The Catholic Coalition On Climate Change
A new website by the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.
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(Brian Ray/The Gazette) Rev. Richard Gaul sits solemnly with his head down as the names of all 389 undocumented workers that were arrested in the immigration raid at the Agriprocessors plant are read during a prayer service to mark the one year anniversary of the raid Tuesday in Postville.
Following are statements by United States Catholic Bishops calling for immigration reform:
The message from the prophet Isaiah is clear. The message is strong.
The Spirit of God has been given to us. We have been anointed. We have been selected for a special work.
We are told to bring good news to the poor…to bind up hearts that are broken and to proclaim a year of favor from our God.
This, my friends, is our time. It is our moment. It is our year of favor. Let us proclaim the year 2009 as the year for comprehensive immigration reform. We must work so that there would no longer be any immigration raids—no more immigration raids to traumatize a people, to separate families, to destroy businesses, to shatter towns and to scar hearts forever.
(Snip)
As proclaimers of God’s word, it is our duty to sound a call for justice. It is our privilege to welcome the stranger. It is our challenge to bring good news to the poor. This, my friends, is our time! This is our moment! This is our year of favor!
Archbishop Jerome Hanus, Dubuque, May 12, 2009, St. Bridget
The so called “illegals” are so not because they wish to defy the law; but because the law does not provide them with any channels to regularize their status in our country-which needs their labor: they are not breaking the law, the law is breaking them.
In our view, immigration reform should contain a broad-based legalization program which provides a path to citizenship; a future worker program with protections for both immigrant and domestic workers; family-based immigration reform that reduces backlogs without harming the current preference categories; restoration of due-process protections, including revision of the three- and ten-year bars and restoration of judicial discretion in deportation hearings; integration and implementation provisions; and measures that address the root causes of unlawful migration by encouraging economic development in sending countries.
As religious leaders, my brother Catholic bishops and I understand and support the right and responsibility of the government to enforce the law. We strongly believe, however, that worksite enforcement raids do not solve the challenge of illegal immigration. Instead, they lead to the separation of U.S. families and the destruction of immigrant communities. The result of the Postville raid was family separation, immense suffering, denial of due process rights and community division.
Our religious and social response to such harm to our God-given human dignity is based on Scriptures, which call believers to welcome the newcomers among us, to treat the alien with respect and charity, and to provide pastoral and humanitarian assistance to individuals and their families.
29. In modern times, this teaching has developed extensively in response to the worldwide phenomenon of migration. Pope Pius XII reaffirms the Church’s commitment to caring for pilgrims, aliens, exiles, and migrants of every kind in his apostolic constitution Exsul Familia, affirming that all peoples have the right to conditions worthy of human life and, if these conditions are not present, the right to migrate. “Then–according to the teachings of [the encyclical] Rerum Novarum–the right of the family to a [life worthy of human dignity]6 is recognized. When this happens, migration attains its natural scope as experience often shows.”7
30. While recognizing the right of the sovereign state to control its borders, Exsul Familia also establishes that this right is not absolute, stating that the needs of immigrants must be measured against the needs of the receiving countries:
Since land everywhere offers the possibility of supporting a large number of people, the sovereignty of the State, although it must be respected, cannot be exaggerated to the point that access to this land is, for inadequate or unjustified reasons, denied to needy and decent people from other nations, provided of course, that the public wealth, considered very carefully, does not forbid this.
More from justiceforimmigrants.org, the bishops site for catechizing on the issue of immigration. Here is a page explaining the Bishops’ pastoral letter, Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope.
In a landmark pastoral letter issued by the Catholic bishops of Mexico and the United States, Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope, the bishops acknowledge that the current immigration system is badly in need of reform and that a comprehensive approach to fixing it is required. The bishops offer a comprehensive set of recommendations for changing U.S. laws and policies to reflect the principles contained in Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching and to bring about a more humane and just immigration system in the United States.
The bishops’ call for reforms includes the following elements:
Global anti-poverty efforts:
Many migrants are compelled to leave their homes out of economic necessity in order to provide even the most basic of needs for themselves and their families. The bishops call for international efforts designed to create conditions in which people do not have to leave their homes out of necessity. Trade, international economic aid, debt relief, and other types of economic policies should be pursued that result in people not having to migrate in desperation in order to survive.
