{"id":191,"date":"2014-11-19T16:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T22:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/archbishop-cupich-is-pro-illegal-immigrant-legalization-does-it-do-any-harm.html"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:00:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:00:32","slug":"archbishop-cupich-is-pro-illegal-immigrant-legalization-does-it-do-any-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/archbishop-cupich-is-pro-illegal-immigrant-legalization-does-it-do-any-harm.html","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Cupich is pro-illegal-immigrant-legalization. Does it do any harm?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Earlier today, I blogged on the two homilies<\/a> given by the new archbishop in Chicago, trying to pick them apart as to what it portends for his future tenure here.<\/p>\n

Just now, I flipped through the weekly paper put out by the archdiocese, and was inspired to look at their website. \u00a0Apparently, he\u2019s big on \u201cimmigration reform,\u201d though it\u2019s not clear how far he goes (truly open borders? \u00a0just open for Mexicans, or Latin Americans generally speaking?). \u00a0Here\u2019s the key quote from an article, \u201cThe plight of immigrants close to the heart of new leader<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast majority of immigrants come here because they are poor and desperately need work to support their families. But they also come because we need their labor. Washington State ranks in the top 10 among states that rely on undocumented workers for their workforce.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They harvest our produce and crops. They clean our hotel rooms and serve food in our restaurants. They care for our children, tend our lawns, and take on the manual labor we are unable or unwilling to do for ourselves. But they also are professionals \u2014 lawyers, physicians, technicians, priests, Sisters, mechanics, builders \u2014 and even soldiers serving our country. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are employed in virtually every sector of our economy. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that he simply discards any distinction between illegal and legal immigrants in his last sentence, and presumably in the penultimate sentence \u2014 one hopes that there aren\u2019t lawyers and physicians working under false identities, and one presumes that the Catholic Church is able to bring in priests and sisters legally (though, really, I don\u2019t know what kind of visa it would be \u2014 clearly, they\u2019d be able to establish that they couldn\u2019t find a sufficient number of Americans, but it wouldn\u2019t be a technical skill). \u00a0And as you can imagine, it rankles me to say that it\u2019s fine and dandy for illegal immigrants to break any number of laws, either working under the table or with falsified or stolen identitites. <\/p>\n

This is also a far bigger plea than the usual claim that \u201cillegal immigrants are so integrated into our communities that it would be unjust to uproot them\u201d \u2014 it does not appear that he has a one-time legalization in mind.<\/p>\n

So \u2014 given that \u2014 is it possible to say, \u201ceven if you disagree, what harm would it do?\u201d \u00a0What are the implications of Cupich pursuing this as a key priority? \u00a0Could one just say, it\u2019s no different than a hobby, something he pursues in his spare time, when not tending to the needs of his flock? <\/p>\n

And I think it does have a real effect. \u00a0Already I\u2019ve gotten e-mail invitations, from a list I\u2019m on, to join in a march for \u201cimmigration reform.\u201d \u00a0And back when the Gang of 8 bill was being debated, there was a letter that was required to be published in all church bulletins. \u00a0If Cupich goes further down this road, of being very active in the political arena, on a divisive issue, it sends the signal that he\u2019s more interested in politics than ministry. \u00a0It also communicates to Catholics in the pews of suburban churches that they don\u2019t really count \u2014 except when it comes time for the Annual Catholic Appeal, and they\u2019d better not get any ideas.<\/p>\n

And besides, this is Chicago. \u00a0Job 1 is the Catholic school system, and finding a way to end the annual rite of announcing school closings.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/p>\n

I was thinking about this some more while driving my son to his climbing-wall class at the Y.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing:\u00a0 do middle-class suburban Catholics \u201ccount\u201d or should the archbishop focus on the needy in the inner city?\u00a0 If\u00a0 Church was a social service group, providing care for the materially impoverished, then asking for some attention to the middle class would be whiny and self-serving.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not \u2014 Cupich\u2019s job is the care of souls, not the provision of food or housing or healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And to say \u201cyou middle class folk have everything you need\u201d kind of misses the point of church, which is about spiritual, not material welfare, and middle class people can be just as spiritually impoverished, or even more so.\u00a0 After all, Jesus ate with tax collectors.\u00a0 And in our \u201cCFM\u201d (Christian Family Movement) group at church, the empty-nester couples speak of hoping that their adult children might someday return to church.\u00a0 Is the middle-class Catholic obliged to take a \u201cdo it yourself\u201d approach to religion, because the \u201cChurch is about caring for the poor\u201d approach communicates that their spiritual well-being doesn\u2019t matter? \u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, I blogged on the two homilies given by the new archbishop in Chicago, trying to pick them apart as to what it portends for his future tenure here. Just now, I flipped through the weekly paper put out by the archdiocese, and was inspired to look at their website. \u00a0Apparently, he\u2019s big on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,139,46],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archbishop-cupich","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nArchbishop Cupich is pro-illegal-immigrant-legalization. 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