We begin this new year as we do every year, with hopes for a brighter tomorrow.
And as we always do, Catholics in the United States begin this new year with the recognition of National Migration Week.
For most of the past 25 years, we have celebrated this week in the hopes that this year, finally, there will be reform of our immigration system and a compassionate solution for those who are undocumented and forced to live in the shadows of our society.
Year after year, unfortunately, our dream of immigration reform has been deferred.
This year, of course, our frustration is mixed with a lot of fear, uncertainty and anger because we have elected a president who campaigned on harsh rhetoric about foreigners and promises to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
I find encouragement in reading the history of Caesar Chávez and the farmworkers’ movement and the history of the black civil rights movement led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose national holiday we celebrate [today].
The spiritual heart of the civil rights movement, as we know, was rooted in the witness of Jesus and his teachings of love, and especially love for our enemies.
And I have been thinking about a New Testament verse that became a kind of inspiration for the movement: “Keep your eyes on the prize.”
I think this is wisdom for this moment in our own struggle for the rights and dignity of our brothers and sisters who are undocumented.
We need to keep our eyes on the prize.
We cannot allow our judgments to be clouded by our frustrations and fears. We cannot allow our commitments to be co-opted because of our anger. We cannot allow the Church or our Christian witness to be reduced to just one more partisan voice on this issue.
It is sad, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that both of our political parties are exploiting the immigration issue for their own purposes. We saw this in the election and we have seen this pattern continue since.
As Christians, as the Church, we cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in this, taking sides, compromising the clarity of our witness. Our struggle is beyond the ambitions of individual politicians or one political party or another.
Our cause is the noble cause of human dignity. We are struggling for a goal that is beyond politics — the realization that all men and women are children of God, that their lives are sacred — no matter what the color of their skin or their country of origin or how they came to this country. A person is a still a person even though he is “without papers.”
This is the prize — dignity, justice and integration for those who have come to this country to share their gifts, to make a new life for their families, and to build this country.
The Rev. King reminds us that Jesus calls us to love our enemies. And he adds: “And I’m happy that he didn’t say, ‘Like your enemies,’ because there are some people that I find it pretty difficult to like.”
His point is that it is hard to like people when they call you names and threaten injustice against you. But Jesus calls us to love them anyway and to find creative ways to overcome their prejudices and fears.
So as we pray again at the start of this New Year, let us pray again that this year immigration reform will not be a dream deferred.
Full article at Angelus.
the archbishop knows that the undocumented come illegally. why wait for the government when he could meet with mexican bishops to come up with a plan to mitigate things with an agreed-upon church policy to ‘just say no’ to breaking into to sovereign countries. illegal immigration without political persecution is breaking and entering through a country’s national door where guards stand. such a statement would remind people that the church believes in supporting the laws of countries. i think that the US govt would appreciate mercy that also shows the church supports national laws. have the US bishops ever admitted,…
or stated anywhere is writing that illegal immigration is wrong? it could be a nice, useful reminder to some who feel that the church winks at this and will work out an underground railroad for them once they make it across.
The Archbishop needs to concentrate on his job—–being a shepherd for the Catholic sheep, including the HISPANIC SHEEP.
Instead of colluding with the established (and failed) Left/DEMs, he must focus on the Hispanic family and how the Leftist policies of abortion, drugs, vulgar sexuality, tattoo cult, and violent gang involvement.
Of course, the Left won’t like the Archbishop then, but his Boss will.
tattoo cult. That’s a democrat thing? Really? Gangs are of the “left”? Really?
Actually, you could say it’s Migration Month in California: 20,000 Grey Whales making their way down the coast from the Bering Sea to Baja to go a courtin’. Don’t miss it. No dashed hopes or dreams, just good clean wholesome fun. Bring the kids.
And don’t worry, it’s all legal and non-racist. Chavez, King, and even Gomez would probably allow it.
Would that el arzobispo were as anxious and obsessive about other anniversaries this month like, oh, say, Jan 22.
There is something very wrong with this picture! Since when do Catholic bishops need to remind/teach Catholics what Jesus said via the lens of Martin Luther King or Caesar Chavez? Our bishops are behaving as if there were no set and solid teachings on anything until MLK, Caesar Chavez, Ted Kennedy or Harvey Milk came along. The faithful are able to see just how very frazzled and disappointed many bishops are that Hillary Clinton was not elected. Hillary Clinton wanted to change religious structures too. Pray the rosary daily to defeat error!