Expanded opportunities to reunify families:
U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents must endure many years of separation from close family members who they want to join them in the United States. The backlogs of available visas for family members results in waits of five, ten, fifteen, and more years of waiting for a visa to become available. The bishops call for a reduction of the pending backlog and more visas available for family reunification purposes.
Temporary worker program:
The U.S. economy depends upon the labor provided by migrants. Therefore, many migrants come to the United States to fill jobs. The bishops acknowledge this reality and call for a more rationale and humane system by which laborers from other countries can enter the country legally to fill positions in the labor force, including on a temporary basis. Because the U.S. experience with temporary workers programs has been fraught with abuses, the bishops call for a temporary worker program that includes:
- Path to permanent residency which is achievable/verifiable
- Family unity which allows immediate family members to join worker[1]
- Job portability which allows workers to change employers[2]
- Labor protections which apply to U.S. workers
- Enforcement mechanisms and resources to enforce worker’s rights[3]
- Wages and benefits which do not undercut domestic workers
- Mobility between U.S. and homeland and within U.S.
- Labor-market test to ensure U.S. workers are not harmed
Broad-based legalization:
For those in this country without proper immigration documentation, opportunities should be provided for them to obtain legalization if they can demonstrate good moral character and have built up equities in this country. Such an “earned” legalization should be achievable and independently verifiable.
Restoration of due process:
In recent years, immigrants have been subject to laws and policies that debase our country’s fundamental commitment to individual liberties and due process. These laws and policies, including detention for months without charges, secret hearings, and ethnic profiling, signal a sea of change in our government’s policies and attitudes towards immigrants. We are a nation with a long, rich tradition of welcoming newcomers. Government policies that unfairly and inappropriately confuse immigration with terrorism do not make us safer, tarnish our heritage, and damage our standing abroad. The bishops urge our government to revisit these laws and to make the appropriate changes consistent with due process rights.
Also in this context, the bishops call for reforming our system for responding to asylum seekers and considering their claims. Today, asylum seekers must meet a very high bar for demonstrating their claim for asylum and are incarcerated in the meantime. The bishops believe that our nation can both protect its citizens from terrorists and remain a safe haven for legitimate asylum seekers fleeing persecution.
[1] Family members should have work authorization.[2] Workers should be able to move between industries unless bill targets specific sector.
[3] Enforcement mechanisms should include right to bring action in federal court
June 09, 2005
Justiceforimmigrants.org is the website for The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform sponsored by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. The following is from their page titled “Countering the Myths”. It counters some of the mis-information on the issue put forth by talk radio and cable news.
Immigrants don’t want to learn English
FALSE
The development of English proficiency among non-English speaking immigrants today mirrors that of Nineteenth and early Twentieth century immigration, when masses of Italian, German, and Eastern European immigrants came to America. While first generation, non-English speaking immigrants predictably have lower rates of English proficiency than native speakers, 91% of second generation immigrants are fluent or near fluent English speakers. By the third generation, 97% speak English fluently or near fluently.
(Source: Shirin Hakimzadeh and D’Vera Cohn, “English Usage Among Hispanics in the United States,” Pew Hispanic Forum, Dec. 6, 2007. http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=82; Janet Murguia and Cecilia Muñoz, “From Immigrant to Citizen,” The American Prospect (Oct. 23, 2005), http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10487)
Immigrants Don’t Pay Taxes
FALSE
Undocumented immigrants pay taxes. Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund. Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent.
(Source: Immigration Policy Center, “Undocumented Immigrants as Taxpayers,” (November 2007), http://www.ailf.org/ipc/factchecks/UndocumentedasTaxpayer.pdf; Eduardo Porter “ Illegal Immigrants are Bolstering Social Security with Billions,” New York Times, (April 5, 2005), http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?ex=1270353600&en=78c87ac4641dc383&ei=5090&partner=kmarx)
Immigrants Increase the Crime rate
FALSE
Recent research has shown that immigrant communities do not increase the crime rate and that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born Americans. While the undocumented immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005, violent crime dropped by 34% and property crimes decreased by 32%. Furthermore, Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson has found that first generation immigrants are 45% less likely to commit violent crimes than Americanized, third generation immigrants.
