Brian R Corbin's Reflections on Religion and Life

Living Your Faith as Citizens and Leaders in Politics, Culture, Society and Business

September 10, 2008 • 6:18 pm 0

Bishops call for reexamination of ICE work site raids

Statement of Most Reverend John C. Wester
Bishop of Salt Lake City
Chairman, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration

On

Worksite Enforcement Raids

September 10, 2008

On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), I call upon the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and President Bush to reexamine the use of worksite enforcement raids as an immigration enforcement tool. The humanitarian costs of these raids are immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society.

In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, we have sought to work collaboratively with DHS to ensure that raids are carried out humanely. It seems to us that DHS has attempted to abide by several humanitarian considerations in executing some of the workplace raids.

However, we believe that DHS has not gone far enough to ensure that human rights protections are consistently applied in all enforcement actions.

For over a year now, DHS has targeted employers who hire unauthorized workers by using force to enter worksites and arrest immigrant workers. During the process of these raids, U.S.-citizen children have been separated from their parents for days, if not longer; immigrants arrested have not been afforded the rights of due process; and local communities, including legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens, have been disrupted and dislocated. The sweeping nature of these raids—which often involve hundreds of law enforcement personnel with weapons—strike fear in immigrant communities and make it difficult for those arrested to secure basic due process protections, including legal counsel.

We have witnessed first-hand the suffering of immigrant families and are gravely concerned about the collateral human consequences of immigration enforcement raids on the family unit. Many of our local parishes have helped respond to human needs generated by these enforcement actions, providing counseling and legal services to parents and children and basic needs assistance to immigrant communities.
Raids strike immigrant communities unexpectedly, leaving the affected immigrant families to cope in their aftermath. Husbands are separated from their wives, and children are separated from their parents. Many families never recover; others never reunite.

As our government confronts the challenges of immigration, let it not forget one of its core duties: protecting the family unit as the fundamental institution upon which society and government itself depends.

While we do not question the right and duty of our government to enforce the law, we do question whether worksite enforcement raids are the most effective and humane method for performing this duty, particularly as they are presently being implemented. In this regard, we ask DHS to immediately pledge to take the following actions to mitigate the human costs of these raids:

DHS should refrain from enforcement activity in certain areas that provide humanitarian relief—churches, hospitals, community health centers, schools, food banks, and other community-based organizations that provide charitable services;

Primary, not simply sole, caregivers should be released following an enforcement action to care for their children. A variety of release mechanisms, including parole in the public interest, release on recognizance, bail, and alternatives to detention should be utilized for this purpose:

DHS should facilitate access to meaningful legal representation for arrested individuals so that they are aware of their legal rights and options;

Enforcement actions should be conducted in a manner which preserves basic human dignity: immigrants who are working to survive and support their families should not be treated like criminals.

Mechanisms should be instituted to allow family members to remain together and to locate each other during and following an enforcement action. Non-profit and community groups should be engaged in this effort.

Absent the effective and immediate implementation of these safeguards, we believe that these enforcement raids should be abandoned.

Immigration enforcement raids demonstrate politically the ability of the government to enforce the law. They do little, however, to solve the broader challenge of illegal immigration. They also reveal, sadly, the failure of a seriously flawed immigration system, which, as we have consistently stated, requires comprehensive reform.

As they begin their general election campaigns, we urge the two presidential candidates to engage the issue of immigration in a humane, thoughtful, and courageous manner.

We urge our elected and appointed officials to turn away from enforcement-only methods and direct their energy toward the adoption of comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Filed under: Migration, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

September 3, 2008 • 1:51 pm 0

VATICAN TO PUBLISH DOCUMENT ON POVERTY

ZE08090205 – 2008-09-02
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-23534?l=english

Cardinal Says Economic Inequality a “Dramatic” Problem

DAR-ES-SALAAM, Tanzania, SEPT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace announced the forthcoming publication by the Holy See of a document analyzing poverty in the context of globalization.

