released on December 12<\/a>, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the bishops call, yet again, for amnesty for illegal aliens and immigration on demand for those who wish to come here. \u201cWe recognize that every human being, authorized or not, is in the image of God, and therefore possesses infinite value and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\nI have but one word in response: \u201cAmen.\u201d As a public representative of the nation\u2019s most prominent organization advocating enforcement of immigration laws and more limited immigration, I remind myself every day that every human being must be treated with respect and dignity. On that score, there is no dispute between FAIR and the Catholic bishops.<\/p>\n
But here is where we part company. The bishops, like many other religious leaders, look at immigration solely from the perspective of the immigrants themselves. Of course immigration always benefits immigrants. No one picks up and leaves one country for another \u2013 legally or illegally \u2013 unless it serves some very substantial self-interest.<\/p>\n
But what the bishops and many other sincere people consistently overlook is the impact that mass immigration has on the lives of many millions of their fellow Americans. Mass immigration, legal and illegal, affects people\u2019s jobs, their ability to command a living wage, their children\u2019s educations, their tax dollars, the nation\u2019s environment \u2013 in short, everything that is important to them.<\/p>\n
In reality, what the bishops and other religious leaders are advocating is not charity. There is no moral, ethical, or religious code that allows one to be charitable with other people\u2019s resources. The parish priest in the pulpit cannot be charitable with the construction worker in the pew\u2019s job. He cannot ask the woman in the church choir to sacrifice the ability of her children to get a quality education when those kids find themselves in overcrowded classrooms, where half the kids don\u2019t speak English.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Church is right to be concerned about the plight of those who want nothing more than a better life for themselves and their kids. Fortunately, the Church is uniquely positioned to be a force for positive change. The majority of illegal aliens and prospective migrants hail from countries in which the Catholic Church is a powerful force and a voice of moral authority. Perhaps no entity could be as influential in bringing about much needed social, economic and political reform in the Latin American countries that are the source of so much out-migration.<\/p>\n
The Catholic bishops have no moral authority to impoverish or disadvantage people in this country to benefit people who have broken our laws. They have all the moral authority of the Bible to use their influence and considerable financial resources to affect change in countries that ignore the most basic interests of their citizens. In doing so, they might not only exhibit \u201cgoodwill toward men,\u201d but would go a long way toward fulfilling the ultimate goal of \u201cpeace on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It should not be limited to just a few weeks out of the year, but come December, the words, \u201cPeace on Earth and goodwill toward men\u201d seem to resonate a little more for most of us. \u201cPeace on Earth\u201d may be beyond our capacity, but \u201cgoodwill toward men\u201d is something each of us can practice<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,3,6,10,7],"tags":[1030],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9765,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/9765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}