Denver, Colo., Apr 25, 2019 / 03:51 am (CNA).- Do you remember the last poem you read, or heard?
Statistics suggest it has probably been since high school that the average American took the time (or was forced by a teacher) to read a piece of poetry. The rise of the internet and the correlating decline in the number of people who say they’ve read a poem in the past year has fueled an ongoing debate among those who still care: is poetry dead? Whether it is dead, or dying, or not, should Catholics care?
“Yes, emphatically they should,” said Joseph Pearce, the director of book publishing at the Augustine Institute in Denver, and editor of The Austin Review and of the Faith & Culture website.
“Up until relatively recently in the history of Christendom, poetry was the main form of literature that people enjoyed and read,” Pearce said. “The best-selling works of literature up until Shakespeare’s time were poetry…so you can’t talk about the legacy or the heritage of Christian literature and leave poetry out of the equation without doing violence to what Christian literature is.”
What happened to poetry?
Poetry used to be memorized in schools and was a central, normal part of people’s literary lives – something they would just “bump into” on a regular basis.
“I can remember growing up…we would get Reader’s Digest at home and it would have poetry in it, so would the newspapers, and The Christian Science Monitor…there were a lot of places where you would just bump into it,” said Tim Bete, who serves as poetry editor for the website Integrated Catholic Life (ICL). ICL is a website that provides articles, spiritual reflections, blogs and resources that strive to help Catholics better live lives of faith, according to its description.
So what, exactly, has contributed to its decline?
Pearce blames the so-called “death” of poetry on the “rather pathetic culture in which we find ourselves,” with decreased standards of literacy and decreased attention spans brought on by technology.
“The thing about our modern culture is that most of us spend most of our time wasting it in the dust storm and the desert of modern secular social media,” he added.
Dana Gioia is a Catholic by faith and a poet by trade, and has served as the Poet Laureate of California since 2015.
Gioia spent much of his career as a poet in the secular world, but told CNA that he has become an increasingly vocal Catholic, as it has become harder to be a Catholic in the world of poetry and literature.
The decline of Catholic poetry in the United States, for example, is in part because of Catholicism’s “very complicated position” in American literature since the beginning of the country, he said.
“Catholics were initially banned from coming to the U.S., and then they enjoyed very little rights where they were allowed at all for a long time,” he told CNA. “And there persisted to be – persists to this day – a kind of anti-Catholic prejudice in the U.S. for a variety of religious, cultural, economic and political reasons.”
“American Catholics largely represent poor, immigrant communities from Europe, Latin America and Asia, and to this day if you go to most Catholic Churches you are sitting among the poor,” he added.
For these reasons, there was no “significant” Catholic American poetry (that is still being read today) until the 20th century, Gioia said. Then suddenly, around the 1950s, there is an explosion of Catholic literature in the United States, he said.
Writers such as Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walker Percy, William Tate and Brother Antonitus were leading the way (many of them converts from Protestantism), Gioia said, and Catholicism was being taken seriously for the first time in American cultural life.
“You have a huge list of these really significant thinkers who reshaped American intellectual life…a moment in the 1950s when Catholicism is part of the conversation of American literature,” he said.
But by the early 2000s, that was already gone.
“By 2000 it had fallen apart. In 2010, Catholics are marginalized in American literary lives,” he said.
The reasons for this were several, Gioia suggested: firstly, as Catholics became accepted into American society, they became increasingly secularized. Secondly, the world of art became increasingly anti-Christian, and finally, Vatican II caused “schisms” in the Catholic Church in America, turning her focus to internal debate rather than to an external, unified identity.
“I’m the uncomfortable truth-teller in the room,” Gioia added as an aside. “The contemporary Catholic Church in America, and everywhere, lost its connection with art and beauty.”
“For centuries, millennia really, the Church was a patron of the arts, and understood that beauty was an essential medium for its message,” he said.
“Now the Church is so caught up with practical necessities, that it considers beauty an unaffordable luxury. But beauty is not a luxury, it is a central and essential element of the Catholic faith. And we know this, because if we have anything at all to say about creation, it is that it is beautiful – nature is beautiful, the world is beautiful, our bodies are beautiful. So we’ve lost this essential connection because we’re so busy funding the parish school, keeping the homeless center running, and paying the mortgage on the church – all good things, but useless if the message of the Church is not heard among its own congregations and secondly in the modern world,” he said.
