The U.S. immigration debate is really not about immigration per say (i.e. legal immigration), but about illegal immigration. Now while the Catholic Church is highly sympathetic to the struggles and challenges that immigrants face – after all Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph were immigrants in Egypt for a time – the Church also appreciates that nations have a right to regulate their borders.
American is a place for immigrants (photo courtesy of gerson721).
What’s not often talked about in the immigration debate is that the majority of illegal immigrants to the U.S. are Mexicans and other Latin Americans who are Catholic.
It’s worth emphasizing that Catholic priests are not agents of the state; their job is not to inquire about the residency status of their parishioners. Their job is to administer the Sacraments to Catholic people regardless of status.
The Catholic Church in America (as elsewhere) is not a political institution. Its doctrines and moral teachings do not neatly fit with either the Republican or Democratic party platforms.
Political watchers – not the Catholic Church – have speculated that the Democratic party wants to be “soft” on illegal immigrants, because they anticipate that Latin Americans in the U.S. will naturally become registered democrats when their status is normalized.
This may be true, but the Democratic party is the party of abortion on demand, embryonic stem cell research, so-called “Hate Crimes Legislation,” as well the party that supports efforts that are entirely opposite the catholic gay marriage position. As things stand in 2009, the Democratic party is not a place where faithful Catholics can find a home.
This isn’t to suggest, however, that the Republican party is the de facto party of Catholics in America, but that the Democratic party has become explicitly anti-family and anti-life in its policies. This should deeply trouble all Catholics, whether they are U.S. citizens or Mexican immigrants.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church stresses the moral obligation that a people have to welcome foreigners and immigrants, but it also emphasizes that the state has a right to control its borders.
2241 “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him… Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption.”
The Catechism also stresses that immigrants and foreigners should be grateful to the their new home, and try to learn its ways and customs:
“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.”
