What is the Catholic stance on immigration or refugees?

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The homily at my church is often about helping those in need, with a focus on refugees and the suffering they are experiencing. I get the Wanderer, a Catholic newspaper. The front article is by a Catholic writer very critical of helping refugees and illegal immigrants. He said many Catholic parishes “like to open their big mouths about helping the “poor refugees” and illegal immigrants.” Ouch! My Catholic Newman Center had a special center to specifically help immigrants, regardless of legal status.

So does the Catholic faith just kind of disagree on this issue? Normally I have found stances more consistent, taken on issues large and small.

I am curious! There are a LOT of politics in the Catholic newspapers I get and I didn’t expect it. I mean, in some cases it gets ugly! I am just kind of hearing all this and thinking that Jesus would want me to help anyone. :confused:
 
May1980 said:
The homily at my church is often about helping those in need, with a focus on refugees and the suffering they are experiencing. I get the Wanderer, a Catholic newspaper. The front article is by a Catholic writer very critical of helping refugees and illegal immigrants. He said many Catholic parishes “like to open their big mouths about helping the “poor refugees” and illegal immigrants.” Ouch! My Catholic Newman Center had a special center to specifically help immigrants, regardless of legal status.

So does the Catholic faith just kind of disagree on this issue? Normally I have found stances more consistent, taken on issues large and small.

I am curious! There are a LOT of politics in the Catholic newspapers I get and I didn’t expect it. I mean, in some cases it gets ugly! I am just kind of hearing all this and thinking that Jesus would want me to help anyone. :confused:
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Every argument seems to be so partisan anymore. People tend to leave out important parts of articles to prove a point. You left out a very important part of this. You did not quote the entire sentence. The entire sentence is

It must be said, however, that while many Catholic priests and parishes remain silent about real injustices like abortion, they sure like to open their big mouths about helping the “poor refugees” and illegal immigrants.

Omissions in quotes tend to show the partisan leanings of a person.

To answer your question, I think the Catholic Church is very clear that its position is to help everyone, regardless of status, legal or illegal.
 
Catholics are enjoined to help those in need, among whom are refugees and persecuted people.

Catholics are permitted to disagree on the practical aspects of how best to help them.

For example, I read an article recently which said that it costs 12x as much to bring a refugee to the US as to care for a refugee in the area in which he is from. The argument being made is that 12x as many people could be helped if instead of relocating refugees to the US we helped them where they are.

Personally, I can understand that argument. In addition, I think that uprooting a family, bringing them to a foreign nation where they don’t speak the language and lack to skills to move forward in the new nation, may not be the best way to handle the refugee crisis.

It doesn’t mean I don’t care about refugees, or am a racist, or whatever, just that … I wish we still had orders full of nuns and monks who could go over and help, with participation and aid and prayer support from those remaining home. Think just of medical care. The refugees here have access to medical care, but the ones who remain do not. Maybe it would be better to spend the money we spend on a few on the many?

And there are good arguments for the other side as well. This is part of being human, that people may agree on the end, or goal, while disagreeing about the best way to get there.

Another thing we should all agree on is to treat *everybody *with respect for their human dignity. No matter what one thinks is the best way to help the ME refugees, when one meets refugees in one’s own country, one should be just as polite to them as they are to everyone else.

And we should do the same wrt those who disagree with us 😉
 
The catholic stance is to help them. How it’s done is up for debate, thoughin MY opinion it’s unlikely that any help other than accepting them into the US is worth anything, since the refugees need refuge and the US is unable to provide it for them elsewhere. Since the US is for the most part responsible for the situation in Syria, they have the greatest obligation to help refugees.
 
I think the Gospel reading from this Monday is a good place to start.
 
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were themselves refugees. Mary and Joseph fled in fear for Baby Jesus’ life. Just as today refugees are still fleeing their homelands in fear for their lives.

Matthew 2:13-15
Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”

Honestly, I think I know what God’s “stance” is on accepting refugees - without being told.
 
dmelosi said:
Every argument seems to be so partisan anymore. People tend to leave out important parts of articles to prove a point. You left out a very important part of this. You did not quote the entire sentence. The entire sentence is

It must be said, however, that while many Catholic priests and parishes remain silent about real injustices like abortion, they sure like to open their big mouths about helping the “poor refugees” and illegal immigrants.

Omissions in quotes tend to show the partisan leanings of a person.

To answer your question, I think the Catholic Church is very clear that its position is to help everyone, regardless of status, legal or illegal.
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I’m no authority, but I would say that once they “immigrants” are here we should help in any way we can. Even giving housing to people in need, maybe trying to be a sponsor for some who have been here a long time illegally…? I don’t like the illegal part, but once they are here it’s not up to me to force them back to where they came from and if they are hungry or cold, I should help out…
 
Catholics have to help the poor and needy whether they are legal or illegal. This means if you have starving or homeless illegal immigrants in your community, Catholics and local parishes have an obligation to do their best to help out with food and shelter. It doesn’t matter that they are illegal. We must do our best to help with their basic needs because all people have a right to life. As far as border control and path to citizenship, that’s up to each Catholic to decide for themselves and support leaders whose ideas they agree with. The Church does call us to help those in need, including refugees, but we can disagree on the method of help. Some people might support open borders, others maybe support increasing the yearly immigration limits, others prefer to work on improving the situation in the immigrant’s home country so they don’t need to flee. There can be many possible solutions, and Catholics are free to choose what they believe would be the best.
 