‘Anathema sit!’: Priest lights up Twitter after Malta’s bishops approve Communion for ‘remarried’
https://www.lifesitenews…
‘Anathema sit!’: Priest lights up Twitter after Malta’s bishops approve Communion for ‘remarried’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/dominican-priest-tells-students-to-use-precise-footnotes-your-salvation-may
Archbishop Gomez writes, “Our cause is the noble cause of human dignity.” “Keep your eye on the prize”
With all due respect, for the office of a Catholic Archbishop, fidelity and consistency are hallmarks of recognizing faithfulness to all of Christ’s teachings. Allowing a homosexual couple to bring up the Eucharistic gifts with their adopted child is not a sign of a noble cause or promoting human dignity. It is a extremely serious sign that a bishop does not either see or care that he is scandalizing, confusing and misleading Christ’s sheep. That is not a sign of love! That is a sign that the clerical swamp needs draining.
continued,
continued…
Many homosexuals are searching for the full truth and they have been misled. These men need faithful shepherds who will not use them (like using divorced and remarried Catholics as parading tools of dispensing false mercy) to now suddenly usher in the so-called merciful acceptance of homosexual acts. This is NOT KEEPING AN EYE ON THE PRIZE! This is keeping an eye on what satisfies the flesh. God is not fooled.
An Urgent Appeal to Prayer: Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Archbishops Lenga and Peta Featured
Written by Bishop Athanasius Schneider
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/2993-bishop-athanasius-schneider-and-two-archbishops-make-urgent-appeal-to-prayer
What does this article have anything whatsoever to do with homosexuality?
What does this article have anything whatsoever to do with homosexuality?
This article has everything to do with homosexuality because Archbishop Gomez is demonstrating how there is no consistency in the selective application of his words. So, IOW. there should be dignity for illegal immigrants but no dignity shown to homosexuals when they are misled into thinking that sinful relationships are now dignifying to God? Archbishop Gomez writes, “Our cause is the noble cause of human dignity.” “Keep your eye on the prize”
continued,
Does Archbishop Gomez think that it is dignifying the noble cause of the laws of Almighty God when he allows homosexual couples with adopted children to pretend that it is pleasing to mock God? There is nothing noble about a bishop sanctioning others to offend God. Marriage and family are now under great attack. It is not illegal immigrants or homosexuals who are the enemy. It is sin that is the enemy and it is a bishop’s primary duty to help others to stop offending God by not sinning and breaking God’s laws. That is love. That is dignity!
continued….
continued,
Marriage and family are now under great attack. It is very apparent that many bishops don’t seem to mind that God’s laws and also that immigration laws are consistently broken or ignored. The same thing is happening with God’s laws regarding homosexuality. The men who were allowed by Archbishop Gomez to bring up the gifts should have been privately instructed AND if this was properly done, according to actual Church teaching, then these men would be the first to understand why they should not be portraying God’s concept of the family. Shame on you YFC, for even a paid troll who promotes the homosexual agenda, shouldn’t pretend that he doesn’t recognize this.
These Catholic parishes openly celebrate LGBT. Why aren’t bishops stopping it? | News | Lifesitenews
“They have encouraged a false hope. They are neither loving nor merciful; for true love and mercy cannot exist without the Truth,” Sciambra says.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/while-catholics-debate-communion-for-the-adulterous-remarried-some-parishes
Why doesn’t the Archbishop speak with more clarity? Immigration “reform”? It sounds as if his idea of reform is simply to allow everyone in and end border enforcement. There are many Americans who would like to see Immigration reformed too, but reformed in a way far different than what the Archbishop seems to be hinting at.
I know the archbishop seems to also have a mental preoccupation with equality (as do most of the US bishops), meaning economic equalization of all of us to the same level of poverty (because that is what usually happens with such plans), but I wonder if he has an opinion on how the great Barack Obama and Michelle are now worth about $25 million, about 10 years after his Illinois senate tenure, when he was then worth only about $250,000?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/this-is-barack-obamas-net-worth-as-he-leaves-the-white-house/ar-BBve7Bg?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP
Or, the Clintons, who when they left office in 2000, were “broke”, and now Hillary alone is worth over $30 million? How did these great “fairness”…
..leaders of the cause contribute to economic equality for all, Arch? Wasnt it all a lie?
Yah. I understand all the negatives, political, social & economic. But sometimes I’m damn glad there is an influx of people who are NOT a product of this brain-dead, smug, rotted-out American culture.l