(Source: Immigration Policy Center, “Ímmigrants and Crime: Are They Connected,” December, 2007, http://www.ailf.org/ipc/factchecks/CrimeFactCheck10-16-07.pdf; Robert Sampson, “Open Doors Don’t Invite Criminals,” The New York Times, March 11, 2006, A15; Executive Office of the President: Council of Economic Advisors, “Immigration’s Economic Impact,” June 20, 2007, http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.html)
Immigrants Take Jobs Away from Americans
False
(Source: The Urban Institute, “Trends in the Low-Wage Immigrant Labor Force, 2000-2005,” March, 2007, http://www.urban.org/publications/411426.html; Rakesh Kochhar, “Growth in the Foreign Born Workforce and Employment of the Native Born,” Pew Hispanic Center, August 10, 2006, http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.phpReportID=69)
Immigrants are a drain on the United States Economy
False
The immigrant community is not a drain on the U.S. economy but, in fact, proves to be a net benefit. Research reported by both the CATO Institute and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors reveals that the average immigrant pays a net 80,000 dollars more in taxes than they collect in government services. For immigrants with college degrees the net fiscal return is $198,000. Furthermore, The American Farm Bureau asserts that without guest workers the U.S. economy would lose as much as $9 billion a year in agricultural production and 20 percent of current production would go overseas.
(Source: CATO Institute, CATO Handbook for Congress: Policy Recommendations for the 108th Congress, http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-63.pdf; Executive Office of the President: Council of Economic Advisors, “Immigration’s Economic Impact,” June 20, 2007, http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.html; Derrick Z. Jackson, “Undocumented Workers Contribute Plenty, The Boston Globe, April 12, 2006, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/12/undocumented_workers_contribute_plenty/)
Undocumented immigrants are a Burden on the Healthcare System
False
Federal, state and local governments spend approximately 1.1 billion dollars annually on healthcare costs for undocumented immigrants, aged 18-64, or approximately $11 in taxes for each U.S. household. This compares to 88 billion dollars spent on all health care for non-elderly adults in the U.S. in 2000. Foreign born individuals tend to use fewer health care services because they are relatively healthier than their native born counterparts. For example, in Los Angeles County, “total medical spending on undocumented immigrants was $887 million in 2000 – 6 percent of total costs, although undocumented immigrants comprise 12 percent of the region’s residents.”
(Source: The Rand Corporation, “RAND Study Shows Relatively Little Public Money Spent Providing Healthcare to Undocumented Immigrants,” November 14, 2006, http://www.rand.org/news/press.06/11.14.html; Dana P. Goldman, James P. Smith and Neeraj Sood, “Immigrants and the Cost of Medical Care,” Health Affairs 25, no. 6 (2006): 1700-1711
5/12/08 Pt. 2
At 10 AM on May 12, 2008, 389 people were detained and families were seperated, many for months. Say a prayer for these 389 people, their families, and our country that we find a way to reform our immigration system so that this does not have to happen again. To find out more about the Catholic view on immigration reform, go to justiceforimmigrants.org. The names are found here, as part of the prayer service to be held today at St. Bridget in Postville at 4 PM.
5/12/08
The following was a paper that I wrote for a class on the Common Good as part of Viterbo’s Masters in Servant Leadership. It was meant as a reflection on Plato’s Crito, and details a small part of my transformative experience as part of the response team at St. Bridget last summer.
In Plato’s Crito, Socrates’ friend comes to visit him in jail days before he is to die. Crito does not come empty handed. He and other of Socrates’ friends have arranged for Socrates to slip away from captivity to freedom, apparently by paying off the guards where he is imprisoned. When Socrates respectfully declines the offer, Crito does not understand. He pleads with Socrates, “I will be deprived of a friend” (44, b), “you are betraying your sons by going away and leaving them” (45, c-d), “I do not think that what you are doing is just, to give up your life when you can save it” (45, c). However it appears that his biggest concern is what others will think of Crito and his compatriots- “many people will think that I could have saved you if I were willing to spend money, but that I did not care to do so. Surely there can be no worse reputation than to be thought to value money more highly than one’s friends, for the majority will not believe that you yourself were not willing to leave prison while we were eager for you to do so” (44, b-c). Crito even tries to take this one step further by trying to guilt Socrates into coming with them- “ I feel ashamed on your behalf and on behalf of us, your friends, lest all that has happened to you be thought due to cowardice on our part” (45, e).
