such as persecution, drought, famine or pervasive poverty.’
“Poverty in Mexico and Central America is so severe, the bishops note, that many people live on one dollar a day or less. Immigrants who cannot support themselves or their families in their home countries often come to find work and to send money back home to their families.
“The bishops asked ‘Would we, in their shoes, not do the same?’
”The bishops express concern that pending legislation could hinder humanitarian assistance offered by the Catholic Church and other churches to immigrants.
“Several pending bills would require social services agencies operated by churches but receiving government funds to screen all of their clients to ensure only those with legal status are served by the agency. Such restrictions would work a tremendous hardship on church social services agencies, which generally serve all applicants for assistance from either other government or other sources of funds.
“Other bills propose to penalize businesses that unknowingly hire illegal immigrants. There are also bills that direct local law enforcement to enforce national immigration policies as part of their duties. The bishops indicate that this may discourage immigrants from reporting crimes thereby undermining public safety for all.
“Several bills require officials at Missouri’s public colleges and universities to certify to legislative appropriations committees that they have not knowingly admitted students unlawfully present in the country.
“Instead of penalizing these students, the bishops urge that they be allowed to attend Missouri’s public colleges and universities while they seek to obtain permanent legal status. The bishops note that these children have been brought into the country by their parents and the state should not turn its back on them because they lack legal status through no fault of their own.
“The bishops call on public officials to consider scriptural values, including openness to immigrants and newcomers to the country, in seeking to further the common good of all people.”
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.