I agree with Jared, the issues are many, however, there are many, many possibilities. Our nation is wealthy, our charity is paramount. Charity being the first place. I’m all for protecting the United States from violent criminals and would be terrorists but the innocent, those who wish to better their lives and seek to reunite with family should be assisted, not to be labeled as criminals, if truly they are not. Those who want to survive because their nation is poor and people/families are perishing by great numbers deserve the dignity of life. I wish the Catholic priests would not shy away from the reality of Catholic Christian behavior in this regard. The U.S. Catholic Bishops have weighed in on this subject, I believe in August of 2013. Be it big mouthed or whatever. The priests should adopt the same big mouths too and use it. Charity and hope prevail for everyone. Let’s pray that one day our government doesn’t draw a line in the sand and your house happens to now be in a different country while your wife or loved one was at the gas station, mall, Lowes wherever, on the other side. Sorry this could happen. History if remembered well, is a teacher. And if this were to happen, we will have some idea of how to both think and handle it appropriately.
 
St_Francis said:
Catholics are enjoined to help those in need, among whom are refugees and persecuted people.

Catholics are permitted to disagree on the practical aspects of how best to help them.
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That’s it. That is the entire “Catholic” position on not just immigration but virtually every other political issue.

There is no Catholic position on all of the implementation details; the church does not teach specifics. Build a wall? Double the number of refugees? Deport illegals? Send aid abroad? There is no Catholic teaching on any of these questions. So long as we each do what we think is best we may support any position within reason.

Ender
 
I have never heard the Church encourage or actively support the violation of state and federal law before. Not a peep about prayer for stabilization of Syria so that Syrians may live in peace. A seeming teaching that foreigners have a right to enter the US. As to Muslim immigrants, does no one recall the Battle of Lepanto or the 800 martyrs of Otranto? Islam has not changed - it cannot change. Now, instead of pleading for our Lady’s help in defeating them, we are inviting them in en masse? I see this as some type of delusional social justice gone wild.

Are these Muslims, who often come from nations with poor record keeping being properly vetted? No. 38,000 Muslims came in 2016 alone. If we accept ex-President Obama’s assertion that 99.9% of Muslims reject terrorism, then we just accepted 38 radical Muslims. Exactly half that number carried out the 9/11 attacks. “9/12” is coming - we know this. But when and where?

blog.adw.org/2015/05/beware-the-strangest-idol-of-all-a-reflection-on-how-even-works-of-charity-cannot-eclipse-obedience-to-christ/

From Latin America, we receive mostly economic refugees, who earn and send billions of dollars out of the US economy. A certain percentage of them are crime families who distribute heroin and methamphetamine in the US. Personal experience here. One example: in a blue collar town of 50,000, one family was busted for heroin distribution. A search of their house (one of several) turned up two million dollars cash. Not a peep about fixing the endemic corruption in Latin America, for example.

DW came here from El Salvador in the mid-70s, as the war was heating up. She had to apply, pay, be medically examined, wait, answer questions, wait some more and was finally granted a visa. She is upset as can be over “America becoming a third world nation.”
 
po18guy said:
I have never heard the Church encourage or actively support the violation of state and federal law before. Not a peep about prayer for stabilization of Syria so that Syrians may live in peace. A seeming teaching that foreigners have a right to enter the US. As to Muslim immigrants, does no one recall the Battle of Lepanto or the 800 martyrs of Otranto? Islam has not changed - it cannot change.
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This point doesn’t seem well enough understood: Islam cannot change. If it was something Muhammad did or allowed it is as acceptable today as it was then. Given that he engaged in slaughter and conquest such actions can never be repudiated.
If we accept ex-President Obama’s assertion that 99.9% of Muslims reject terrorism, then we just accepted 38 radical Muslims.
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It is not radical Muslims that are the real problem. Islam itself is radical. Even if those 99.9% reject terrorism it is certain that a large percentage of them support Sharia. In fact it is only the lukewarm ones who do not as Islam and Sharia are essentially one.

What is ironic is not hearing any opposition to Muslim immigration from gay or women’s rights groups.

Ender
 
It has already been said here that the Catholic Church provides services regardless of refugee or immigration status. I would almost say that the Church is neither for nor against immigration, but rather that it always be applied in the most just yet compassionate way possible. It is really the “how to do that” part that most people disagree on.
 
There is no definitive statement in church teaching that says what the needs are of the citizens of a particular country… beyond the Catechism paragraph 2241. Its clear and stated in the way that leaves it up to the HOST country to follow the rules for common good when deciding what is mentioned in 2241. The host country may set certain rules and laws on admitting immigrants and should try to admit them 'TO THE EXTENT IT IS ABLE." —meaning the extent the NATION IS ABLE. The “extent” is a matter of prudential judgment. We have current laws that set the “extent.”
Church people who set the extent as “anyone who wants to come” are not dealing with reality. I say this----follow the law or change it !!
 
May1980 said:
…So does the Catholic faith just kind of disagree on this issue?
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The “Catholic Faith” is a set of beliefs. None of them are specific to the matter of immigration or refugees, but include principles that can be brought to bear on that subject. But in bringing them to bear, there are numerous considerations to be weighed, and that process is not definitive. It involves trade-offs (eg. how quickly/slowly do we vet refugees?) It involves judgements about which good people can reasonably arrive at different conclusions. Good people can disagree on this an numerous other issues while doing their best to apply the same faith principles.

This is not uncommon. You might ask: “What is the Anglican (just to be different) position on the care of the homeless”? On Social Welfare. On progressive taxation. And so on.
 
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