Cardinal Renato Martino revealed news of the publication during a 4-day congress on evangelization last week in Dar-Es-Salaam organized by the dicastery.

The theme of the conference was “Toward a New Evangelization of African Society in Accordance with the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

During the conference Cardinal Martino officially presented the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which was published in October 2004, to the Church in Africa.

The cardinal stated that “since the Second Vatican Council, the preferential option for the poor is one of the points that most characterizes the social doctrine of the Church,” reported Vatican Radio.

“Poverty and, above all, the growing inequality between areas, continents and countries, including within the latter, constitutes the most dramatic problem facing the world today,” he added.

The cardinal explained that the new document of the dicastery will attempt to offer concrete answers to the problem of poverty in keeping with the Church’s social doctrine.

Evangelical approach

“The intention is to point out an evangelical approach to combat poverty, to identify — both at the national and the international level — those responsible for combating poverty, to sensitize the Church to greater and more articulated attention to and awareness of the problems of poverty and of the poor of the world,” he said.
“It must not be forgotten that today extreme poverty has, above all, the face of women and children, especially in Africa,” the cardinal added.

Cardinal Martino said that the dynamism of evangelization “must drive the Church to privilege the poor, to direct our strength to the poor, to consider the renewal of society from the needs of the poor.”

In regard to globalization, the cardinal pointed out that “an indispensable act of charity” is the “determination that has as its end the organization and structure of society so that a neighbor does not have to live in misery.”

He said this determination must be all the greater if one takes into account that poverty “is a situation facing a great number of people, including whole populations, a situation that today has acquired the proportions of a real worldwide social issue.”

Filed under: Cor Unum, Economic Policy, Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

August 18, 2008 • 8:45 pm 0

USCCB Statement on Labor Day, 2008

An American Catholic Tradition
Most Reverend William F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
September 1, 2008

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2008.pdf

The late Msgr. George G. Higgins was a remarkable priest whose primary work for many
years was connecting the Church and the labor movement around Catholic teaching on worker
rights. One of his many contributions was to offer an annual Labor Day statement on issues of
work and economic justice. This American Catholic tradition has been continued by the bishop
chairman of the Conference committee that works on economic issues. As the new Chairman of
the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I take up this task with some trepidation but with a desire to begin by paying
homage to my friend of many years, Msgr. George Higgins.

Msgr. Higgins was a powerful bridge between the Catholic Church and the labor
movement. He was a realist, but a hopeful one. Monsignor was irascible and rather confident in
his opinions as well as in his convictions of what needed to be done. To his very core, he believed
that workers were best served by joining together with other workers in a union. I suspect he
would have had some trenchant comments about the situation of workers and wages, working
conditions, and the changing face of work in a globalized marketplace. While he would have
waxed eloquent about the “big picture,” his goal would never stray from an extraordinary ability
to measure the large economic issues by their impact on the average working man and woman.
Monsignor would have been harsh in his judgment about the greed and irresponsibility that
led to the mortgage foreclosure crisis. He would have had some caustic comments on the price of
gas for the working person and its impact on family life. He would have kept a keen eye on the
cost of living and its effect on family budgets, on the real value of current wages to buy
necessities, and on the challenges to our economy to diversify without losing sight of its
traditional strengths and opportunities.

Monsignor would have pointed out the lack of union representation in so many of the emerging industries and workplaces where exploitation has been most evident. He would have applauded any and every new initiative that brings labor leadership, management, and related interested parties together as “intermediate institutions” in our society that would be based on mutual respect. He would recognize that such respect furthers the good of the worker, the enterprises involved, and the common good.

Above all Msgr. Higgins would be concerned about the worker, the person, and the family
whose daily lives are affected by a host of factors. He would weigh up and measure all those
factors by their overall impact on human beings. And then he would have offered a couple of
basic suggestions that would move beyond hand wringing and negative assessments. Monsignor
would re-assert his faith in a nation and a people whose creative energies and productive
capacities should and would move us to a healthier economic situation. He would urge us to
remember that in a world of globalized activities, Catholic Social Teaching still offers one of the
best ways to assess whether the human person is the center of economic life or whether workers
who are poor and marginalized are forgotten.