It’s a problem that has been identified by many in the Catholic Church who are concerned with the New Evangelization – Fyodor Dostoevsky’s maxim “beauty will save the world” has become the battle cry of many Catholics who want to reconnect the Church and the arts.
But “healthy” Catholic culture has two cultural conversations going at once, Gioia said – one internally, and one that reaches out to the world – “and both of those conversations have become greatly diminished in the last half-century.”
What poetry has to say to Catholics
The thing about being Catholic, Bete noted, is that if you’re going to Mass and reading the Bible, you are probably are more immersed in poetry than you realize.
“About 30% of all scripture is poetry,” Bete said. “Even (Catholics) that say oh, I never read poetry, well, if you’re praying the Divine Office (a Catholic form of prayer centered on the Psalms), it’s almost all poetry.”
“We’re hearing poetry preached at Mass every week,” he added, and so becoming familiar with all kinds of poetry “helps you understand scripture better because it gets you in tune and trains you to think about metaphor.”
“So much of (scripture) is poetry but I think we kind of race through it sometimes and we don’t really kind of appreciate it for being poetry,” he said.
“In my mind, one of the reasons that there’s so much poetry in there is it’s so difficult to define who God is, and God is so much greater than any author can put down on paper, but poetry…it provides a different type of truth.”
Bete added that poetry is often the fruit of silence and prayer, and vice versa – one can lead into the other. An example of this in scripture, he said, is the Canticle of Mary, when the pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth and bursts into poetic song about how God has blessed her by calling her to be the mother of Jesus.
“When Mary really has to explain to Elizabeth what is going on, what does she do? She speaks in poetry. It’s very powerful…and so one of my hopes is that if people read current poetry, it trains them to look at things differently and will translate back to scripture and really help to bring the scripture alive for them,” Bete said.
Pearce said another reason Catholics should engage with poetry is because God himself is a poet.
“The word ‘poet’ comes from the word ‘poesis’ which means to make or to create,” he said.
“So when we are being poets in that broader sense of the word of being creative…it’s God’s creative presence in us, so we’re actually partaking in the divine when we write poetry or read it and appreciate it.”
Many great works of literature, from Beowulf to The Divine Comedy to The Canterbury Tales and the works of Shakespeare, are works of Christian and Catholic poetry, Pearce said.
Many saints, too, have written great works of poetry, Pearce said, such as St. Patrick’s breastplate poem or St. Francis of Assissi’s Canticle of Brother Sun.
Bete, a secular Carmelite, said he loves to read poetry by Carmelite saints – “it’s actually hard to find one who was not a poet,” he said.
“Elizabeth of the Trinity, Therese the Little Flower, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, they all wrote poetry,” Bete said, including some that was prayerful and some that was more lighthearted.
“Almost always it came out of their prayer life,” Bete added. “I think it has to do with the closer that you get to God, especially if you’re a writer, I think it just comes out.”
“I would say poetry is like going to Mass or saying your prayers,” Pearce said. “The writing of it and the reading of it is time taken and not time wasted, its something which is worth doing in its own right, as is prayer.”
Poetry 101: How can Catholics start a poetry habit?
Pearce has made it easy for Catholics who are looking for an introduction to Catholic poetry, with his book “Poems Every Catholic Should Know.”
“That book is very popular, and I think it’s popular because people are very aware that they don’t know poetry very well, because they haven’t really been taught it, and they are perhaps intimidated by it or they have misconceptions about it,” he said.
“So they see a book called ‘Poems Every Catholic Should Know’ and they think well, I should at least own one book of poetry and perhaps this is it,” he added.
The book goes through 1,000 years of Christian poetry, from the year 1,000-2,000, Pearce said, from both well-known and lesser-known poets, and it includes short biographies of each poet and how they fit into the broader context of the Christian poetry and literary world.
“A personal favorite of mine is a 20th century war poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who was a convert to the Catholic faith, so we published some of his post-conversion poetry in the book which I’m very fond of,” Pearce noted.
It was because of the sharp decline in the reading and writing of poetry that Bete pitched the idea for Integrated Catholic Life to start publishing poetry, to provide a new opportunity for visitors to the site to once again “bump into” poetry.
“The response has been great,” he said. “I think it just goes to show that when people see…beauty, and they see something that is of interest to them,” they respond, he said. “It doesn’t take a huge time commitment. It’s not like reading War and Peace or anything.”
