estesbob:
Can you point to me the applicable paragraphs of the catechism of the Catholic Church that states that a country should have open borders? Can you give me example where any social agency has be been punished for assisting an illegal alien even though it is illegal under current law ?
I don’t have a CCC handy, but I looked up the word alien in an online bible to answer your question. It seems that along with the poor, the widows, and the fatherless, God is particularly concerned about the alien. Perhaps, it is because the Lord knows how tempted we are to scapegoat the Mexican worker who picks our tomatoes below living wages. Oddly, something else that the Lord is concerned about— fair wages (but that’s another thread.)
Anyway, here are just a tiny of fractions of how the Lord instructed Israel to treat foreigners. Notice there are no instructions to deny them jobs and social services. In fact, there is one passge, which I didn’t pull which says, allot a special portion of your harvest for the poor, the widows, and the alien.
**"Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. Exodus 22:21
" 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.
Leviticus 25:35
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Deuteromony 10:18-19
“Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” Deuteromony 27:19
The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. Psalm 149:9
if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm. Jeremiah 7:6
In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. Ezekial 22:7
In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign LORD. Ezekiel 47:23**
Now, let’s do another exercise. Would would Jesus do?
Let’s say Jesus was living in United States and a Haitian immigrant comes to Jesus and says to him. Jesus, I had to bring my family here on the raft in order to feed. I would have prefered to stay in Haiti, but after the U.S. insisted on liberalization policies (policies they don’t impose on their own farmers, but that’s for another thread
), we lost our rice farm, and had to come to the U.S. We had no money and no education so they would never give us a visa. We waited ten years for legal entry, but we could not get it. After ten years, I decided to to take my family away from hunger and political violence. Would you good rabbi, give me a job in your carpentry shop so that I could feed my family. Do you really think Jesus would say, you don’t have the right papers and I reporting you to the authorities so they can torture (I don’t mean literally) you in guantanamo for a while and then send you back to Haiti. That doesn’t sound like the Jesus of the gospels. :nope:
Now, neither the cardinal nor I am necessarily saying that we need to have an open door policy. Although there are some very well-respected economist who believe that it would actually benefit Americans economically… But that’s another thread. However, tightening the screws on people who have come here to work is neither just nor humane. And from what I have read, it seems like the proposed law would like those involved in charitable organizations to report illegal immigrants seeking help. Well, that’s not something I think Jesus would do and it’s not something I would do.
Kendy
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