Immigration reform next up on bishops' wish list for Congress

[Michie]

WASHINGTON (CNS) --

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of postcards have come from U.S. Catholics in organized efforts to influence members of Congress on issues ranging from partial-birth abortion to human cloning to health care reform.

A new postcard campaign in 2010 will urge Congress to take up as its next priority comprehensive immigration reform that would reunite families, regularize the status of an estimated 12 million people in this country illegally and restore due process protections for immigrants.

Continued- http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0905256.htm

 

[Michie]

Go Bishops!

 

[Krentis]

Sweet.

 

[Fantine]

This shows how important it is for the Church in America to maintain cordial relationships with all their legislators, because when respect breaks down (witness Bishop Tobin and Rep. Kennedy, for example) the ability to work productively together is lost.

Hopefully this will be a reminder to civil and religious leaders to communicate productively.

 

[helenofbritain]

That's great! I hope it goes well.

Our government recently went back to fear-and-loathing regarding boat people (who make up a tiny proportion off all immigrants, legal or otherwise) and has back flipped on election promises not to keep women and children in immigration detention. It sucks

 

[wiggsfly]

This is an excellent move and hopefully will be of great benefit to a large number of people.

 

[Kid Fish]

This is where I part company from most of you. This is not good. We are supposedly a sovereign nation, and every nation needs to enforce it's borders.

 

[helenofbritain]

This is where I part company from most of you. This is not good. We are supposedly a sovereign nation, and every nation needs to enforce it's borders.

Something about stable doors and bolting horses springs to mind here...

By all means, enforce your borders. But what about all the people you missed enforcing in the mean time? What will you do about them? Break out compassion or deport them all? (Which would cost you heaps in tax dollars, and deprive you of the opportunity of getting more tax dollars from people who would now be on your country's books.)

 

[Fantine]

Most immigrants are young. Most Hispanic immigrants I know are hard-working and ambitious.

They will save the Social Security system if we let them (one LESS thing for conservatives to complain about.)

But the bishops' position will only benefit a great number of people if they don't alienate the only politicians in Washington who share their interest in immigration reform.

How receptive do you think Rep. Kennedy would be to the concerns of his bishop, for example? He's probably on "block sender" on the e-mail list, "block caller" on the phone list, and on a list on his secretary's desk of people to put on hold. And there's a reason for that.

 

[Davidnic]

This is part of the whole ethic of life and dignity. The Holy Family were illegal immigrants, illegally crossing to Egypt fleeing a death sentence from a king. How many coming from drug ridden areas with their children to avoid organized crime and street wars can claim an affinity with the Holy Family. Many.

The Bishops are leading the way. Abortion is the front line with no compromise. It is the foundation. Then you push strong on everyone being taken care of for their health and the dignity of immigrants.

There is more if you look at what the Church considers to be the rights of people. And it will please neither left or right. And it should not have to. The voice of truth does not please the worldly voice. Here are what we consider rights by the teaching of the Church. Where it says things like "Choice of profession" it does not mean you can do what you want, but that you are given the same chance as anyone else as achieving it. And all of this is in relation to the common good. Meaning you have the right to choose residence, but not to go in and kick someone out of a pretty home if you want it or steal money if you can not afford that home. And the basis for all is the right to life. Without it you do not have a chance at the others.

(List of rights as given before the UN--Address of John Paul II to the 36th General Assembly of the United Nations, Oct. 2. 1979):

• The right to life, liberty, and security of person;

• The right to physical and moral integrity;

• The right to sufficient and necessary means to live in a becoming manner (food, clothing, housing, rest, health care, social services);

• The right to security in case of sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, unemployment, and any involuntary loss of the means of subsistence;

• The right to due respect for one's person and good name;

• The right to religious freedom and to freedom of conscience-and of thought

• The right to declare and defend one's own ideas (freedom of expression); the right to culture and access to objective information about public events;

• The right to education and, in relation to it, freedom to teach;

• The right to free choice of a state in life and the right to establish a family;

• The right to work, to free choice of a position or profession, and to a just wage;

• The right to private property, including ownership of the means of production

• The right of assembly and of association;

• The right to form unions and to strike

• The right to choose one's residence, to travel, and to emigrate;

• The right to participate actively in public life;

• The right to personal participation in attaining the common good;

• The right to the legal protection of one's rights;

• The right to citizenship. (as in the right to the fair process and chance)