Bete said he thinks it’s important for Catholics to come up with new and creative ways to reintroduce people to Catholic poetry.
“On Instagram where you’re seeing some of these Instagram poets who are up and coming, and I haven’t seen any Catholic ones yet, but I think what they’re doing is they’re putting poetry where people already are,” Bete said.
Another innovative concept that brings poetry to the people is the “Raining Poetry” project in Boston, Bete said, which paints poetry on the sidewalk with clear paint so that it only shows up when it rains.
“And I love that as a concept. Where are people, and then how do we find ways to get poetry in front of them? And I don’t think we’ve been very good or innovative at that.”
Gioia said the most important thing Catholic creatives can do is to create communities for Catholic artists.
“This country is full of Catholic writers and artists who feel isolated,” Gioia said. “If we can create communities for them, they will understand their own art and its possibilities much better. We are stronger together than we are alone.”
Pearce, Bete and Gioia all said they have been heartened by what seems to be the start of a Catholic cultural revival, in which Catholics are talking more about the need for the Church to reconnect with beauty and the arts and to create great Catholic art again.
“I find this very encouraging,” Pearce said. “One of the things I’m doing with ‘Faith and Culture’ at the Augustine Institute and with the magazine The Austin Review…is to try to engage this new Catholic revival in the arts that we see going on. Certainly there’s a Catholic literary revival going on, so there’s an increase not just in the quantity, but more importantly in the quality with Catholic literature written today in the 21st century.”
Gioia said that while he’s encouraged by these movements, he would also caution against the notion of “homemade” culture.
“I worry that they sometimes have a kind of homemade version of culture that needs a shot of energy and perspective you only get by studying masterpieces, especially contemporary masterpieces,” he said. “Any serious writer must engage with the broader literary culture.”
“So I think one of the things to do is we need to identify the very best contemporary writers. What that doesn’t mean is saying here’s a list of 65 writers. It’s – who are the three or four best fiction writers? Who are the three or four best poets?”
“If we had a (Catholic literary) community, we’d invite everyone in, because that’s the right thing to do,” he said. “But when we write about literature we have to be ruthlessly discriminating, because the best work is what will speak most loudly. That’s what a critic does, that’s what an editor does, that’s what an anthologist does. Right now we do not have enough anthologies, or magazines; we do not have enough Catholic writers conferences. We need to build the infrastructure.”
Gioia started the first Catholic Imagination Conference for this reason – to bring together serious Catholic writers as a community.
“Four hundred people came, and they looked around and they were astonished and heartened by how many serious writers they saw in the same room,” he said. “Each one is bigger than the one before, and some of the people who came to the first conference created magazines, book clubs, discussion groups, and so once again, we’re stronger as a community than we are separately.”
The third such conference will be held at Loyola University this fall.
Ultimately, Gioia said, while he is concerned about the state of Catholic poetry and literature in the U.S., he has hope.
“I believe that our Church and our tradition embodies in it a great central truth of existence. And so if you believe that, how could you not be optimistic?”
[…]
To the bishops of Colorado: The People have spoken. Those who violated Federal law by invading our country, need to leave NOW. You bishops need to respect the will of the people and not interfere with what is NOT in your purview.
We Catholics DO support immigrants coming to the USA but we will NOT support people violating our laws to come here.
In addition, the bishops of the USA have forfeited their moral position in the Church with their sexual abuse of minors and other vulnerable persons and also covering up the abuse by other clerics. It’s time for the bishops to do public penance before they can ever recover the right to lecture others.
Absolutely. Well said.
Excellent points!
The validity of one’s office is not dependent on his morality.
In what world do you live in? Progressive bishops have absolutely forfeited their credibility. There is no authentic office without a moral and spiritual foundation behind it. Once again, your commitment to leftist ideologies is compromising your judgment.
God doesn’t recognize our man-made southern border. God does recognize how we treat people.
GERALD: Christ also said to his disciples: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
It’s not a good idea to speak for God; Christ did that already.
God certainly does recognize borders. Read the Bible.
I read the Bible. Christ instructs us to love each other as He loves us.
Indeed. We should follow the Vatican loving (sarcasm) example. No open borders.
