USCCB MIGRATION COMMITTEE MEETS WITH TOP ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION RAIDS, CONCERN FOR CHILDREN
We have very encouraging news. After intense advocacy and education on renewing US leadership to combat HIV & AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a bill that reflects many of USCCB's and CRS's priorities.
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Catholic San Francisco
Guest editorial
Civic role - moral imperative
By George Wesolek
Despite widespread cynicism about politicians and all things political, there is freshness in the air and maybe even a hint of optimism. The long and arduous political season that everyone thought would deliver a new reason to hate the political process is instead surprisingly lively and injecting a sense of participation we haven't seen for some time.
Will it increase voter participation? To be more specific, will this atmosphere increase the participation of Catholic voters? We know that, in most elections, a paltry number of people bother to vote. In some elections it is less than one-third of eligible voters. A huge turnout might mean somewhere between 50 and 60 percent. Catholics are no different than the general voting population.
But it should be different. Catholic participation should be high. Why?
Catholics are required to vote. "Required" may seem strong to some. But here's how the U.S. bishops put it in their every four-year statement, "Faithful Citizenship":"In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation."
"Moral obligation" sounds pretty strong to me. Why are the bishops saying this?
Catholic social teaching is based on the premise that human persons are social persons. We are the People of God. We are all the Body of Christ. St. Paul used this metaphor to demonstrate how interrelated we are. If your head hurts, it affects the other parts of your body. Martin Luther King, Jr., said it this way: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Throughout the New Testament our Master and Lord tells us we are one family. He includes all - blind, the disabled, the destitute, the lame, men and women, Jew and Gentile -all children of God our Father. From this great example comes the command: "Love one another."
The bishops are telling us that to fulfill the command to love one another, we must participate in civic and cultural life. This means participating in the political process. Politics, the crafting of laws, is a central way that we interact within our community; that we care for suffering members of our community; that we nurture justice and peace. It is not the only way. Individual action is essential, but without corporate action (often this means government action), grave injustices can oppress a people. Systemic injustice can hamper a people and individual rights. Our faith compels us to love in this way.
Faith has made a great difference in our nation's politics. Faith has been at the center of some of the most important issues facing our country. It was people of faith who supported the Underground Railroad, "illegally" transporting slaves from the South to freedom in the North. People of faith knew it was wrong, unjust and against the law of God to hold another human being as property. People of faith were instrumental in freeing the slaves and changing the law to reflect truth and justice.
It was people of faith who supported and energized the civil rights movement. I have vivid memories of the civil rights march in Selma, Ala. in March of 1965. The first march took place on March 7, now known as "Bloody Sunday." The violence and racial hatred displayed on our TVs was galvanizing. Police with clubs and dogs running down men, women and children proved to be a catalyst bringing the religious community to action. That next day, four priests from the Detroit area where I was a student flew to Alabama to join 400 religious leaders from across the country to march in defiance of the Alabama governor, George Wallace, and local authorities. In Detroit, we joined a march of 10,000 in support of Dr. King. Religious communities around the nation voiced outrage at the racism infecting our country. Five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Acts of 1965.
Rabbi Israel Dresner said before the second, potentially dangerous march, an open act of civil disobedience: "There is a higher law in God's universe and that is God's law. There is a time when man must choose between man's law and God's law."
It was people of faith who began and supported legislation to forgive the foreign debt of the world's poorest countries, countries which could not pay for basic services such as health care and education because of enormous payments. The Jubilee Act of 2000 was passed and gave life, literally, to hundreds of millions.
This faithful citizenship continues. We advocate today as faithful citizens through our Point7Now! Campaign to tell Congress that our America should be doing more to alleviate the extreme poverty of the world's most poor.
And today, it is people of faith who spearhead the most important social issues of our generation: abortion. It is the religious community that holds up the rights of the unborn and says to a cynical and mocking society that life cannot be destroyed at whim. It is the religious community that marches in the streets (even in hostile San Francisco) to witness to this injustice. It is the religious community which floods the halls of legislatures everywhere in this land to support legislation to change this moral wrong.
Participation in civic life is not just important, it is an absolute requirement of our faith. The bishops are correct. It is a moral obligation.
California Bishops call for fair immigration reform
Bay Area faith groups, community organiztions, business and labor leaders held a press conference in Yerba Buena Gardens Wednesday calling for fair immigration reform
for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
By John Han
December 6, 2007
California Catholic Bishops called for continued efforts towards comprehensive and "fair" immigration reform Wednesday to protect the rights of undocumented immigrant workers and their families in the U.S.
Archbishop George Niederauer said at a press conference in San Francisco that the current immigration system is, "outmoded because it does not contain sufficient work visas for temporary migrant workers to enter the country in a safe, legal, and orderly manner."
Joined by Bay Area faith groups, community organizations, business and labor leaders, Niederauer said the work immigrants perform in industries such as agriculture, service, and construction, are important to California and the nation.
"From our experience, the overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants in America are not criminals. They migrate in order to find work to support themselves and their families," said Niederauer. "We urge all Catholics and all Californians to reject attacks on immigrants and to work constructively towards a human resolution of this problem of illegal immigration."
Archbishop George Niederauer
San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commissioner Angus McCarthy said immigrant advocacy groups had to evaluate what failed after the Bush Administration's controversial Immigration Reform bill suffered a landslide defeat in the Senate in June.
The bi-partisan bill, introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), would have provided a pathway toward citizenship to millions of undocumented workers currently living in the U.S. The bill received various criticisms from both Republicans and Democrats with many Republicans turning against Bush, accusing the bill of giving amnesty to illegal aliens.
"This is one of the first moves [since then] by the Catholic charities and the churches to come forward and speak out on the issue," McCarthy said. But he called Bush's version of immigration reform "complex".
The bill would have included $4.4 billion to fund "enhanced" border securities. That would have included building more detention facilities to accommodate 31,500 detainees, increased fencing and border patrols, and the installation of ground-based radar and camera towers along the Southern border.
George Wesolek, Director of Archdiocese of San Francisco, said that though he thought the bill was a compromise, he nevertheless supports it.
"It was moving in the right direction," he said.
"We supported a general idea of having some sort of a path to citizenship which the bill provided," Wesolek added. "It was a little punitive of people coming and then not being able to have their families come and join them for as long as maybe ten or fifteen years."
Globalization and free trade agreements such as NAFTA have also played a key role in the patterns of migration and needed to be recognized Wesolek said.
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval said free trade agreements had serious detrimental effects on rural communities in places such as Mexico, including displacement and migration of workers into bigger cities.
Sandoval said local Mexican farmers could not compete with giant U.S corporations that can grow and sell corn in Mexico at cheaper rates than Mexican farmers. But many other businesses were causing displacement as well.
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval
"When you look at the growth of big chain stores like Wal-Mart and Mexico, you have to understand that Wal-Mart is selling products to customers that previously were buying local products," Sandoval said
"With the loss of jobs, people either have to come work at Wal-Mart or go to the big cities or to the United States. But they no longer can stay in their small towns."
"My grandfather was a furniture maker and he made everything out of wood and straw. I know that the type of product that he made is less and less in demand because people now will buy a plastic chair made in China and sold by Wal-Mart. That's a direct consequence.
fogcityjournal.com
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