Socrates’ response to the pleas was blunt, “why should we care so much for what the majority think?” (44,c). “We should not then think so much of what the majority will say about us, but what he will say who understands justice and injustice” (48, a). He asks Crito to think about the arguments made by Socrates in his trial and how an escape might make it look as though everything Socrates said there was “play and nonsense” (46, d). He builds upon the idea of paying attention to justice or injustice of the actions when he points out that it is quite possible that if he were to escape, the consequences might be grave for anyone who helped and remained behind. While escaping might seem the good thing for Socrates to do to save his life, doing so would not only prove to others that his ardent defense at trial was bluster, but many others would suffer as a consequence. For Socrates, this meant that staying and putting his life on the line served the greater good, no matter what the masses thought about the decision.
This idea of sacrificing for justice no matter the cost was illustrated quite clearly over the summer. I live in Postville, IA. It is a small, rural town that became the center of the country’s contentious immigration debate on May 12 when almost 400 people, about 1/5 of the town’s population, was arrested in the country’s largest ever immigration raid. In the days immediately following the raid my home parish, St. Bridget, became the center for a humanitarian response to the chaos created. Catholics and non-Catholics alike took refuge in the Church as they worried about what had happened to their friends and family members. While I was not able to be a part of this initial response by St. Bridget, I was struck by the significance of my parish being able to live out in a concrete fashion the Gospel ideals of mercy, hospitality and love especially of the poor and outcast.
I wrote an article in the Archdiocesan paper about what I had witnessed. After its publication I received many complements from those who agreed with what St. Bridget was doing, and uncomfortable smiles and silence from those who didn’t. I felt pretty good about myself and the article, although at this point in time, writing this article and donating money to the cause was all that I had done. Then, as May turned into June, the Pastoral Administrator, Sr. Mary McCauley, asked me to become a part of the response team as a Volunteer Coordinator for the summer. She actually had to ask me three times. The first time she asked was in the sacristy before a Mass at which I was a reader. My first reaction, solely to myself, was “but what about my summer?” As educators, both my wife and I enjoy time off during the summer and I, despite the words of support I had written, thought about this relaxing time together and wanted only to protect it. While my insides were saying no way, I think I politely said something like, “That sounds interesting”, or something else to that effect aimed mostly at getting away from the situation at hand without “ruining” my summer. After Mass, I went home with the hope that maybe sister would forget about her offer or, better yet, someone else would come forward to take the job and I would be off the hook. After working with Sister Mary for about 5 years, I should have known she doesn’t forget about much, and will not easily take no for an answer, especially if she sees something in you that needs to called forth. The second time she asked me, she left a message on the machine at home-“Mike, I want you to know that I was serious about that offer we talked about at Church. Call me.” Still convinced that I could escape this by avoiding, I didn’t call back. The third time was by email and by now I realized that I was probably being called by a higher power than Sr. Mary to be a part of this. So I called and accepted the position, now somewhat eager to help, but still hesitant at the prospect of having to sacrifice some of my valuable time.
That hesitancy was still there as I started the position. I was to be in charge of making sure that we had enough volunteers at the Church to take care of the things that were being done. I figured that couldn’t be too tough and wouldn’t take too much time, so I started with a very minimalist view of what I was supposed to be doing.
That minimalist view changed the second day I was there. I was asked to make a phone call to a jail on behalf of a woman who was concerned about the health of her husband, who was being detained at this jail. Her husband had a tape worm for which he was being treated with medication, a medication that was not with him when he had been arrested and taken away. Without the medication, he was in intense pain and the wife very understandably wanted him to receive his medication. Fighting my inner voice telling me that this call didn’t really fit into my minimalist worldview, I dialed the phone.
