May 23, 2006

Walls or Welcome: a false choice from the Catholic Church

Various dioceses of the Catholic Church are support immigration forums called "Walls or Welcome". One of them is described here. Obviously, the very title of the forum is highly misleading. Having a "wall" (actually one or more fences) is not in opposition to remaining a welcoming country. We can still welcome visitors and legal immigrants.

What the Catholic Church means by "welcome" is, in reality, open borders:

...The Catholic Church does not officially support illegal immigration or lobby for open borders, said Gregory Kepferle, the CEO of Catholic Charities of San Jose. The church's position is that people should enter the country legally and that nations can control their borders as long as the controls are humane.

But Catholic leaders are advocating for laws that would allow people who crossed into the country illegally or overstayed their visas to start on a path to legal residence, keep families together and provide a way for workers to enter the country, Kepferle said...

There's always that "but", isn't there? They want to give almost anyone who comes here citizenship, which is just open borders with some minor controls.

Posted to Immigration at May 23, 2006 04:24 AM

Comments

Welcoming aggressors is a bad choice for anyone who doesn't want war here. Wanting to greatly magnify, and bring up to actual war scale, the competititon for sovereignty which the anti-American RC church is thereby promoting, shows hatred against peace and humanity for sure.
There are indeed many different levels of what it means to be a welcoming society; any number of which are well short of what a hostile church, is evidently asking for.
In any case, the attribute of being a 'welcoming society' is by no means a respectable moral or political ideal. If it could be, an overrun country would be better than one that wasn't, just because it had been a more 'welcoming society'.
There is a missing element, which eliminates the moral respectability of such a concept; welcoming evil is not morally the same as welcoming the good. Politically, welcoming aggression is not the same as walling it out. So much for that faith-based initiative.

Posted by: John S Bolton at May 23, 2006 11:18 PM