A Nation Blessed
We are a nation blessed with extraordinary natural and human resources. We have great
economic capacity and creativity. We have extraordinary economic power and responsibility.
And, we are free! We all know we face challenges. But when did our nation not have challenges?
Where does it say that we should simply be recipients of the goods of this earth without working
for them, without earning them? Creativity and initiative are as much essential elements of our
lives today as they have been in the past. This freedom of creative initiative and energy needs to
be tempered by a deep sense of responsibility for one another, for our planet, and for the future.
The more we exercise self control in our possession and use of the goods of this earth, sharing
with others opportunities as well as products, the less need we will have for the kinds of
regulatory laws that become necessary when economic privateers and profit seeking pirates take
over whole areas of our economy.

We are a nation committed to both economic freedom and economic justice. But that
cannot mean freedom for me and justice for me alone. The classic linking of the human person
with the common good teaches us that we have to use our freedom and creativity not just for
ourselves and those we care for. It must extend to all those who are affected by our actions and by society’s goals. That means everybody in today’s globalized world.

A Globalized World
All these challenges and questions are framed in a new light with new dimensions in this
age of globalization. The world of work is different than in years past. Finance, production, trade,
and labor are no longer local, regional, or national entities, but global. Of itself globalization is a
neutral fact. It depends on who takes advantage of the current global economy and how it is put to use. Our present Holy Father Benedict XVI has suggested that this process offers “the hope of
wider participation in development” but warns against its risks of “worsening economic
inequality.” (May 26, 2007).

Here, two interrelated principles of Catholic Social Teaching come into play. The principle of subsidiarity champions the freedom of initiative that allows everyone scope and opportunity to be creative and productive and reap the benefits of hard work and energy. When taken to the extreme, it can become exploitive of others. Yet joined to the principle of solidarity, subsidiarity and all its creative impulses become harnessed to an end that includes the makers of a vibrant economy. This links their work into a set of relationships bringing new opportunities to one another across political and social divisions and especially across the great divide between rich and poor. Let interdependence become the “solidarity” of neighbor to neighbor in such a way that the subsidiarity of free creativity builds up and offers new possibilities for all neighbors, especially the poor and the vulnerable. The Church continues to echo the call of Pope John Paul II to “globalize solidarity.”

Catholic Social Teaching
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching has much to offer in these tough economic
times. In the midst of the transformation of society during the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo
XIII gave us enduring principles to deal with “new things” in his prophetic encyclical Rerum
Novarum. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have made the cause of justice for workers
their own, responding to the “new things” in economic life. When Pope John Paul II issued his
first “social encyclical,” Laborem Exercens, in 1981, he invited us to look at these issues from the
perennial viewpoint of the value of human work which finds its intrinsic meaning in the dignity of
the worker.

Msgr. Higgins applauded this teaching of the Holy Father. He saw it as a papal clarion call
for all the issues he championed in his own life. He was right because they are all the values
stemming from the truth about the inherent dignity and value of the human person that lies at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church continues to focus on the dignity of the worker as the key to the question of work and as the cornerstone of Catholic teaching on economic life. Our challenge is to assess our “new things” by the application of traditional moral principles expressed in Catholic Social Teaching that continue to have remarkable meaning and relevance to us as we celebrate Labor Day 2008.

Labor Day and Politics
This year, we will choose a new president, as well as one-third of the Senate, all the
members of the House of Representatives, and myriad state and local officials. The campaign has
already been long and, for many, arduous. What can I as a bishop add to this without echoing
what has been said better by others? Msgr. Higgins would urge you to look beyond the slogans
and the promises. He would ask you to assess the candidates’ backgrounds and records. He would have a few choice words for those he deemed unworthy or neglectful of the rights of workers and the role of unions. But he would always insist on some basic principles that we all must follow.