“Vatican Promises Stiff Penalties for Illegal Aliens Crossing its Border”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/16/vatican-promises-stiff-penalties-for-illegal-aliens-crossing-its-border/
There are legal avenues for immigration. We cannot take care of the entire world that wants to come here and our own, safely and effectively and at the rate they are pooring in. Absolutely unsustainable. Get real. Prices for goods and housing gave skyrocketed since Biden’s open borders. My friend is being evicted come the first of the month because his full-time job can’t pay the rent plus other bills. That’s who I care about. He has bought an ice tent . It’s tough here in Denver. 40k illegals have contributed to the rising rents here. Would you want to live in an ice tent in February?
God might not, but a sovereign government and its rightful citizens can and must recognize and defend our national borders. We should treat illegal aliens for what they are – individuals who are in violation of the law. The government’s first responsibility is to its citizens, not to law breakers.
Granted our Southern border has a dodgy creation history but to be fair so did Spain’s acquisition of land.
I don’t know how the title to my home and land are recognized by God but I’m pretty sure in this temporal world they belong to me legally and lawfully.
Yes, we will be held accountable for how we treat each other but scripture also instructs us to respect those in authority. I believe we can do both at the same time.
Unfortunately God does recognize nations, borders, races, tribes, families (subsidiary) even though He calls all men of all nations to come unto Him, to know Jesus is to know peace, peace among all men of good will.
Your comment is completely correct but lacks insight and balance. Conflating civil laws with assumptions of family separation is illogical. Given the crisis orchestrated, a dramatic response is required. Our church should use it’s own resources to do the work you speak of. Too easy to claim moral superiority and use government funds to do what you feel best for the underprivileged. When the GOOD bishops refuse government funding and use their own money and prayers they will be rewarded for speaking the truth in love.
So, Gerald. Does God recognize the fentanyl that pours in across the southern border and kills our people by the thousands?
How about the children who are trafficked or the mentally disturbed who will end up homeless?
Should I assume you’re in favor of this?
Thousands of American businessmen welcome these migrants with open arms because they work hard for a low wage. Thousands of American businessmen are getting rich using these illegals. It’s all about money.
So, Gerald, why then do you seem to condone the open borders which our president is proceeding to close?
Of course we welcome hardworkers. A work ethic is a very good thing and should be rewarded but we can’t continue to keep our workforce afloat through criminal trafficking cartels.
There should be a way to work on our visa and immigration policies so more decent people can come here to work legally and without profiting organized crime.
Does God recognize the wall that surrounds the Vatican City State and which the Pope guards jealously enough to reinforce the penalties against those who encroach on Vatican territory? If Pontiff Francis gets to establish his borders against unwanted intruders, why not the USA? I smell hypocrites galore in our Roman Catholic Church.
The moral treatment of people includes sane policies of regulating human migration, sane policies controlling sex trafficking, sane policies of stopping harmful drugs from entering the nation, and ending the exploitation of desperate people, and not taking refuge in sentimentality, the exact opposite of which is brought about by open borders.
@Gerald: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”
That would include protecting people like Laiken Riley and people like the woman lit on fire on a subway in NY and all the families who lost loved ones to fentanyl. Help the migrant yes but using a little wisdom by having a secure border with a comprehensive immigration policy. I don’t think God wants us to check our brains at the door.
Comprehensive policy – 1. allows people to understand with confidence even certainty at times, how best to mobilize, 2. requires broad-based inputs as well as specialist and 3. needs preparation and good personnel bringing through the policies in various areas in ways that also withstand scrutiny.
Some of it is bare-bones brainstorming: how many doctors do you want, how many labourers, how many train engineers, how many gross numbers per year, etc.
The existing legal and bureaucratic regime will most likely not reach to anything like this and more likely will get in the way of anything and everything at will.
And how they treat us. We used to believe in the Golden Rule.
Render unto Ceaser what is Ceaser’s. Render unto GOD what is GOD’s.
Ceaser / US government has the right to establish the conditions on how a non-citizen enters the country. Breaking the laws, does not give you the right to stay in a country you blanketly have no respect for. Being here, expecting all your living expenses paid for by the legal citizens is theft. While the bishops and governors look the other way, we taxpayers do not have the budget for increasing expenses.
Impressive statement, exemplifying the balance it encourages.
Colorado bishops are not acting out of the bounds of justice on the immigration issue. Many of the migrants passed through the border in context of cooperation by the Biden administration’s policy of offering a form of permission including the CBP One app. Also with a policy of refusal to close the border, the offer of financial, and other support upon arrival.