The resulting conversation changed this worldview and helped me see just how much these people were forced to go through. I was calling thinking that the person would say, “Oh, yes. What is the medication? We’ll be sure he gets it. Thank you.” Instead, the person at the jail, just a woman doing her job, informed me that this wasn’t their responsibility and that I needed to call the US Marshall’s office and gave me a number to call. The number she gave me was not functional. I did an internet search and came up with a different number. When I called I got the Marshall’s answering service and was told that no one would be around until the following week. I explained the problem and told them this was something that needed to be addressed but they still stated that someone would call the following week. SO this man had to sit in jail, in agony for a weekend until it was finally resolved by faxing a dr. order to the jail, something I had volunteered to do up front.
This is but one instance of what was a pattern of passing the buck and a lack of communication and respect as those at St. Bridget tried to provide for everyone involved, many of whom were children. When you look into the eyes of someone worried about their family member like the woman mentioned, and when do it day after day, you cannot help but feel compassion and the need to give more of yourself, no matter your opinions on immigration.
All of this was done within the larger cultural context of the debate taking place in the country about “illegal” immigration. While I knew that there were people that disagreed with what was going on at St. Bridget, I was taken aback at the depth of the anger, even hatred focused on the Church and those working so hard for the welfare of “the least of these” (Mt 25:40). While I found myself amazed at the sacrifice of so many there, many educators like me who obviously had not shared my compunction with sacrificing their summer, I was also inspired by their calm and merciful responses to some of the hate calls received by them. While they understood that others disagreed, the anger expressed to them did not sway them one bit from their stated mission of helping those in need. It became such a common part of the day at St. Bridget, that when I took my first such call, they joked that now I was really one of them.
My mind had played the role of Crito, trying to give me excuses to not live up to some of the virtues I had written about in the Archdiocesan paper. I spent too much time protecting my free time and not enough time trying to live the justice I had so admired in others. My time at St. Bridget was truly a transformative experience and made me look at the importance of sacrificing for those in need, even in the midst of a society that doesn’t understand.
Susan Boyle
For those of you who have been incommunicado for the past days, the internet has been abuzz with this video of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. I wanted to share two posts, one from Googling God and the other from America Magazine’s blog- In All Things addressing the furor over this story.
First from Mike Hayes at Googling God–
Society does indeed place people in the categories of being “cool” or “uncool” and Susan’s dowdy matronly demeanor qualifies her only to the latter status even with her amazing voice and not despite it. It’s almost as if we are saying that she’s better sing well because she’s got nothing else going for her.
Snip
These are indeed the people that Jesus warns the Pharisees about. He was careful to remind them that while they were people of the law that they had also forgot about the people who society had cast to the sidelines. The poor, the ignored, the lepers and those who had betrayed them like the hated tax collectors were all victims of derision. If Susan Boyle had been part of this society would Jesus have shamed the Pharisees by having her intone just one note?
The point that we need to see is not that Susan is wonderful because she sings, but that Susan is wonderful because she is Susan. She is one of us–a child of God in all her frump and dowdiness. Her voice betrays that to be sure–but our lesson is that we should’ve seen her worth long before her song.
And from Fr. James Martin at America
The way we see Susan Boyle is very nearly the way God sees us: worthwhile, special, talented, unique, beautiful. The world generally looks askance at people like Susan Boyle, if it sees them at all. Without classic good looks, without work, without a spouse, living in a small town, people like Susan Boyle may not seem particularly “important.” But God sees the real person, and understands the value of each individual’s gifts: rich or poor, young or old, single or married, matron or movie star, lucky or unlucky in life. God knows us. And loves us.
“Everybody is somebody” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan at his installation Mass in New York City yesterday. That’s another reason why the judges smile and the audience explodes in applause.
Because they recognized a basic truth planted deep within them by God: Susan Boyle is somebody.
Everybody is somebody.
Every once in awhile we need people like Susan Boyle to remind us that too often we look at the world through the lens of our culture and forget to see that God calls us to look on the world and everyone in it with the same love with which we were created.
Peace and all good,
Mike E.
Wonder of Life Pt. 3
Video Material taken from http://www.spacetelescope. org/videos/index.html Music composed by Hans Karmann
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Wonder of Life Pt. 2
From the NASA Astronomy picture of the day, a video of star trails over the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Mauna Kea, HI.
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The Wonder of Life
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got faith 