The Bishops of the United States have put forth for Catholics and non-Catholics alike
some basic principles to consider. In publishing the new and, I believe, challenging statement,
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, we bishops call Catholics to be active and
informed participants in political life. We do not seek to impose or imply a preference for one
candidate over another. We do propose what is incumbent on all men and women of good will: the formation of a correct conscience based on the truth about the human person and human society.

We cannot emphasize this enough. An informed conscience moves beyond personal feelings and
individual popularity. An informed conscience asks first what is right and true. An informed
conscience examines the candidates and the issues from the perspective of human life and dignity, the true good of every human person, the true good of society, the common good of us all in our nation and in this world.

What can I add to that? Never forget that human life is the supreme good in this world.
Never forget that human dignity is not an expendable commodity but belongs to everyone without exception. Every day we are pro-life. Every day we are champions of human dignity.

Our voices and our votes should shape society by bringing these inalienable truths into every particular proposal and program, every particular candidate’s projects and plans. The Bishops’ statement makes both links and distinctions between the fundamental duty to oppose what is intrinsically evil (i.e., the destruction of unborn life) and the obligation to pursue the common good (i.e., defending the rights of workers and pursuing greater economic justice).

I urge you to review and reflect on this challenging call to be salt, light, and leaven in this election year and beyond (see http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org).

A Catholic Framework
We Catholics have been blessed by a centennial of Catholic Social Teaching. I personally
have been privileged to work with three Popes in this field and have been formed by their vision
and their teaching. The Church offers this, not just to Catholics, but to all men and women of good will. We are convinced that the truths about the human person in society that come to us from both reason and revelation must be brought into all the economic, social, civil, political, and
cultural relationships that make up a good society. The human and moral dimensions of economic life are key principles in Catholic thought. Catholic social and moral teaching on these matters offers hope and direction in difficult times. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church provides us with a summary and synthesis of the Church’s teaching on economic life as well as other aspects of the Catholic social tradition. [See Chapter VI “Human Work” and Chapter VII “Economic Life,” Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2004 )]

I recommend it to you.

The bishops of the United States reflect this teaching as they outline key elements of a just
economy in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. These basics need to be part of the
national discussion as we choose leaders and develop policies for the future:

The economy must serve people, not the other way around.

Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.

Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers—to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to adequate benefits and security in their old age, to the choice of whether to organize and join unions, to the opportunity for legal status for immigrant workers, to private property, and to economic initiative.

Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers, employers, and unions should not only advance their own interests, but also work together to advance economic justice and the well-being of all. (#52)

Overcoming Poverty
Poverty has many faces. And they are the faces of our brothers and sisters here in our own
country and around the world. Whether I am in remote corners of Africa or the streets of
Lawrence, Massachusetts, I am convinced that when we face up to the needs of these our brothers and sisters, the challenge of overcoming poverty brings the Catholic community together. The Catholic Church is committed to making her contribution to alleviating the pain of poverty at every level: internationally, nationally, and especially locally through the magnificent endeavors of priests, religious, and laity in our parishes.

Things may be tough for an awful lot of us today. But no matter how difficult it might be for you or me, I believe each of us can name someone we know who is carrying a greater burden. I can hear Msgr. Higgins telling us “Don’t forget the other guy,” especially the person with less. That person has hopes and dreams, too. That person comes from a family and belongs to our human family. That person has dignity because all of us are created in the image of God.

Let me close by sharing with you some thoughts from Pope Benedict’s powerful
encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: In the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God….Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to [the Church] as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. (# 15, 22)

To one and all, I wish you a most happy and relaxing Labor Day with family and friends. I
hope this Labor Day will bring a renewed vigor as we seek to build together a society that cares
for its own, reaches out to the poor and vulnerable, and offers true hope to all. Let us share justly
and freely the goods of society and advance the good of every person and the common good of all.

