In 2012, the Catholic Church in the United States is crucified between two thieves. That's not such a bad place to be, given our history, our roots, our future, our sign, our nourishment, our heroes, our Lord. Still, it's fun to fuss.
On one hand, there's an administration that has demanded that all employers provide insurance for contraception and sterilization and chemically induced abortion. The Church objects that this requirement is a violation of their conscience and also of a truce that has been in place for 30 years. On the other hand, there's a political party that has blocked all efforts to accept 12 million facts on the ground: undocumented immigrants. The Church objects that inhospitality is a violation of the nation's conscience, and a transformation of our national identity.
Dear Lord, protect the unknown unnamed unnumbered unwanted unloved unborn, and also the undocumented unwashed unfed unemployed uprooted unwanted illegals. Teach us to cherish and protect all the grimy little Uns you have placed in our lives.
A question arises from your opening line, my dear friend...which is the 'good thief' and which, the 'bad'?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should say both are both, and stop. But I think that the Catholic Church has been split for decades, between people who care deeply about personal morality and people who care about social justice. We need the best of both sides, not the worst, and not the angry division.
ReplyDeleteIt does not appear as balanced to me, to call thief (#1) 'good' in any-even loose-sense of the word..and isn't thief (#2) in fact, merely a political party affiliation that can claim any number of differing degrees of reform for "welcoming"-by a legal process-the 'strangers' in our midst?
ReplyDeleteI share the very same seamless garment principles that you passionately embrace, yet I repudiate, with every fiber of my being, the diabolical disorientation of the present administration. May we live to see that day-or pray that our children and grandchildren will-when "..mercy and justice will meet.." God love you, John.
The points you make are good. And I understand your fiery resistance to “diabolical disorientation.” I’d like to say a dozen different things, and probably will eventually, dribble-fashion; but to start I want to focus on a single detail.
DeleteI do not recall hearing anyone ever in my (limited) experience making the case for immigration restriction starting with theological or scriptural or religious considerations. In my experience, people always start with a political orientation, or personal experiences. I have nothing whatsoever against political considerations, nor against reflections about experiences. But some people, including you and me, get around to prayer and study before making serious decisions -- not always, but generally. Sometimes I make serious decisions without praying, and I think that’s a mistake. Sometimes I make decisions and then later ask God to bless those decisions, and I think that’s an improvement but still a mistake. In general, I believe I should make decisions listening to God. I’m a Catholic, and I don’t have the daily or hourly experience of Evangelicals that permits me to say, “God said to me that …” St. Francis did hear God speak clearly, in perfect Italian: ‘Re-build my church.” Even with clear words and sentences, Francis still screwed it up for a while, messing around with stones and mortar. It took Francis months to get the topic right, let alone the details. I sympathize. But listening to God is possible, is central, is fundamental.
Quick aside: I remember hitch-hiking from Sykesville to DC for a prayer meeting one evening. Rides were lousy, and after 90 minutes I was still only halfway there. I sat down by the side of the road and did one of those Bible roulette things. I said, “Lord, should I go on to this meeting, or turn around and go back?” Then I opened the Bible randomly and pointed at a verse randomly. “Wherever you go, go with God.” Oh.
When I decided that I was going to respond to the referendum on the Maryland ballot this fall, one of the things I did was to look in Scripture for insight about immigration. #1: the words immigrant and immigration aren’t in any translation I use. #2: the idea is there, but the words are different. #3: one pertinent word is stranger, a person from another land who comes to your country and stays (for an unspecified time). The teaching about strangers is abundant (200 references), and extraordinarily forceful. With great intensity, the Lord demands: “Welcome the stranger.”
There are a million ways to welcome a stranger. I have no (or little) argument with someone who is serious about welcoming immigrants, but does not want to use tax funds for college tuition. But in Maryland today, the gesture of welcome that the state is debating is college tuition, so I think we should do that or do better.
Your response was: John, I won’t support Obama! Got it. What about immigration?
You know me well,John...and you know that I would welcome the 'stranger', and give up my own bed if given the opportunity, were it only that simple!
DeleteYou know that I know the teachings of Jesus Christ whose Sacred Heart was pierced by the willfulness, depravity and inhumanity of humans.
Because we are both members of His Mystical Body, the Church, we must welcome the stranger-who is Jesus-wherever we find Him. And those who choose not to recognize or welcome Him in the least among us, reject the One who came to "reveal the Father..", the perfect and most benevolent Father. Yet even He Himself, could not win over all of His children, even by shedding every drop of His Precious Blood,though it is His desire that "not one be lost..".
That being said, the issue of immigration has been given much consideration by the Teaching Magisterium of the Church, to which I humbly and wholeheartedly submit.
I am inept when it comes to sorting out the policies and practices that the 'prevailing political powers', have left open for debate for so long. But the struggle for social justice in this world, has been and will ever be, a long fought battle, for which I remain,
Your comrade in Christ+
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."-Pope John Paul "the Great"
I do know you would give everything you have to cherish and protect a child of God. Not "would" -- it isn't hypothetical for you. You HAVE, you WILL.
ReplyDelete