When Pope Benedict visited the US, he called on Americans to continue our great tradition of welcoming immigrants to our shores: “to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new home.”
Unfortunately, some Republicans have let their zeal for enforcement of the rule of law, including in the area of immigration with which I agree, become an unjust, un-Christian, and downright un-American animus against immigrants. Period. To wit, one Rep, Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, who took the occasion of the Pope’s remarks on hospitality to attack the Church.
The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial, quotes Tancredo’s foolish remark:
Mr. Tancredo’s response was to accuse the pontiff of “faith-based marketing” and claim that “the pope’s immigration comments may have less to do with spreading the gospel than they do about recruiting new members of the church.”
Tancredo is no doubt referring to the Pew Forum study that found that the Catholic Church in the US is growing only because Catholic immigrants are flooding our shores. CNN anchor Lou Dobb’s shares Tancredo’s impulses and also attacked the Pope for “insulting” Americans: “I really don’t appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do.”
The Pope simply lives up to the Gospel message that we are to be welcoming to the stranger in our midst and extols our American credo and history of welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and that’s bad manners and an insult? No, the bad manners comes from those who let themselves be blinded by ideology, insult a welcomed and honored guest, and twist an American value into something it is not.
To repeat: I agree we need to enforce the immigrations laws to secure our borders, to elevate the rule of law, and to end the exploitation of illegal aliens by criminals and unscrupulous employers that results. But a blanket anti-immigrant ideology harboring a deep well of anti-Catholicism is just unacceptable.
I certainly hope all immigrants are always welcome to our Nation. However, people who enter our home without permission are not immigrants but criminals.
Many Americans have been murdered, killed, raped by these criminals and it is the governments primary responsibility to protect it’s citizens. If the government is not doing it’s job, it ceases to protect the citizenry, what good is it?
I supposed the Holy Father was speaking about immigrants and not people who enter another’s home without permission as that is definately not an immigrant.
Lou Dobbs comments were certainly anti Catholic and hateful toward our Church and our Holy Father but what do you expect from a Network that is a radical liberal rag?
I don’t know about Dobbs, but isn’t Tancredo Catholic?
adabolendam,
Tancredo is an apostate. He left the Church and belongs to some evangelical sect now. That certainly sheds some light on this.
I think an answer to the Pope’s assertion that illegals should be welcomed was necessary. I do think that some of the Church’s pro-illegal stance is intended not to lose Hispanic members to evangelical sects—there is no excuse to excuse law-breaker and society-draining behavior in the name of “welcoming the stranger.” One stranger is one thing, hordes of people is another.
Be careful when you use “the Church”. That’s a big collective noun. The Church does not have a pro-illegal stance. Some bishops might, but not the Church. Very big distinction.
If the Pope meant illegals or criminals, He would be opposing the gopsel. That’s rediculous! Can you imagine the Vatican State being invaded by illegals? Would the Vatican welcome millions of criminals so that they might call it their home?