Cardinal says Church will support immigrant children if housed in Mass

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al_Moritz
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
markomalley said:
The Obama Administration is taking the responsibility for transporting these people at various and sundry parts of the country. The Refugee Act places that responsibility with the Office of Refugee Relocation (within the Department of Health and Human Services).

In serving the immigrants, the Church is providing services for the government. (Why do I say this? If the Church was unwilling or unable to do so, the government would either need to do it themselves or find somebody else to do it for them)

This is not controversial or unusual in any way. Just look at history:
Click to expand...
The Church is providing services to the children, not to the government.

That service probably includes saying Mass for them, being most are Catholic.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
The Church is providing services to the children, not to the government.

That service probably includes saying Mass for them, being most are Catholic.

Jim
Click to expand...
I don’t question that the Church is providing services to the children. However they are providing those services to the children for the government. (If you object to the word “for the government” – think of it as “on behalf of the government” – if Catholic Charities [or the Archdiocese of Boston] did not agree to provide these services, the government would need to seek out somebody else to do it or they would have to do it themselves)

As for the subject of saying Mass, if, as the Cardinal, himself, indicates, the government would be providing funding, then there are restrictions that would make it difficult to do so. Look again at what I wrote in post #2 on this thread: Explicitly religious activities (activities that involve overt religious content, such as religious instruction, devotional exercises, worship, proselytizing or evangelism) must be clearly separated in either time or location from the federally funded program (source: White House website).

So, while they would be able to say Mass, it would have to be separated in time or location from where they provide the other services. It is my understanding that the government is going to settle these people on former military installations, so there will be base chapels where they can celebrate Mass, assuming that they don’t provide counseling, education, or other services (that would be covered in the grant) within the chapel. However, there are other places where these people are being settled where the luxury of having a base chapel may not exist.
 
markomalley
I don’t question that the Church is providing services to the children. However they are providing those services to the children for the government. (If you object to the word “for the government” – think of it as “on behalf of the government” – if Catholic Charities [or the Archdiocese of Boston] did not agree to provide these services, the government would need to seek out somebody else to do it or they would have to do it themselves)
Click to expand...
The government can not provide the Sacraments to the children, only the Church can do that.

Also, there may be other issues that the Government doesn’t have the capacity to do, that the Church does.
As for the subject of saying Mass, if, as the Cardinal, himself, indicates, the government would be providing funding, then there are restrictions that would make it difficult to do so. Look again at what I wrote in post #2 on this thread: Explicitly religious activities (activities that involve overt religious content, such as religious instruction, devotional exercises, worship, proselytizing or evangelism) must be clearly separated in either time or location from the federally funded program (source: White House website).
Click to expand...
It would be no different than the government allowing Catholic Masses on military bases.

To do nothing because the government is housing and feeding the kids, would be wrong and as far as I can see from what you posted, there is nothing legally preventing the Church from providing aid, without having strings attached. The Church isn’t receiving funding from the government to do this.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
markomalley

The government can not provide the Sacraments to the children, only the Church can do that.

Also, there may be other issues that the Government doesn’t have the capacity to do, that the Church does.
Click to expand...
I never said otherwise.
It would be no different than the government allowing Catholic Masses on military bases.
Click to expand...
If you’ll note, you’ll see that the italicized sentence was not my invention. It is the government’s invention. It comes from this webpage (on the WH website).

Now I will grant you that, on the surface, it makes little sense, since the government provides chaplains whose job, explicitly, is to provide religious services. However, those are the government’s rules.
To do nothing because the government is housing and feeding the kids, would be wrong and as far as I can see from what you posted, there is nothing legally preventing the Church from providing aid, without having strings attached. The Church isn’t receiving funding from the government to do this.
Click to expand...
Receiving funding to do what? To provide the Sacraments? Of course they aren’t.

To provide refugee assistance? Of course they are. Regardless of what you say, Cardinal O’Malley said, himself, that they will receive funding to do that.
 
markomalley
To provide refugee assistance? Of course they are. Regardless of what you say, Cardinal O’Malley said, himself, that they will receive funding to do that.
Click to expand...
The article doesn’t say that Cardinal O’Malley stated himself that they were already receiving funding to provide services.

This is what he said;
“We do not have Church facilities that are appropriate, but we do have social service agencies in the archdiocese with skilled resources to provide programs of assistance and support within the framework of a larger federal and state program providing finances and collaboration,” he said.
Click to expand...
It’s the federal government providing the funding for housing and feeding the children.

The Church isn’t getting that funding.

Jim
 
Church leaders and lay Catholics need to have prudential judgement and discernment in deciding how to help poor people and migrants. People are calling this a humanitarian crisis,and on that subjective view they justify putting aside concerns that they regard as merely “political”,but which are really are about respect for national borders,American society,local communities,and the distinction between legal and illegal. The nation is not the Church,and it cannot embrace all people as the Church can. It is unreasonable to expect the nation,or Americans in general,to respond to poor illegal immigrants and refugees like the Church is obligated to do. The favoritism of some bishops towards illegal immigrants and their lack of respect for the country is causing yet another schism among Catholics and is provoking opposition toward the Church from non-Catholic conservatives who are with the Church on its teachings about the sanctity of life and the family and sexuality and its fight for religious liberty and conscience rights.

Feds want to use Catholic Church

cal-catholic.com/?p=14895

HHS money to church entities long before waves of illegal immigrantsgrants/

wdtprs.com/blog/2014/07/hhs-money-to-church-entities-long-before-waves-of-illegal-immigrants/

youtube.com/watch?v=Y2dw-KnKEak
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top