Filed under: Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

August 11, 2008 • 7:39 pm 0

Speech by Donald Kerwin, Director of CLINIC/USCCB

“Renewing Hope”
by Donald Kerwin, National Migration Conference, 2008

I learned long ago that people mostly come to these gatherings to be reminded of why they do what they do. Thus, my intention is to speak to the values that underlie our work. Building on the conference’s theme and Cardinal Mahony’s key-note address, I’d like to speak about one virtue in particular, the virtue of hope.

Despite the harsh rhetoric, most people want to do the right thing on immigration, but they need a way to conceptualize the issue and to see immigrants as they truly are. How do we view immigrants? How do we see ourselves?

Migration plays the starring role in our faith tradition. For us, migration has always been a mystery in plain view. Hebrew Scripture tells the story of the Exodus and Exile of the Jewish people, and how these seminal experiences taught the Jewish people empathy toward migrants, not hard-heartedness. The first five books of Hebrew Scripture admonish us no less than 36 times to treat the stranger with justice and compassion.

In the New Testament, we find the stories of Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem, the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, and the wise men’s journey to the Holy Family. We follow the itinerant ministry of Jesus, the apostles on the road to Emmaus, and Paul on the road to Damascus. We learn that Jesus identified with migrants and linked our salvation to our treatment of strangers and the dispossessed.

Members of the early Church, a missionary church, called themselves “parokoi” which means temporary residents, migrants, sojourners. Parokoi is the root of our modern word “parish.” In our tradition, therefore, a parish is where sojourners gather.

In all of our history, in all of our experiences, God has accompanied us on our journeys. As a people, we have long known of the fear and prejudice that leads to hostility toward immigrants. We read in the Book of Exodus that, following Joseph’s death, the new Pharoh feared that the exiled people of Israel would become “too many and too mighty” (Ex 1:8-22). As a result, he enslaved them and afflicted them with “heavy burdens.”

Immigrants have also played a decisive role in our national narrative, continuously enriching and renewing our nation. Earlier immigrants, the ancestors of many of us here this morning, came to this nation for the same reasons that today’s immigrants do. And they faced the same suspicions and criticisms. Nativists viewed them as lawless, disease-ridden, and not assimilable.

Their faith made them particularly suspect. Catholicism was attacked as incompatible with democracy. In a striking irony, nativists evoked religious liberty to justify their bigotry and discrimination.

We know that when we welcome immigrants and allow them to contribute fully to our country, it benefits all of us. Conversely:

• When we deny health care to an immigrant, we endanger public health.

• When we deny the possibility of a college education to immigrant children, we cruelly limit their ability to contribute.

• When we effectively deny immigrants access to the police, we undermine public safety.

• When we try to deny citizenship to children born in the United States, we take aim at the very ideals that make us a nation.

We do not want to create a permanent or hereditary underclass of residents — mere “denizens” without security, prospects, or rights.

To us, the question is not what we don’t “get” about the “‘illegal’ in ‘illegal alien’” The question is what those who oppose us don’t get about God-given human dignity? What don’t they get about people exercising their rights and duties to migrate in order to support their families? Why can’t they see that immigrants contribute to the good of our nation with their labor, their faith, their family values, and their commitment to their communities? Why don’t they understand that an illegal entry may be technically a crime, but that it’s a peculiar crime indeed that people feel compelled to commit in order to feed their children? Whey don’t they see that strategies aimed at deporting or forcing out 12 million people would be a civil rights, social and economic catastrophe? In fact, these policies are a catastrophe in many communities. Or that people cannot be illegal, any more than fathers, mothers, sisters, or brothers can be illegal?

We believe in a nation comprised of people from different countries who are united by a commitment to our nation and to its core values of freedom, equality, rights, democracy, and opportunity. We do not believe that membership in our nation should turn on traits like ethnicity, race, nationality, or other inherited characteristics. We reject a vision that would deny citizenship to children born here, effectively making them stateless. We reject a vision that would rationalize or ignore the reality of people perishing in the desert, of families torn apart, of people denied the ability to subsist.

