One of the buzzwords that dominates the Catholic Church these days is “listening.” In the synodal Church, bishops and clergy are called to pay special attention to what the faithful are saying on all the burning issues of the day. In this way, they will supposedly be better positioned to discern where “the spirit” wants the Church to go.
However, “the spirit” does not seem to be speaking clearly on some key issues in America today. It seems the laity cannot shout loud enough for clerical ears that are determined not to hear them.
The Illegal Mass Immigration Issue
Nowhere is this disconnect between hierarchy and faithful more evident than on the issue of American illegal mass immigration.
On the one hand, most bishops speak with one voice in favor of this asymmetric invasion of America and the egregious violation of its sovereignty. In so doing, they impose their erroneous position on the faithful in a very unsynodal way.
A sizeable majority of the Catholic faithful opposes illegal mass immigration and desires reasonable restrictions. They shout out in vain to be heard, but the pastors keep on ignoring them. Again, in a very unsynodal way, the listening Church seems to listen only to what it wants to hear, dutifully ascribing its leftist agenda to “the spirit” as a means of validation.
Thus, a serious divide is building within the Church, with the bishops stubbornly refusing to listen to anyone who does not clap for their opinions on this important portion of official U.S. policy.
Building Walls, Not Bridges
The result is a situation representing two perspectives. Leftist Catholic bishops and clergy hold to an abstract consideration of the immigrant in theory. By the mere fact of being human, every immigrant is deemed worthy of every benefit or support, even when entering the country illegally. Instead of being seen as a criminal trespasser, the illegal immigrant is turned into a suffering, oppressed victim figure that fits neatly into liberation theology, the Gospel according to Marx. No other factor is deemed sufficient to change this outlook. Borders must allow in “everyone, everyone, everyone,” regardless of the consequences.
Left out in the cold are Catholic citizens who confront the concrete results of foolhardy liberal immigration policies that disturb the peace in their communities and work against the common good. There is nothing abstract about their perspective. Although they are the nation’s citizens, they must suffer. Such massive influxes of illegal immigrants overwhelm community infrastructure and judicial capacity. Sometimes they include criminal elements. Such leftist nation-destroying policies can also bring into the country numbers of radical Islamists, communists, and many others with an ideological hostility toward the Church and America.
Such leftist nation-destroying policies can also bring into the country numbers of radical Islamists, communists, and many others with an ideological hostility toward the Church and America.<br>Tweet ThisWeaponizing the Debate
Unsurprisingly, Catholics in the pews are increasingly showing a “preferential option for common sense” and shifting rightward on illegal immigration. Media reports affirm that 50 percent of Catholics, for example, support a border wall, while only 27 percent oppose it. Ignoring majority opinion, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued statements against the border wall construction in 2017, 2019, and again in 2023.
Other statistics corroborate this clear break between bishops and laity over illegal immigration.
The Catholic Left claims that Catholic conservatives are ignoring Church teaching on the subject and are thus challenging Church authority.
Wrong Comparisons
Massimo Faggioli even likened today’s illegal mass immigration to contraception after Humanae Vitae. When this papal encyclical was published in 1968, some laity revolted against the Church’s moral teaching that contraception is “intrinsically evil” and entered, Faggioli says, into an “informal schism.” Indeed, it was very informal, since—both then and today—bishops rarely use Sunday sermons to remind the faithful in the pews about the Church’s unequivocal condemnation of contraception.
Conservative Catholics must reject the comparison. Church teaching on contraception involves a moral doctrinal position that can never change. However, opposing mass illegal immigration is not “intrinsically evil.” How to handle mass illegal immigration involves prudential judgment. That gives the Catholic faithful—whether in or out of government—the right to oppose misguided policies enabling mass illegal immigration. That right becomes a duty when such policies endanger the common good and the salvation of souls.
Dr. Faggioli also insists upon linking these conservative Catholics with postliberal thinkers when it is obvious that most of them are unaware of what these intellectuals think.
Church teaching on contraception involves a moral doctrinal position that can never change. However, opposing mass illegal immigration is not “intrinsically evil.” How to handle mass illegal immigration involves prudential judgment. Tweet ThisUsing Common Sense
The debate is largely and badly framed as a mass illegal immigration versus mass deportation fight.
There is a proper way to deal with illegal immigrants that respects the charity with which they should be treated and the commonsense needs and rights of local communities.
The Church has answers to these problems without resorting to liberation theology narratives based on class struggle. The key is to clear away the leftist hype and propaganda surrounding the issue and approach it from the true perspective of cardinal virtues like justice and charity—not the distorted leftist prism of anger and revolution.
St. Thomas Teaches
Thus, St. Thomas Aquinas clearly teaches that immigration must have two things in mind: the nation’s unity and the common good. The well-being of citizens is the primary concern, since they run and finance the public order. A society overwhelmed by disorderly immigration can never be accepted in justice.
When immigration does take place, it should seek assimilation as its goal, not segregation, never “a state within the state.” The immigrant should not only seek the benefits but also the responsibilities of joining the full fellowship of the nation. By becoming a citizen, a person becomes part of a broad family over the long term, not a shareholder in a joint-stock company seeking only short-term self-interest.
Proportional immigration has always been a healthy development in society, as it injects new life and qualities into the social body. But when it loses that proportion and undermines the purpose of the State, it threatens the well-being of the nation.
The well-being of citizens is the primary concern, since they run and finance the public order. A society overwhelmed by disorderly immigration can never be accepted in justice.Tweet ThisExplaining the Uneasiness
This explains why so many Americans experience uneasiness caused by massive, disproportionate, and illegal immigration. Leftist immigration policies artificially create a situation that destroys common points of unity and overwhelms a society’s ability to organically absorb new elements into a unified culture. Such policies can even provide a suicidal welcome to those who hate and aim to destroy the nation. The common good is ignored.
When this happens, it would be good to “listen” to the sound advice of St. Thomas Aquinas and biblical principles. The nation must practice justice and charity toward all, including foreigners, but it must, above all, safeguard the common good and its unity, without which no country can long endure. It should give no hearing to fickle “spirits” that create divisions and badly framed debates.
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