BEND — It was my joy this week to travel to Ontario’s Blessed Sacrament
Parish in a continuation of the spring confirmation schedule. This
entails a trip of 260 miles in each direction or nearly 10 hours behind
the wheel over the course of the weekend.
The road between Bend and Ontario is one of the straightest stretches of
two-lane road in Eastern Oregon. The two fairly minor passes,
interestingly named Drinkwater and Stinkingwater, provide a slight
variation in an otherwise relatively straight and level route.
Unfortunately there are only a couple of places on this journey that
could be described as strikingly beautiful, but this is not to say that
the scenery is at all boring or uninteresting. As with most drives
through Eastern Oregon the scenes are expansive, freeing and engaging.
The youth at Blessed Sacrament were almost exclusively of Hispanic
origin. I have no idea about the status of their parents but I would
guess that most of these youngsters have been born in the United States
and are therefore U.S. citizens. I presume the same of their parents but
I do not know. My duty in their regard is to help assure that the
Catholic faith is imparted to them and that they are strengthened in the
practice of that faith through programs and opportunities offered mostly
at the parish level. The Catholic Church, besides being concerned about
the spiritual welfare of its members, also exhibits a concern for the
physical, emotional and social well-being of everyone.The salvation
of souls is the greatest and most necessary work but this is not done in
a vacuum but rather in the midst of the real life situations in which
people find themselves, often as a result of their own freely chosen
actions.
Over the past 10 years there has been an occasional flare-up of concern
about the number of undocumented residents in the United States. A vast
majority of these are from Mexico and their numbers continue to
increase.
Every nation has the right and the duty to regulate its citizenry. Every
nation likewise has the duty to protect its citizens. As a church, we
have the duty to protect everyone, not only those who are citizens. The
civil society enacts laws, which are ordained for the common good. In
some sense the limit of that “good” is seen as extending only to those
legally present in that society. This is true if one thinks of rights as
somehow determined by that society, by a particular law. When we look at
humanity from a broader perspective, however, we see that the common
good is not limited by a border or by nationality. This is not intended,
in any way, to imply that a nation does not have the right and duty to
properly police its borders or protect its citizens but in doing so such
a nation cannot forget the solidarity of the whole of humanity. This is
the perspective of the church. This may, at times, make it appear that
the Catholic Church stands in opposition to certain laws or policies but
the truth is that the church tries to be consistent in standing for the
good of every person because rights are not derived from civil laws but
rather from the dignity of the human person.
I do not think the church would propose hiring “coyotes” to help bring
people to the United States illegally. Yet, once people are here and in
distress then the church will provide comfort, solace and perhaps even
sanctuary because that is what the church does. There may be some of
this that is technically “illegal,” but splitting up a family or sending
a family-wage earner back to Mexico where he can no longer provide for
his family is not in accord with what we are to do as members of a
church. It is not consistent with the dignity of human persons. As
Catholics we must try to look upon every Catholic in the world, indeed
every person, as “our brother” and this is a different relationship than
a legal / citizenship relationship. Just because something is “legal”
does not mean that it is morally correct. There are any number of
examples from our own history and the histories of other nations where
something “legal” was grossly immoral and needed to be resisted. I am
not suggesting that the American “immigration policy” is immoral but
there seem to be some elements of injustice that permeate it and it is
this injustice, whether legally sanctioned or not, the Church opposes.
It is very easy to identify all undocumented workers or residents in the
United States as criminals but this fails to distinguish between those
who are here peacefully and productively and those who are here to
engage in other criminal pursuits. I suspect, most of us, if we
discovered that one of our Mexican friends were here illegally, would
not report that person, an illegal alien, our friend, to the INS. We
would see him or her first as a person of worth and dignity and would
want to help him or her. However, if the illegal resident were running a
meth lab then we, or anyone in the church, would have no problem
reporting that illegal behavior to the proper authorities.
There is a form of injustice done to the American people when our
borders are not respected but there is also a possibility that a grave
injustice could be done to an undocumented worker if too harsh a
solution is enacted. It is certainly not right for anyone to violate or
seek to circumvent the immigration laws of this nation but unless we
know all of the reasons and factors that led a person to the decision to
come to this country or to remain illegally, I suggest that it is very
dangerous for us to judge that person as a “criminal.” The issue of
illegal residency in the United States is a most complex and troubling
social reality. Very few of the slogans, pro or con, resonate with me. I
do find, however, that thinking about real, identifiable people,
concrete human persons and human families, makes it much easier to see
that those who cross our borders or remain here illegally are not
necessarily evil or wicked men or women but simply people with human
aspirations and longings and dignity. Crossing a border illegally does
not eliminate that person’s right to be treated as a brother or sister.
Remaining in this country illegally does not eliminate that person’s
human dignity.
Catholic Sentinel, 13 May 2010, reprinted with permission
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