Hope – like justice and hospitality — is one of the great biblical themes that guide our work. Hope for a better life for migrants and for all of us. Hope for the conversion of hearts and minds that are disfigured by confusion, suspicion, anger and ignorance. Hope that our nation will come to embrace people who share its ideals and embody its virtues. Hope that our elected officials will create a better system and will have the courage to enact positive immigration reform.

Hope does not mean we will always get what we want from our limited and imperfect perspective. Mother Theresa reminded us that “we’re not supposed to be successful, but faithful.” However, hope does mean that we will never be resigned to the current state of affairs.
And we have reason to hope. You would be hopeful if you were rooted in a tradition which lived and taught that:

• all persons have equal dignity and rights.

• a state has a right to control its borders, but not at the expense of those who are migrating to realize their God-given rights

• sovereignty is not about denying rights, but about locating responsibility for honoring them

• the rule of law is not about about putting people outside the law, but protecting them within the law

• rights turns on human dignity, not on membership in a particular state or immigration status

• honoring rights serves the good of everybody which is the very purpose of government

• the “common good” is not the greater good, but it embraces the rights and prosperity of everybody, including those without legal status

• cultural diversity should not be feared because culture is where people locate their deepest values

• migration presents an opportunity to unify people based on their values

This kind of vision would give you hope. And, friends, this is the Catholic vision. Here is what the U.S. bishops said when asked to extend the Justice for Immigrants campaign for another few years. They said that the campaign would not be extended for three or five years; it would be extended until our nation provides justice for immigrants. We should all take hope from that response.

Let me end by sharing a success story from Elena Segura and the Justice for Immigrants campaign in Chicago. As part of that campaign, a group of 2,500 women committed to pray for immigration reform. Some committed to pray for months, others for years. Their slogan is Oracion Y Accion Hasta Que Pase La Ley De Inmigracion. They use the image of those who carried the ark of the covenant around Jericho. Around and around Jericho the priests and people walked with the ark. Around and around seven times until the walls of Jericho fell down.
And around and around the prayers of the women in Chicago travel. Around and around the halls of Congress and of the Department of Homeland Security. Around and around the borders between our countries. Around and around the borders in our minds, borders that separate us from our brothers and sisters. The women pray that the wall in our nation’s collective heart will fall. Have hope. Be strong in your faith. It will.

Thank you.

Filed under: Migration, Social Doctrine

July 30, 2008 • 7:03 pm 0

Cardinal McCarrick and Cardinal Mahony on Immigration Policy

Cardinals say immigration at ‘dark moment’ in US but call for hope

By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two Catholic cardinals called the current U.S. immigration situation “a terrible crisis” and “a dark moment in our nation’s history” in remarks they made July 28 at the opening Mass and plenary session of the 2008 National Migration Conference.

Both Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles urged participants to hold on to hope in their work with immigrants for local and national church agencies.

The July 28-31 conference attended by more than 850 people was co-sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services.

Much of the agenda, built around the theme “Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice,” reflected the struggles faced by those who work with immigrants.

Workshops were scheduled on topics such as “How to respond to federal raids,” “Identifying and supporting survivors of traumatic events,” “A Catholic response to human trafficking” and “Parenting challenges from an African immigrant perspective.”

Another two dozen workshop sessions dealt with legal issues including “Filing waivers of inadmissibility” and “Immigration law and crimes”; strategies for fundraising; and getting out the church’s message on immigration.

“I see our challenge as one of shouting out the message of the Gospel, the words of the holy fathers, the unchanging teaching of the church, and in the profound conviction of our nation’s history that the real heart of America has not changed, that its willingness to right a wrong has not faulted, that it needs only continuous courage, unwavering confidence in the goodness of people and a trust in God’s love for the poor and the stranger,” said Cardinal McCarrick in his homily July 28.