We are responsible to persons, the unity of families who crossed the border because of a wrongful policy in force at the time. Such migrants are themselves not entirely culpable and deserve a more compassionate response to their situation. Unfortunately, we are in effect morally obliged to make reparation for the sins of the Biden administration.
We are under no obligation to illegal aliens. We are not responsible to them or for them. They are not entitled to assistance or support of any kind. Illegal aliens are here ILLEGALLY. They have broken the law. The only responsibility we have is to deport them immediately.
Careful there, the food you put in your mouth or the milk you drink may have been handled by an illegal.
Americans will not/can not do a lot of work that migrants are glad to.
I’m not for illegal immigration but they do a lot of our ag work.
Granted. But that doesn’t mean they should be here illegally.
Demonstrably untrue. Americans did ALL of those jobs until the last 3 or so decades. They will do them NOW if paid enough per hour. The excess number of illegals willing to work for sub-par wages is exactly the reason wages have stagnated for decades. What business owner in his right mind would pay a worker $25 an hour if they can get away with $12?
As for the Bishops, funny they have plenty to say to Americans who object to their nation being invaded, but appear to have nothing to say to the law breakers who sneak over our boarders, often using stolen identities. Then going on public welfare at an immense cost to their “host” country which then struggles to care for its own native born poor. They burden our hospitals and our schools. Eventually , these excessively needy illegals will bring the entire country to the same indigent level as the countries they fled. It is also not true that all of them are here seeking honest work. Far too many have proved to be violent criminals, sex traffickers, drug pushers, gang members, etc. No thanks. I stand with Trump. Send them back. Our nation provides billions in foreign aid. They are not allowed to come here and destroy our country as well.
It’s gonna be an issue; you can’t just shut down our food supply because honest, hard working people are caught on a technicality.
This is one article from newsweek and there are many on the internet:
With Nearly Half of U.S. Farmworkers Undocumented, Ending Illegal Immigration Could Devastate Economy
Published Apr 21, 2021 at 12:38 PM EDT
Updated Apr 23, 2021 at 10:47 AM EDT
How much do you want your food to go up? – I’m telling you most Americans will not/cannot pick strawberries, apples or do any farm manual labor if it were $30 per hour. How much do migrants make picking strawberries in CA an hour – a lot — how many Americans are applying to pick strawberries – not a lot I’ll bet.
LJ, I would agree that US citizens *should* be able do those low paying agricultural jobs but it’s not going to happen any time soon.
Some years ago our state enlisted convicts to pick vegetables when there was a shortage of seasonal workers and it was a disaster. The workers from Latin America spend through the rows leaving the convicts behind in the dust. Inmates appreciate being outside in the fresh air and having opportunities to earn money. It wasn’t slave labor or the chain gang but they were pretty bad at picking onions. Maybe with practice they could keep up.Who knows?
Some countries enlist high school students to pick crops.
It’s fine to have seasonal foreign workers but they need to come here lawfully. And we could probavly automate more harvesting of crops also.
“honest, hard working people are caught on a technicality. ”
The “technicality” is entering a country illegally, thus breaking the law. Their very first action reveals their contempt for the laws of the United States: “If I want to do something, the law doesn’t matter.” That isn’t honest, whatever about hard working.
Who said Nazism was dead?
There is another reason Americans are partly responsible for the reason so many immigrants need to leave their countries in South America. It’s all the money Americans have spent on illegal drugs going all the way back to the 60’s which line the pockets of the cartels building them up and, in a sense, supporting criminal activities. I saw an interview with a very famous rock star who said in her lifetime she spent perhaps a million dollars on cocaine. I wonder if she ever gave it any thought to the blood that is now on her hands.
I want to express my gratitude to CWR and its editor for publishing this article, one showing how carefully balanced and morally responsible our bishops can be (and typically are, without always receiving credit where credit is due). It is important that all bishops and pastors urge the faithful to not only support the government in proper goals but also in how they arrive in achieving them. It is of course morally correct to shut down illegal immigration but NOT in a manner that more cruel than necessary (heartache is inevitable but treating them like animals is not) or with an antipathy that is violates the law of charity. Recognize and deal firmly with the evils but do not give in to fearmongering (as if we were being invaded by a race of orcs) nor to excess (e.g., any kind of deportation process that is so hasty that families that had been together are separated by our own officials without bringing them together again before sending them off).
