Regína sacratíssimi Rosárii, ora pro nobis!

Ave Maria!

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost—8 September A.D. 2013
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Ordinary of the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text - English

Today, September 8th, is the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I would much rather be speaking to you about the holy Mother of God, than about illegal immigrants.  But it turns out that the Modernist bishops of this country have selected this day to have their priests tell confused Catholics why they should be encouraging their congressmen and senators to vote for the so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill which they are currently considering.[1]

    I am not sure exactly what the Modernists will say, but I think I can guess, and then explain why they are wrong.  But first, let me quote former Pope Benedict XVI to put the issue in perspective.  First Pope Benedict quotes his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who said:

“The Church recognizes this right in every human person, in its dual aspect of the possibility to leave one’s country and the possibility to enter another country to look for better conditions of life.”

Then Pope Benedict inserts a realistic clarification:

At the same time, States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers, always guaranteeing the respect due to the dignity of each and every human person.  Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host Country, respecting its laws and its national identity.

And, then Benedict quoted John Paul again:

“The challenge is to combine the welcome due to every human being, especially when in need, with a reckoning of what is necessary for both the local inhabitants and the new arrivals to live a dignified and peaceful life.”[2]

    Pope Benedict XVI, correctly I believe, understood immigration as a process that required the host country and the immigrant to cooperate with one another.  The nation is to respect the dignity of the immigrant—and the immigrant is to respect the laws and culture of the nation.

    The Pew Research firm estimates that there were about 11‑Million illegal immigrants living in the United States as of March of 2010.  “3.7% of the nation’s population and 5.2% of its labor force in March 2010. Births to unauthorized immigrant parents accounted for 8% of newborns from March 2009 to March 2010.”[3]  These numbers are down from an earlier estimate of 12‑Million, it being conjectured that the ailing U.S. economy has become less attractive to illegals.

    Under current U.S. law the border is supposed to be secure, but it is not.  In addition to people smuggling, there is drug smuggling.  Sometimes the smugglers are heavily armed.  About seven percent of those caught trying to cross the border with Mexico are not Mexicans—many come from other Latin American countries, but China, Albania, Pakistan, and Romania are among the top 25 countries of origin.[4]  Washington has thwarted efforts by the States to do the job it has failed to do.  If the current bill passes it will be the seventh law requiring visa holders to be tracked into and out of the country—which has not yet happened.  “What, is the seventh time the charm?” [5]

    So, what arguments might be used to justify amnesty for the illegals living here?

    ● Perhaps the most common is that most (not all) of the illegals are Mexicans, and that the United States stole much of the Southwest from Mexico.  In reality, the land ownership is far more complicated.  The Aztecs probably came from Africa.  They had the nasty habit of eating their neighbors and sacrificing them to the gods—their neighbors cheered when the Spanish stepped in.  The Spanish were twice supplanted by the French.  Two different rites of Freemasonry, and various French revolution types supplanted the Spanish and French.  The recent movie, For Greater Glory, will tell you something about the illegitimacy of the Masonic government in Mexico.

    In 1820, Americans were invited to settle in what today is the American Southwest, by the Spanish.  Apparently, Mexicans found the territory too remote and too harsh to colonize.  The settlers were expected to be Catholics and to accept Spanish citizenship.  After the first revolution began in 1821, the new government confirmed the Spanish land grants, but in 1835 changed the constitution, taking away the rights of individual Mexican states, causing several states to revolt.  Texas won military victory in 1836, and secured its independence when it joined the United States in 1845.  The land in the American Southwest is land developed by Americans, who had to be found to do the job Mexicans didn’t want to do, and who were losing their rights under the original Constitution—to say the land was stolen from Mexico is a tremendous exaggeration of the facts.

    ● Today the Modernists may be urging amnesty for the illegals because the Bible tells us to welcome strangers: “And do you therefore love strangers, because you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.”[6]  While this is true, the Scriptures also put limitations on how strangers were to be welcomed.  Animals that died by themselves were given or sold to “the stranger that is within thy gates,” so such meat would not have to be eaten by Jews.[7]  If a “stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep the [Passover] of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised ... but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall not eat thereof.”  Strangers might be foreigners, but more likely they were Jews who had a birthright to a share in the bounty of Israel—travelers were always welcome.

