Curious what others think of this statement and Hohmans response? I confess that Ive not fully read into bishops statement so I may be not have complete understanding of it? https://www.zerohedge.com/political/catholic-church-wrong-illegal-immigration-homan-says
thinking through it a bit more and trying to reconcile it all within my conscience... It is NOT degrading to human dignity: to enforce border laws to prosecute someone who enters illegally to detain someone temporarily to deport someone to have consequences for breaking immigration law It IS degrading to human dignity: to treat migrants like animals to deny basic food/water/shelter to place children at serious risk to separate families purely for deterrence to allow migrants to die from neglect to dehumanize them in rhetoric or policy Just enforcement = morally fine. Unjust enforcement = morally wrong. I guess the rub is if/where /how enforcement goes into unjust?
My estimation is that the bishops are getting huge amounts of NGO money to assist illegals. They don't want to see that cut off or exposed. So we wont be seeing any sort of common sense answers from them.
It boils down the Gospel to just a few a few words. 'It's nice to be nice.' They should take a page from Poland.
I have been reflecting on this for awhile today because there is something about it that bugs me. Western nations are and have been very generous when it comes to immigration and still people break the laws and abuse the generosity. This is due to a myriad of reasons which everyone already knows. And the government/media/religious/NGO organizations don't appear to be changing direction anytime soon. Essentially it is systemic and Pandora's box has been opened. So the question for me becomes how does one operate as a Christian Catholic in this rapidly degenerating space? The manner of living we are accustomed to has been changed over the last 100 years, but it has been an exponential change. So the amount of change we have seen in terms of the increase of degeneracy, has increased more rapidly over the last 10 years than the 90 before it. How do we form ourselves in relation to this space in terms of our Fatih? I can get mad at the government/Vatican/media/NGOs, but Jesus tells us to forgive 70*7. So there is this constant encouragement of turning to the light of Christ and away from the darkness. I don't know if I am being clear. In spite of all the darkness we keep turning to the light kind of thing.
Thanks for sharing and I get what you’re feeling. The world has changed so fast that it’s easy to feel unsettled. But I do know that Christ hasn’t changed, and neither has the way we ought follow Him. The Church teaches that countries can have immigration laws but still treat people with dignity, and I believe we’re called to hold both truths and somehow balance them. I guess this is where my struggle is- finding the balance. I keep thinking of Jesus looking at that Roman coin and saying render to Caesar what is Caesar's but render unto God what is God's. When things feel dark and we are in this struggle, I suppose our task isn’t to fix everything (even if we coukd) but it’s simply to stay rooted in prayer, charity, and trust. Christ keeps inviting us to keep our eyes on His light, even when the world feels heavy. So i think you are onto right idea... keep looking to the Light.
This is the general sense I have too. We won't fix everything, IMO far from it, the status quo is going to keep going the way it is until it breaks. Following the same pattern of many former empires that fell apart under the stresses of reprobate governance. So it's like anything coming from the government/media/Vatican/NGOs is just noise. Anything that isn't rooted in Christ is fake, even those of my responses which aren't rooted in Christ are inauthentic somehow and are just noise too. So it is like the need to give less energy and attention to things that aren't rooted in Christ. The crosses we carry are demanding enough already. These things pretend to be virtuous but they aren't.
In Sweden’s case, most conversions come from immigrants—a counterbalance to the secularism of a predominantly atheist country. Is it possible to replicate this phenomenon in other Western nations?
My Church is full and is standing room only. So many people I know are coming to the faith. My 14 yr old grandchild will be baptized on Easter. I trust Jesus will place our prayers in His heart for all countries.
"All our trouble comes to us from not having our eyes fixed upon the Divine" - St. Teresa of Avila Is it possible that the attacks and degeneration are primarily attempts to take our attention away from God? Is the solution to these times simply to focus principally on God?