Don’t presume that you have a monopoly on compassion. You judge others harshly and prematurely. What you write smacks of an elitism unworthy of any Christian. Yours is not the only way to go about solving a problem that was created by others.
A defensive nerve has been touched that you need to take to spiritual direction as a close reading my my text not warrant your presumption. However, what I have said does apply to you personally if you knowingly support our currrent president unconditionally even though at times he has been unnecessarily cruel on this particular issue, as testified to by his own White House officials (some of whom left because they refused to break laws for him). Most recently, our President shut down a family reunification program tasked with finding children separated by our own government (due to haste, bureaucratic bungling, whatever the cause) from their parents before they are deported. He is also not a thoughtful Chrisitian as he has always opposed comprehensive immigration reform, focusing only on the punitive side even when other measures provide both border security and while respecting the human dignity of those that need to be sent back or get to the back of the line. He has never entertained a legal, controlled guest worker program (even ones proposed by conservative Republican leaders) and has sabotaged DACA relief even when most conservatives wanted a soluton that is both just and merciful. Beware of nativism and tribalism. Be a patriot, not a nationalist. One is a virtue, the other disposition is one of the favorite playthings of the devil for splintering Christian unity (for 500 years and going strong). As to “my” solution that you speak of, I’m trying to hew to the USCCB consensus (which is NOT remotely the same as Pope Francis’ naive approach challenged by many Eastern European cardinals); I doubt you have a better one, at least if it means supporting any politician whose ideas ignore the bishops’ rational and compasssionate guidelines. Take care, brother, if you are selling your soul to a populist nationalist approach that is more driven by anxiety and contempt than careful consideration and articulation of Catholic social doctrine (which is not some post-conciliar invention).
yes, you cannot shake an illegal’s hand before Communion then beat the out of them while arresting them in the parking lot, but you can arrest them if that’s your job.
I have not seen anyone suggest that “beating” them is ok. That feels like yet another untrue leftist accusation which will be repeated over and over until enough uninformed minions believe it.
I’m speaking from a Catholic Christian perspective – these people have souls.
Well, if they have souls and a functioning conscience, they should not be breaking the law by entering the country illegally, since that would be considered a sin.
Of course they have souls knowall. I hear you. We can secure our border without needlessly demeaning others. I wish I could hear more balance about that from people. It’s a shame. Most folks who come here would be assets if they’d just come in the right way.
I am sure that over the next four years we are going to see CWR posting CNA articles by bishops on Trump’s immigration policy. That does not make it any less frustrating. ( Frustrating articles, not frustrating that CWR posts them).
The bishops say that nations are entitled to strong borders, which seems to mean that we can try to stop illegals from crossing, but if they do manage to cross we cannot send them back. Not a very honest position.
President Trump signed a list of pro-life executive orders after the March For Life yesterday, after already freeing the pro-life demonstrators from jail. It would be nice if the bishops would issue a comprehensive statement on that.
And, maybe mentioning that these reversed pro-abortion executive orders issued by Biden.
I would guess that most people have words or phrases that they get tired of hearing. I am tired of the bishops saying “welcome the stranger” when what they mean is don’t send illegals back to their country of origen. We do welcome the stranger. We welcome on average one million legal strangers (immigrants) every year.
The bishops did mention unaccompanied children and drugs coming across the border, but it seems that these are just mentioned in passing.
As the bishops always mention, they want “comprehensive immigration reform” without ever stating what particular “reforms” they want. What they seem to want is citizenship for the illegals, or, in the language of their 2024 voting guide, “unauthorized newcomers.”
I believe it is going to be a long four years of these types of statements from the bishops.
“Drug smuggling and human trafficking are on the rise because of the open border policy”
The reason for Freemason Biden’s policy.
“Mass deportation is not the solution to our present situation in the United States, especially when it may separate parents and children,” the bishops said.
But children won’t be separated from their parents. Entire families will be deported together, as they should be. Problem solved!
From a legal standpoint I would say you have to use your discretion. That is the general law anyway. Make a list. I’ll give an example. This is not exhaustive.
Many came in authentic pursuit of a more humane life and used the openings made available to them. They can be full of good will and don’t necessarily vote Democrat ultimately.
A large portion of some measure want to be in the “Democrat system” and be hinge points for the rest of their lives and they tend to be mixed in with “radicals”.
“Radicals” -narcotics contacts, Pink Tide, terrorism cells, criminals active for hire, other subversive elements.
