Washington D.C., Jul 26, 2017 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As Congress prepares to vote on whether to fund the further construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, bishops of dioceses along both sides of the border have been outspoken against such a policy.
“While countries have a duty to ensure that immigration is orderly and safe, this responsibility can never serve as a pretext to build walls and shut the door to migrants and refugees,” Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas said in his July 18 pastoral letter on migration, “Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away.”
Although “the Church has long recognized the first right of persons not to migrate, but to stay in their community of origin,” the bishop wrote, “when that has become impossible, the Church also recognizes the right to migrate.”
The House will reportedly vote this week on approving $1.6 billion in funding for construction of a wall along part the U.S.-Mexico border, as requested by President Donald Trump in his FY 2018 budget proposal.
Trump had campaigned for president by repeatedly promising to build a wall on the border. Around 700 miles of the approximately 2,000 mile-long border is already fenced.
In a January executive order on immigration, President Trump stated:
“It is the policy of the executive branch to…secure the southern border of the United States through the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism.”
He also called for the allocation of federal funding “for the planning, designing, and constructing of a physical wall along the southern border” and to “project and develop long-term funding requirements for the wall.”
Bishops of dioceses along both sides of the border, however, said that the additional construction of a wall would pose dangers to migrants and would create unnecessary divisions in societies that have transcended countries’ borders.
The chair of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas said he was “disheartened” by the President’s request.
“This action will put immigrant lives needlessly in harm’s way,” he said.
“Construction of such a wall will only make migrants, especially vulnerable women and children, more susceptible to traffickers and smugglers,” he said. “Additionally, the construction of such a wall destabilizes the many vibrant and beautifully interconnected communities that live peacefully along the border.”
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas tweeted after the executive order was issued: “Walls only impede and put at risk the poor and children, because those who have resources always find other options.”
The Mexican bishops’ conference responded as well to the call for the further construction of the wall. In their Jan. 26 statement “Value and Respect for Migrants,” they expressed “pain and rejection” at the announcement and said that the wall would interfere in the multi-cultural societies that have developed where there are cities directly across the border from each other.
“We express our pain and rejection over the construction of this wall, and we respectfully invite you to reflect more deeply about the ways security, development, growth in employment, and other measures, necessary and just, can be procured without causing further harm to those already suffering, the poorest and most vulnerable,” the conference stated.
For over 20 years, the statement added, the bishops in dioceses including both borders have worked to achieve “the best care for the faithful that live in the sister countries, properly seen as a single city (from a faith perspective); communities of faith served by two dioceses (such as Matamoros and Brownsville, or Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, for example).”
“What pains us foremost is that many people who live out their family relationships, their faith, work or friendships will be shut out even more by this inhuman interference,” the conference said.
The bishops also said that the U.S. has a right to enforce its own border, but that “a rigorous and intense application of the law” would “create alarm and fear among immigrants, breaking up families without further consideration.”
President Trump requested $1.6 billion for a wall in his FY 2018 budget request. He also directed the Department of Homeland Security to spend $100 million of existing appropriations on “border security, fencing and infrastructure.”
Tom Homan, director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, told reporters on June 28 that “the border wall is one tool to help control the border,” among other actions like the presence of border patrol agents and law enforcement.
When asked by a reporter after a July 7 bilateral meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto if he still wanted Mexico to pay for the construction of the wall, President Trump responded “absolutely.”
Bishop Seitz explained in his pastoral letter “When Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away” that the construction of a border fence poses harm to migrants in forcing them to cross the border in more dangerous areas.
“The burning sands of our desert are an unmarked grave for too many migrants who have died attempting to cross,” he wrote. “Increased militarization and more walls will only make this journey even more dangerous.”
And, he said, walls that separate cities directly across the border from each other – like El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico – interfere in the societies there and separate loved ones.
“Misguided policies and walls are widening the divide between us and our sister city of Ciudad Juárez,” he said. “I am pastor of a diocese divided by walls and checkpoints that separate individuals from loved ones.”
Pope Francis said Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border in February 2016 at Ciudad Juárez. He asked all those in attendance to pray for “the gift of tears” amidst the hardships of migrants and their “exploitation.”
“Let us together ask our God for the gift of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask him to give us open hearts,” Pope Francis said at the Feb. 17 Mass. “No more death! No more exploitation!”
[…]
After Theodosius had ordered the slaughter of 7,000 innocents in Thessalonica, St. Ambrose locked the emperor out of the cathedral until he sincerely and publicly repented. It was one of the first Church-state differentiations that is still with us today.
Or is it? How will it turn out, Pope Francis with anti-pope Biden and this matter of 66,000,000 missing pairs of innocent eyes?
Ambrose counseled Theodosius to follow David, who had repented at having Uriah killed so that he might make of with his wife, Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). David actually “got it” and truly repented, and regained coherent access to the Church, the cathedral, and the Eucharist.
And so, today???
Kudos to EWTN correspondent, Owen Jensen, for his regular questioning of the Biden administration’s efforts on abortion.
Oops. Like David, Theodosius repented…etc.
Material matters will be discussed. Moral matters appear not to matter.
Bergoglio may “speak differently” than Biden but his actions are the same as Biden’s. Witness only this week Bergoglio’s appoint of globalist pro-abortionist Jeffrey Saks to a Vatican dicastery after repeatedly headlining him at Vatican conferences and symposia. We have had 9 years of Bergoglio’s charade and it is long past time to call both Bergoglio and Biden what they are: pseudo-Catholic hypocrites whose focus is solely on this world and the power and fame it offers.
Jesus also chose sinners to follow Him. What other choice did He have?
