Immigration and the Catholic Church

Joe Catechissimo writes:

As Joe Catechissimo, I have read the Catholic Catechism no less than three times. The Catechism states that migrants should obey the laws of their host countries. Well, if you enter a country illegally, the Catechism is against you. The Catholic Church stresses human dignity. Once the illegal has entered our country, he should be treated with respect. The Catholic Church does not advocate that the US government do nothing with respect to illegal immigration. I’d personally deport them all, and could do so with a clear Christian conscience.

LA replies:

I’ve discussed this a great deal and shown what JPII and also Benedict have said. I don’t want to re-open the topic, but will refer you to several articles.

The pope on immigration [Jim Kalb’s superb article at FrontPage Magazine]

Brief entry by me describing above article

The proof that Pope John Paul II was calling for open borders [Kalb’s decisive reply to reader who thought my criticisms of the pope were totally off base]

The benign and humane pope who opened Europe to, uh, barbaric and nihilistic jihadists

Joe Catechissimo replies:

Wow! Thanks for illuminating this folly. I go by what the Catechism says, hence my name is Catechissimo, not Popissimo. Popes are infallible in matters of faith and morals—not immigration policy. The Pope was clearly off on this one. I can tell you that the younger, more conservative priests don’t buy this.

LA writes:

Here are further related entries:

Have the last two popes called for open borders?

The Senate, aided by economists and Christian thinkers, progresses toward the inconceivably insane [dealing, inter alia, with open border statement by Mexican and American bishops and approval of it by Mary Ann Glendon.]

Immigration, sweet Christianity, and the demonic [Key excerpt from previous article]

Open-borders Catholicism comes to Wall Street [More on Glendon’s open-borders article]

Whither Romney? And whither the Catholics? [A long discussion about the Church and immigration. Does the Church call for open borders or not? If it does, how authoritative is the call? Does the fact that the Vatican II Council was a pastoral rather than dogmatic mean that its teachings have no authority?]

And here is my main article on this subject:

How liberal Christianity promotes open borders and one-worldism
first half
second half

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 22, 2009 11:05 AM | Send