How will Catholics approach immigration reform?

[rug]

Baseball’s All-Star Game in Phoenix produced a symbolic protest against Arizona’s anti-Latino immigrant legislation. Unable to get baseball’s commissioner to move the game, the protesters relied on white ribbons to dramatize the issue. Catholicism, as acknowledged recently in this space, has a poor track record in making revolutions. When it comes to creating symbols of support for causes, however, the Church has had more success. With an admirable track record in both symbol and substance for comprehensive immigration reform, this issue “belongs” to Catholic America the way that the Civil Rights Movement “belonged” to the historically black churches. I hope that our bishops will show as much energy in pushing lawmakers towards comprehensive reform as they did in trying to hold back legalizing same sex marriages. Immigration reform is actually more important.

I am among those who believe the Baseball Commissioner reacted badly to the request to transfer this game. After all, the Super Bowl was taken away from Arizona in 1993 because the state denied Martin Luther King deserved a holiday. What if the law allowed local Arizona police to detain Jews or African Americans under suspicion of being “aliens”? Remember that, if injuries had not kept players named Rodriguez, Pujos and Polanco out of the opening lineups, half of the All Star Game starters would be Latinos subject to the same challenges by local police. The anti-Latino Sheriff Joe Arpaio is paying $200,000 in court fines for violating the rights of U.S. citizens he “rounded up” in one of his raids on Latinos and Latinas. So not only have these draconian raids unjustly imprisoned innocent persons, authorities in Arizona like the sheriff have to be taken to court before admitting “mistakes,” and the Latino All Stars ran the risk of such arrests. I’m not arguing here that we should let down our guard about anti-Semitism or racial prejudice, only noting that we Latinos and Latinas have to work harder at getting public opinion to recognize our cause with the same revulsion as for other groups.

Today, the issue that – at least on paper – unites both the Retro and the Purpose-Driven Catholics of right and left political leanings is immigration reform. The Catholic Church counts on a series of important episcopal statements and continuing lobbying efforts to achieve legislation that would reform the unworkable policies of the present. The effort continues to strive for “comprehensive” reform, which includes, but goes beyond mere policing of the border and includes reuniting of families and a path to citizenship, especially for young people who committed no crime (The Dream Act). True to Gospel values, immigration reform is supposed to put people first and not hew to partisan politics. Our bishops have also rejected the simplistic notion that such human reform can only begin after all undocumented immigrants have been deported.

Symbolic support, while not the same as revolutionary social legislation, is nonetheless important. Its purpose is to rally Catholics for specific legislation that advances Catholic teaching. Invocations delivered by priests at public events and the use of crucifixes, rosaries and religious statues are arrows in our collective Catholic quiver. We have used them in the past to support farmworkers’ unionization and to oppose abortion -even merchandising the items online.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/catholic-america/post/how-with-catholics-approach-immigration-reform/2011/07/14/gIQARqDlEI_blog.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. Does it really matter what the catholic church wants or does??

Or does it matter what Catholics do??

The catholic church has lost its credibility when it comes to equal rights for all people

[rug]

2. As to your second question,

does it matter what a quarter of the U.S. population does?

Or were you being rhetorical?

[Angry Dragon]

3. I probably stated it wrong

I have no time for the repressive catholic church
To me it is more important what the Catholics do......

Or maybe the better question is 'does the catholic church really represent the Catholics??'

[rug]

4. Probably.

[Ron Goetz]

9. Does it matter what the Catholics do? Hmm . . .

There are 68.5 million registered Catholics in the United States (22% of the US population).
Yeah, I'd say it matters what the Catholic church does, and what rank-and-file Catholics believe and do.
I sure do. And I'm not Catholic.
Does it matter to me personally, i.e. am I influenced to act or believe a certain way? Not that I'm aware of.
But does it matter politically and socially? Absolutely.

I was part of a group of counter-demonstrators once, at the U.S./Mexico border, facing off against a white supremacy group.
There was a little old Catholic nun in our group. It was nice.
Did she undo the anti-homosexual Prop 8 campaign, or the damage done by pedophile priests? Hardly.

But everybody matters, Angry Dragon, everybody. And 68.5 million people matter a lot.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Many diocese have Immigration help for many years now

So the church is willing to help

[msongs]

6. answer = what % of immigrants are...catholics lol nt

[rug]

8. 46%

"The Landscape Survey finds that among the foreign-born adult population, Catholics outnumber Protestants by nearly a two-to-one margin (46% Catholic vs. 24% Protestant)".

http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/

[dmallind]

7. I suspect the church has at least one eye on congregation growth but they are right here

Whether they are right for altruistic or for self-serving reasons nobody without at least a pink hat can say for sure, but history gives us many examples of those doing good work for less than good reasons, and I worry more about the results than the rationale. So for this at least I have no problem saying it seems I largely agree with these church officials on this issue. Not the first time and won't be the last. Says nothing whatsoever about the righteousness of the church (or, much less importantly but equally applicably, me) on other issues though.