    The Bible celebrates the fact that Israel had borders, from the Sea to the River, given by God.[8]  The Psalmist praises God, saying: “Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.”[9]  “Praise the Lord ... He hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates ... Who placed peace in thy borders: and filleth thee with the fat of corn.”[10]

    Biblical hospitality toward strangers cannot be confused with the welcoming of a large illegal force.  The Jews were warned about associating with foreigners, on occasion even being ordered to destroy their cities and everyone and everything within them.[11]

    ● You might be told that amnesty is the only fair way to treat people who were brought here in their youth and who grew up in America.  This amnesty would have to include their elders, lest families be broken apart.

    If 11‑Million illegals are granted amnesty, the foolhardy generosity of America will signal 11‑Million more to take their place—to await the next amnesty a few years later.  And those people will have their young children with them as well.

    ● Perhaps you would be told that America is a very rich country and has a moral obligation to care for the less fortunate.

    Certainly we do not want people going hungry or naked or sick—we should look after the injured, the elderly, and those otherwise disabled—but a rational nation should not want to create a permanent underclass of dependent people, unable to fend for themselves.  Of the able bodied, Saint Paul wrote: “if any man will not work, neither let him eat.”[12]  Yet we advertise for people to take food stamps and free phones, free lunches, and free dinners.  Of course, with open borders, there will be plenty of takers.  Some illegals even want free organ transplants at our expense.[13]

    Yes, we do have an obligation to care for the poor in charity.  But is it charity or is it theft to use the brutal force of government to require everyone to share their substance with those who “will not work”?  In religion, we call this “Robin Hood theology”—stealing from the rich to give to the poor—and in politics, we call it Marxism—“from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.”  “Class struggle” is essential to Marxism—the permanent, dependent, underclass will facilitate such struggle

    ● You might be told that these United States must deal with the problem of illegal immigration.

    Again, a half-truth.  Yes, we must deal with it—but is it truly our problem?  Catholic social teaching holds high the principle of “subsidiarity”—a Ten Dollar word that means that social problems ought to be solved  at the lowest practical level of society (you settle a family problem at home—not in the Supreme Court).  The problem of illegal immigration is largely one of poverty or persecution in the country from which the illegals emigrate.  The Modernist bishops ought to be figuring out how to get migrants to return home to fix the problems;  how to recruit missionaries to accompany the migrants home; and how to help capitalize businesses in those home countries. 

    ● Today you might hear that “Most illegals are Catholics, as we are,” ‘of the household of the Faith,’ as Saint Paul said, and therefore have a special right to our charity.[14]

    The reality is that some are Catholics, and some are not.  One can witness pagan ceremonies conducted before Mass, outside of Mexican Catholic churches.  Freemasonry has had an enormous influence on Mexican government and people for nearly 200 years.  Modernism, perversion, Marxism, and stupid silliness have pushed many Latin American Catholics to join non-Catholic sects.

    According to the Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), the US immigrant population stood at almost 40 million, or 13 percent of the total US population of 309.3 million.

    In 2010, 1,042,625 foreign nationals became lawful permanent residents (LPRs), also known as green-card holders, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Yearbook of Immigration.[15]

    As Pope Benedict said, “States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers....  Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host Country, respecting its laws and its national identity.” Over a million people join our national population each year.  They do it according to the law.  Many of them take years and spend a lot of money to earn legal status.  If the United States is to remain a nation governed by law, it cannot grant amnesty to 11‑Million lawbreakers.  Doing so would mean the destruction of our economy, an insult to those 40‑Million who legally earned the right to be here, and would make the problem worse in the future.

    So, if you do contact your congressman or senators, be sure to tell them that the border must be secured, and immigration conducted according to the rule of law.

    And, let’s pray another Hail Mary now, in honor of the Virgin’s birthday.

 


NOTES:

[2]   Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2011, Benedect XVI, 27 September 2010  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100927_world-migrants-day_en.html  Pope Benedict quotes John Paul II above and below his own remarks.

[4]   http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29494446_ITM  Border security: apprehensions of "Other Than Mexican" aliens.(Statistical data)  Table 2

 


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