There will inevitably be some past criminals genuinely hoping for a new beginning, but likely this is a very small group.
When there are minors and dependents involved in “bad” and “risk” groups you still should act with delicacy. An area for diplomatic measures and new relations/funding with regional neighbours.
‘ ….. Covering the news is a labor-intensive enterprise, and the number of media actually attempting to do it—especially in the national and international sectors—has always been comparatively small and is getting smaller all the time. Newsrooms have shrunk. Foreign and domestic bureaus have closed right and left as an economy measure. In the news business now, fewer and fewer are trying to do more and more with less and less.
…..
Speaking at meeting in Rome, Helen Osman, the top communication official of the U.S. bishops’ conference, says that “to understand the culture of the United States and how the Church can present the faith within that culture, it is important to realize that the adoption of digital communications is fundamentally changing the culture.” Quite so. In the end, moreover, it doesn’t matter greatly whether people get their news on a printed page or a screen. But it does matter that they get it—and that it be timely, accurate, honest, and fair. Religious leaders, just like other leaders in society, need to worry about that. ‘
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2014/05/29/the-mixed-state-of-the-changing-media/
I understand your points, but people’s motives oe desires are not under consideration here. If people want to establish a new life here, there is a legal process for them to do that. Breaking the law is unacceptable, even if people are seeking a better life.
So give a legal process and see who stays.
You’ve inherited a negative situation, make it positive.
A lot of it is already in hands who will hide it, uncover it.
Diamond in the rough full of opportunity shining bright.
There is good reason for setting in new legal processes. The situation is novel and it has different dimensions. Some things to do with borders; some with ICE in non-border States; some with Homeland Security; some with temporary provision of basic social services one way then another then another; some with personnel management and differentiation; some with probationary status and agency accessibility of those under management; etc.
If documented, if undocumented. Qualifying levels. Pre-qualifying levels. I would pass separate laws addressing different things and creating different processing tracks. This or that track could involve elective options for those under management in that area. I stress, separate statutes.
There is also sound LEGAL reason for new laws. The Supreme Court recently revoked the Chevron rule so that it is a whole new field for review of administrative act. This brings up also changing existing personnel. While a certain level of fidelity can be expected from Texas staffing, the bureaucratic and quasi-bureucratic status quo in the hinterland is working with its own vision that is going to fight very hard not to become outdated and to remain relevant and in charge.
Most importantly, without a knowable plain and simple fair and square legal procedural backdrop you already offend rules of natural justice. And you’ll lose in court.
‘ Skidmore Deference Survives: Under Loper, courts must exercise their “independent judgment” in reviewing agency regulations. However, the Court left Skidmore deference in place. Under that doctrine, courts may still defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute if the interpretation has the “power to persuade.”
A New Form of Deference for Express Delegations of Authority?: It is unclear the extent to which Loper will impact agency regulations promulgated pursuant to express delegations of authority by Congress. The Court explained that, while it is the court’s duty to interpret federal statutes, the best reading of a statute “may well be that the agency is authorized to exercise a degree of discretion.” In those cases, “the role of the reviewing court under the APA is, as always, to independently interpret the statute and effectuate the will of Congress subject to constitutional limits.” Loper explained that courts fulfill their “judicial function” in these cases by: (1) recognizing “constitutional delegations” of authority; (2) fixing the boundaries of the delegated authority; and (3) “ensuring the agency has engaged in reasoned decision-making within those boundaries.” The Court did not explain, however, if this is a different test than the judiciary’s duty to “say what the law is,” and if it is, when it should be applied.
Opens Door to Challenges: We anticipate a significant uptick in new lawsuits challenging agency regulations across sectors. It remains unclear, however, how courts will apply Loper in the context of particular statutory schemes and without more specific guidance from the Supreme Court. ‘
https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/us-supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-doctrine-what-you-need-know
Psalm 106:33 They so embittered his spirit that rash words crossed his lips. 34 They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them 35 But mingled with the nations and imitated their ways.
Obama deported 3 million illegals, more than Trump did in his first term. Somehow, that didn’t get the pushback that Trump is getting now.
It’s a sure bet that none of these Colorado Bishops will ever be named a Cardinal while Francis is Pope.
Me again.
Some may want to check out “If bishops want to be heard on immigration . . . “, Catholic Culture, Jan. 24, 2025.