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FAITH FORMATION: Family and Community Life

Last revised: July 19, 2008 12:12 PM

Catholic Social Teaching:
Call to Family and Community Life
Each person is not only sacred but social. The family is the central social institution that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined. How we organize our society - in economics and politics, in law and policy - directly affects human dignity, the family, and the capacity of individuals to grow and support one another in community. We realize our dignity and rights in relationship with each other, in community. Human beings grow and achieve fulfillment in community.

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Immigration: Are All Welcome? | Family Life News | Family Faith

All Are Welcome?
On Pentecost, the disciples received tongues of fire — and suddenly the language barriers came down and the disciples were able to proclaim the Good News to all. The very first gift of the Holy Spirit was the gift of language!

As we study the volatile topic of immigration reform in this country, we need this gift of the Holy Spirit more than ever. Two-thousand years have passed since that first Pentecost, but
language is still a barrier that divides and defines us. Like race, we use language to discriminate against those who are different. We forget that we are all human beings, with inherent worth and dignity — and that we all want the same things in life. We all want love, respect, security, and the ability to provide food and shelter for our families. What would you do if you lived in a place without hope? Would you watch your children go hungry — or would you sneak across a border illegally? Would you do almost anything to survive, even if it meant risking your own life?

The Catholic Church has always supported the rights of immigrants. When Pope John Paul II addressed the United Nations on October 2, 1979, he listed as part of the basic human rights that the Church endorses “the right ... to found a family and to enjoy all conditions necessary for family life …the right to freedom of movement, to internal and external migration; the right to nationality and residence.” In January of 2003, the bishops of the United States and Mexico issued a joint statement called Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope, in which they remind us “Catholic teaching has a long and rich tradition in defending the right to migrate. Based on the life and teachings of Jesus, the Church’s teaching has provided the basis for the development of basic principles regarding the right to migrate for those attempting to exercise their God-given human rights. Catholic teaching also states that the root causes of migration — poverty, injustice, religious intolerance, armed conflicts — must be addressed so that migrants can remain in their homeland and support their families.”

While speaking eloquently about the rights of immigrants, the bishops also acknowledge, “sovereign nations have the right to control their borders” — and this is where the issue gets complicated. The Michigan Catholic Conference recently sent a letter to the U.S. Senate calling for a rejection of all enforcement-only proposals currently being studied. The MCC states that any immigration reform must address “the need for a pathway to lawful permanent residence and citizenship for the undocumented, and provisions for a guest worker program that provides labor protections”.

We are a nation of immigrants. Unless you are one hundred percent Native American, you can trace your ancestry back to immigrants. If we love one another as Jesus commanded, how do we treat immigrants? Will we support proposals that destroy families, letting U.S. born children stay here while we deport their parents? Or, will we support a way for illegal immigrants who have found jobs and acted as model citizens to earn their citizenship? What kind of immigration reform would Jesus support?



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