Follow
Register for free to receive Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe’s My Daily Visitor newsletter and unlock full access to the latest inspirational stories, news commentary, and spiritual resources from Our Sunday Visitor.
Newsletter Magazine Subscription

A defense of the Church in today’s heated immigration debate

Photo by Humberto Chávez. (Public Domain via Unsplash)

July 7, 1946, was a big day in the history of the Catholic Church in America. Catholics were excited. They were proud.

On that day, Pope Pius XII declared Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini a saint. An American citizen, and an immigrant from Italy, she was already a heroine among Catholic Americans because of her legendary work among immigrants in this country. All Catholic Americans related to her, knowing that, save for a tiny minority, they descended from immigrants who once upon a time benefited from the Church’s attention.

Those Americans got that right. Concern for immigrants by bishops, and by many other Catholics today, is about as Catholic as can be.

As the present debate about immigration continues, American Catholics should remember the past and think about why the Church so long has been involved in immigration issues.

Bishops’ stance on migration is nothing new

Immigration is an issue that has been debated throughout our history. No policy has been without criticism.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the debates were fierce, maybe worse than now. Hard times abroad caused many to want to come to this country, and many of these people were Catholics. This was a problem for anti-Catholic Americans. The U.S. Constitution forbids religious tests, so, under laws passed by Congress, arrivals were sent away if they happened to come from traditionally Catholic countries such as Italy or Poland.

Sadly, an everlasting aspect of immigration discussions has been unfounded generalizations of one group or another. All Irish are drunkards. All Italians are criminals. All Jews are swindlers. No Catholic can be a loyal American citizen.

The bishops fight generalizations today, but they say no one is perfect.

Begin and end every conversation about the bishops’ current activity by remembering that all are due fairness, and most of all, that every single person is a cherished child of God.

The bishops simply are repeating what the Church has taught all along. Respect every person. Care for every person. Reach out to every person. Be honest in judging every person. Jesus followed this process, as the Gospels report.

At the same time, the American bishops have stressed for generations that something must be done about uncontrolled entry into the country. They stress it today. Crime, and side-stepping the law, cannot be tolerated. Church policies regarding migrants rigidly follow official regulations.

Not motivated by money

Some people might ask, “What right do the American Catholic bishops have to address immigration in the first place?” The Catholic Church has earned the right. No other group, political party or institution has been involved in immigration questions as much as the Church.

And it has spent plenty of dollars as part of that involvement. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York recently invited anyone to inspect the books of his archdiocese. It always has lost money in its services to migrants. No government grant pays all the bills, let alone generates a profit.

A better measure of Church involvement in immigration is the voluntary, constant, energetic and uncompensated service of untold thousands of Catholics — probably millions historically, including Mother Cabrini and other great figures in American Catholic history — for immigrants and refugees.

The implication that they were, or their modern successors are, out to make a buck should turn the stomach of every Catholic.

Stoking fear and anger does not help

Efforts to resolve current problems in the immigration system — undertaken by the government, churches, private organizations and people simply interested in doing what is right — are being crippled, not just by the shocking ignorance or denial of proven fact, but also by the suspicion, anger, hard-heartedness, impulsiveness, fear, exaggeration and, on occasion, actual hatred generated by misinformation.

Finally, immigration is a political football, as were banks, liquor, taxation, and racial segregation in other times. It wins votes.

Bottom line: The Catholic Church in America, through its pronouncements, outlook, schools, hospitals, parishioners and social services, always, always has reached out to, defended and cared for immigrants, because the Church sees them first, last and always as human beings. This is true today.