Sinners who repented their sins, converted and changed their lives radically to follow Him. He did not confirm sinners in their sins. To imply otherwise is not only false but blasphemous.
Wrong, Donna.
Judas wasn’t the only apostolate Jesus taught and showed.
His Apostle “pool” may have been limited in that manner, but surely he did expect more of them than one gets from a Joe Biden or a Nancy Pelosi. I think just maybe he wanted them–and us–to be better than they/we were when he found us. Being within his orbit should facilitate that, but then we do have to cooperate.
Francis called the morally depraved President Higgens, who enshrined abortion in Ireland, a great and wise man and he thanked God that Ireland had such a great leader. In every prior opportunity to date upon meeting a morally depraved head of state, he acted in a similar fashion, until he met Trump, the man who saved more innocent lives than any man in history, whom Francis treated as though he were Satan. So now we’re supposed to believe Francis will do anything but yuk it up with Biden?
The President may be “morally depraved” as you put it, but this odes not mean that writer, poet and teacher is not a very knowledgeable person. I know some very intelligent people, who have numerous degrees, but harbor hatred which is also morally wrong.
The Pontiff Francis is delighted to have the American-abortion-champion Biden in photo-opportunity with himself, in the same way the Pontiff was delighted to award the papal medallion to Frau Ploumen, the Belgian-abortion-champion.
Because in “the movement,” there are “no enemies on the left.” Just ask General Secretary Xi…
Biden’s faith must indeed be “very important” to him, since he so regularly uses it as a campaign pitch to Catholic voters. It seems to work, doesn’t it?
“Let the children come to Me.”
Since Pelosi’s meeting with Pope Francis was private, we can expect that Biden’s meeting will also be private. Whatever was discussed with Pelosi and whatever will be discussed with Biden will not be public. We don’t know if the pope spoke to Pelosi, pastorally of course, about her support for killing the unborn. We won’t know if the pope will speak to Biden about his support for killing the unborn. The pope certainly won’t make private discussions public, and if he corrected Pelosi or will correct Biden, they certainly won’t make that public. We, as Catholics, trust that the pope has and will continue to correct these self-professed “devout Catholics” in a pastoral way, explaining that they are endangering their immortal souls by promoting immoral murders of unborn humans. We don’t need to know, they do.
Yes, we do, because when Biden and Pelosi come out of their “private” meeting with Bergoglio that is photographed and sent online all over the world, they will loudly proclaim their absolute pro-abortion public position which they declare they will enact in legislation that applies to every American. What is at issue is not their internal, subjective state of soul but their external, objective acts that are mortally sinful.
The Pope has a duty to admonish them publicly. The faithful who are scandalized by politicians who support legalized abortion while flagrantly passing themselves off as “faithful” Catholics have a right to expect that he do so. These people have been promoting this crime for decades. We are well past the point where “private discussions” are adequate.
No. The Pope does not have a duty to admonish them publicly. His duty is to proclaim the Lord’s and the Church’s teachings – which he has done very emphatically – but what you suggest is not proper. Jesus. taught his followers and even said woe to some groups but never did he condemn anyone. Not even the adultness! Not even the sinners with whom he hate and drank. Why? Because he made it clear that he did not come to judge but to save. Publicly shaming people is our human way of doing things, but it is not our Lord’s way.
Hmmm… then what was “you are like white washed sepulchers filled with dead men’s bones?”
As I said, Jesus did condemn attitudes and actions of people or groups, but never did he condemn any particular person.
“if he corrected Pelosi or will correct Biden” – let’s be plain about what that means – “unless you repent and stop supporting the killing of the most innocent, I will excommunicate you”.
Of course those two (and many others) have already excommunicated themselves by their actions, but it would help if the Pope (finally) made it official.
Which he won’t.
God is our Creator, we are His creatures. A woman has no more right to kill her son or daughter than a man has to kill his son or daughter. I pray every day for 9 months to name and save an unborn baby and I pray every day for all Planned Parenthood facilities to close permanently. It takes humility to accept the Kingship of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the narrow gate and the road less traveled that we are called to. May God have mercy on their souls who deny God’s commantments.
Just an hour ago, secular publication “The Hill” announced that the Vatican ‘abruptly’
canceled a previously publicized live broadcast of Biden meeting Pope Francis.
Such secret “transparency” reveals more than what Nancy and Francis showed last week. What hides behind shall be revealed, but until then I’m voting it’s nothing more than smoke, levers, gears, and mirrors–toys of the devil’s playmates.
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I think you should have used that skeleton photo the “In the Defense of Trick or Treating” for this article.
Funny! Other ideas: Olive Oyl with Popeye or Laurel and Hardy.
Or, how about one which shows village idiots throwing stones at them.
I guess in this case one could then argue that words do indeed kill.
Biden “speaks differently than Pope Francis on abortion.” Some day Biden will “hear” from the tens of millions whose right to governmental protection was thwarted by this slaughter of the innocents. They will have opportunity to voice their “differences” with Biden (and others.). It will not be a “warm” meeting—quite heated one would imagine.
Once tredeau gets to Rome that would be the ideal time to drop a Bomb on these abortion loving ,family destroying , lavender loving Catholics !!!!
The earlier comment is correct, Jesus DID NOT embrace sinners and tell them “its ok, just keep sinning and follow me.” THEY repented. Calling them “good catholics” is reinforcing their sinfullness and there by putting their souls at risk. Thats what excommunication is all about Mal and Donna. It is supposed to put people on notice to repent from their sins for their own sake.
I have finally come to the belief, many of our catholic clerics are really not opposed to abortion, just secular progressives posing as ministers of the Gospel.