The solution is to always focus on God. He gave us breath, we are to give it back to Him. Are these attacks and degeneration distractions? Sure, if we let them. They are simply the death throes of western nations that have cast off serving God first. We can be sad, angry even worried about it to some extent but like you, Pax Prima and Miker said, if we aren't turning to Christ, staying rooted in Him, that's all there is we can do. The message from the bishops is very poorly written. I read it quickly but it didn't say anything definitive. They throw out these buzzwords "fear," "deportation" In the closing paragraph they even included law enforcement. Nothing concrete. Just the usual "we stand with the suffering." I can't wrap my head around how open borders goes hand and hand with human dignity. Borders have always existed, walls of cities have always existed. Modern man believes this fallacy that we have some how progressed and are all brethern, no longer needing those medieval things called walls. Nations are no longer allowed to practice sovereignty and if you do, the entire world will guilt and shame you. Fraternity is the name of the game, it sounds nice, but they forget we are to love others as Christ loves and that's deeper and harder than fraternal. How do we, individually, act? I try to practice St. Francis de Sales' a spiritual bouquet for the day and my bouquet lately has been to put on the armor of God. I try so hard to break those self-loving vices in me but the more I try, the more I fail. But when I turn to Him and just call out for his aid, the struggle is different, easier, lighter, has more sense, I can't describe it. So, in my humble opinion, if we all just put on God's armor and stay as calm as possible.
This is excellent to practice. Putting on the Armour of God is essential and yet I so often forget. This is a good reminder. We must respect lawful authority especially when it acts to protect the country. But it is very hard to see people pulled out of Walmart or grandmother's who have been here 40 years deported. However if you go deeper than the news reports you find there is a record on these people--whether it be drugs or theft etc. The agents are rounding up law breakers--its just some of them are sympathetic figures for one reason or another. I dont know the answer. I often think of Mary and Joseph fleeing into Egypt and it troubles me that today's aliens fleeing violence are turned away. But during the Pax Romana there were no restrictions at the borders of countries. All were under Roman law. It's a thorny problem. In reference to the bishops it is a supreme irony that the Vatican has walls and severe security.
Todays Morning Office is serendipitous to these past few posts: Hymn of morning; O Christ, the Light of heaven And of the world true Light, You come in all your radiance To cleave the web of night. May what is false within us Before your truth give way, That we may live untroubled, With quiet hearts this day. May steadfast faith sustain us, And hope made firm in you; The love that we have wasted, O God of love, renew. Blest Trinity we praise you In whom our quest will cease; Keep us with you for ever In happiness and peace. And from Psalm 32 today: Our souls praise the Lord, for he is our help and our protector, for our hearts rejoice in him, and we trust in his holy name. Lord, show us your loving kindness, just as we put our hope in you.
I haven't seen the grandma's being pulled from Walmart. That is upsetting considering the people on the list of Epstein walk free. Very frustrating. Yet if they arrived illegally I would still argue they should be deported. Is it right for all those who legally follow the long process then? Many families that are separated for months at times in order to aquire legal citizenship. Yes, the Holy Family fled to Egypt but remember, there was no borders. Egypt was considered Roman. Sure the culture was different but they were "Roman." The Holy family had every right to move where they pleased. Probably one of the many reasons God choose that time to step into the world. You are probably spot on noticing the media picks out sympathetic characters to stir up emotions. But laws are above emotions. There was a clip making the rounds where a judge recognized the accused, they had gone to middle school together! And she shared her sympathy for him, she said he was the nicest boy in their class and how she grieved to see him there before him, and for a petty crime nonetheless! However she didn't attempt to stand before the law, she upheld the law despite her emotions. It's true Christ is the just Judge and all- merciful but He can judge hearts and we can't and so we have laws, imperfect as they are sometimes but they are what help us, fallen man, live together as best we can. And it is so ironic the Vatican preaches open borders when they still have their walls. But the problem isn't walls, it's open borders and this utopian idea that we live without walls. Aren't we instructed to guard our hearts? Thinking more on it, I suspect there was internal political pressure for the bishops to release some sort of statement considering Pope Leo made that nonsensical comment a month ago on being prolife as being pro illegal immigration.
There are many common sense solutions that could be taken as a position that would be Catholic. The fact that the bishops stick to the non-solution of the globalists narrative in regards to immigration, in spite of the multitude of common sense solutions available, indicates that they are caught up in the same systemic degeneracy. So while immigrants migrating illegally is part of the problem, it is only a symptom that stems from policy makers and those in authority who encourage it. So I have a bit of sympathy for illegals whose desire for a better life, though illegally achieved, was exploited by those in authority.
