Traición de los Clérigos
Posted on June 27th, 2009
by David Lindsay |
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The American Cathoolic Bishops are at it again, urging an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
In the words of the Catechism, “Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens” (paragraph 2241). You can’t do that by entering illegally, or by working illegally, or by evading taxes.
By no means only in America, the sooner the Bishops stop urging their flock to accept the loss of their jobs, the running down of their wages and working conditions, and the confinement of their children and grandchildren to the bottom of the heap by means of de facto State bilingualism, the better. No, these things are not somehow to the good of the Church.
In fact, far from Hispanics’ being the great hope of American Catholicism, Latin America has never been a very Catholic place, with slight if any Mass-going majorities, huge numbers of the unbaptised, rampant syncretism and surviving paganism, and a very heavy dependence on (historically European, these days usually North American) missionary priests. No wonder that the strongest opponents of the present levels of immigration, of any amnesty, and of the erosion of English in American life, are themselves traditional Catholics.
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The church’s position with regard to illegal aliens is shameful. The Catholic Bishops idiocy on many issues over the years has been manifest. They are notorious for farming out their reasoning powers to “experts” in the manner of the Warren Court, whenever approaching the nexus between church teaching and the real world.
On the other hand, the jobs of many Catholic corrections officers, public defenders,bail bondsmen etc. will be made safe by continued immigration from Latin America.
As someone who regularly worships in a church with Catholic latin immigrants, works with them on RCIA, Bible study and Catholic Catechism study programs, receives the Body of Our Lord from Latin American priests, and has long enjoyed social interaction with latins of many nationalities, I remain puzzled by the relentless hostility of a certain faction of American Catholics toward immigrants who are their fellow members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Spain and Portugal remained loyal to the Church when England went into schism and heresy. Thanks to these two countries, the Church continued to expand and more than 40% of the members of the Catholic Church worldwide are either Spanish or Portuguese speaking. Yet these Catholics we are supposed to scorn and even cast doubts on their faith just because some of them don’t speak English very well. The hostility of Protestants I can understand; they have historically been hostile to any Catholic immigrants. The hostility of Catholics to their fellow Catholics is scandalous and far from the spirit of brotherly love that should mark members of Christ’s Church.
I think it was Ramesh Ponnuru who once interviewed a Catholic Bishop on the topic of economic justice. Instead of questioning the good bishop about his lofty aims, he asked basic economics 101 questions. The bishop was ignorant of even basic principles and terms. Yet he spoke with authority on such matters after consulting with liberal Catholic experts from academia. I’m sure it’s much the same now.
Saint Paul’s Catholic church in Princeton NJ erected an out-sized statue of St Mary of Guadeloupe to the right of the main alter. Spanish masses are now the norm. Left untended is the resident Black population who have seen their jobs taken wholesale by St Paul’s largely illegal parishioners. The days when an uneducated but upright black man could make a living in landscaping are over in the area.
Presumably Ponnuru would have interviewed a Catholic bishop on the topic of just war teaching by asking him questions on basic military strategy and tactics. As far as Spanish language masses are concerned, they have the great advantage of not providing occasion to eliminate nearly all gender references. You just can’t do that in Spanish if you want to speak the language at all and the same is true of any western Indo-European language other than English. Our Lady of Guadalupe has been given the title patroness of the Americas. I guess this irritates those already irritated that the Mother of God revealed herself to a Mexican Indian peasant who is now a canonized saint of the Church.
Kirt Higdon, If the Bishop is as ignorant of the nature of war as he is of economics, he has little business opining on it.
The Mother of God can, and does, reveal herself to whom she chooses. Somehow I doubt she told those peasants to haul off and infiltrate another country.
“The hostility of Protestants I can understand; they have historically been hostile to any Catholic immigrants. The hostility of Catholics to their fellow Catholics is scandalous and far from the spirit of brotherly love that should mark members of Christ’s Church.” So you assume that American Catholics really should be, as depicted by Protestants, disloyal citizens. These people come not as refugees but as economic opportunists. As a Catholic and as an American I say they should do what they must to improve their lot where they are, not at the expense of our poor and lower middle class.
If Catholic citizens assisting Catholic and other immigrants to become citizens is disloyalty, count me among the disloyal and make the most of it. The immigrants I have encountered have greatly enhanced the quality of my life and I hope I have done something to enrich theirs.
Kirt, they are citizens,……of Mexico!
All immigrants who ever came to the US were citizens of somewhere else before they came here, so what is your point? In any event, my real citizenship is in the kingdom of God. Here on earth I’m just a temporary resident alien and one of rather dubious legality at that. My first loyalty is certainly not to any earthly regime.