Drawing from the Gospel reading of the parable of the mustard seed, Cardinal McCarrick said the story is full of optimism “that the kingdom of heaven itself can be sown in men’s hearts like a seed.”

The sowing of seeds is a theme in many of Jesus’ parables, he noted, with one important lesson that the seed is the word of God.

He said that lesson “is often lost because of the hardness of men’s hearts, the timidity of their belief and the temptations of the world, which sometimes allure them into political positions which they know in their hearts are wrong, since they do not conform to the loving providence of God.”

He said the parable also has a message “to keep sowing the seed, no matter what the likelihood of success … no matter how hard the sowing may be, no matter how challenging the prospects of success, keep sowing, keep sowing in confidence that God’s providence will provide the good soil. Do not give up; your seed will reach it yet; keep sowing, because if you stop the people will perish.”

Cardinal Mahony more directly took on the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation and the federal enforcement policies that have led to “the separation of families, the harassment and profiling of U.S. citizens and legal residents, the expanded use of detention against those who are not a flight risk or a danger and, tragically, deaths in the United States desert.”

The recent national policy described as “deportation by attrition” has a goal of creating “such a dangerous and unwelcoming atmosphere that immigrants and their families leave the United States because they have no other choice,” said Cardinal Mahony.

It has led to fear among immigrant communities and a hostile atmosphere, “fanning the flames of intolerance, xenophobia and, at times, bigotry,” he continued.

“Such a national policy is doomed to fail because it underestimates the human spirit, the spirit of hope that we celebrate in this gathering,” the cardinal said.

The very act of migration is a hopeful one, he said, because it is based in the belief that a better life is possible for the migrant and his family.

He encouraged conference attendees to consider the call to hope expressed by Pope Benedict XVI in the encyclical “Spe Salvi” (“Saved by Hope”).

Hope “gives us the courage to place ourselves on the side of the good even in seemingly hopeless situations, aware that, as far as the external course of history is concerned, the power of sin will continue to be a terrible presence,” the encyclical said.

Cardinal Mahony said that, “despite the attacks on our position and on those we serve, we must not lose faith as to the rightness of our cause and of our service to our immigrant brothers and sisters. The church must remain a prophetic voice in an increasingly hostile wilderness, defending her mandate, given by Christ, to welcome the stranger.”

He outlined some suggestions for the church to work to change the current situation, including continuing to reach out and support immigrants; holding elected officials accountable by insisting on a human approach to immigrants; changing attitudes toward migrants through education; and working to reform immigration laws.

“While we are bound to respect our laws and not violate them, we also are bound to correct unjust laws,” Cardinal Mahony said. “The terms ‘rule of law’ and ‘national security’ should no longer be used to justify the harsh and inhumane treatment of immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers. While we acknowledge the right and the need for our government to enforce the law, we must remind our fellow Americans that man-made law does not permit the violation of God’s law.”

A letter of greeting to the conferees from Cardinal Renato Martino, as president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, was read by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, the council secretary.

Cardinal Martino said an approach to the difficulties of migration should be intercultural, ecumenical and interreligious.

He said political action on migration should be comprehensive and “not turn the immigrant into the scapegoat for other crucial social issues, nor a threat to security and stability.”

The basis for church action on behalf of immigrants is “the affirmation that all persons are equal, well beyond the differences deriving from origin, language and culture,” Cardinal Martino said.
The church’s approach “affirms the central role and sacred character of the human being independently from his/her regular or irregular legal status. … The church is more and more convinced that making the most of the ethical-religious dimension of migration is the surest way to reach also other goals of high human and cultural value.”

Other prelates attending the conference included New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan; Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri of San Marcos; Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the bishops’ migration committee; Bishops Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., Frank J. DeWane of Venice, Fla., and Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Auxiliary Bishop Rutilio J. del Riego of San Bernardino, Calif.

Filed under: Migration, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

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