Well, this is disappointing:
illegal immigrants
Question from Lawrence on 4/11/2007:Fr. Torraco,
I am struggling to understand the position that many Church leaders have taken regarding the stay of illegal immigrants in the United States. Would you please explain why so many of our Church leaders are proponents to allow all illegal immigrants to remain in a country in which their entry was knowingly unlawful. What is the moral law that would trump civil law in this situation?
I live in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Roger Cardinal Mahoney is an outspoken advocate to allow illegal immigrants to categorically stay in our country without any provision or qualification to the lawfulness of their entry into the country.
Thank you for the service that you and your colleagues at EWTN provide us, Lawrence
Answer by Fr.Stephen F. Torraco on 4/27/2007:
The positions of various Church leaders on illegal immigrants are entirely their own opinions and not the official teaching of the Church. If the Church has any applicable teaching on this issue, it would be that the civil government has the obligation to uphold laws that are just and citizens are obliged to obey such laws.
Emphasis added.
Needless to say the response by Fr. Torraco is quite disappointing and the fact that it has the EWTN “stamp” on it makes it that much more disappointing. Fr. Torraco fails to reference Exsul Familia Nazarethana by Pius XII, or Gaudium et Spes, or the many speeches and messages by Pope John Paul II on this same topic, or how this country was built by immigrants… with this kind of “pastoral guidance” it should not surprise us why we get so many American Catholics appealing to the “prudential judgment” and completely dismissing the importance of the pronouncements made by the Magisterium on this same issue. According to Fr. Torraco, then, Pope Pius XII and John Paul II and even Benedict XVI have just given merely their own opinion? Are not they speaking on such matters based on Christian truth? Or is Christian truth also subject to someone’s opinion?
Perhaps Fr. Torraco missed the second part of Deus Caritas Est? Where has Fr. Torraco been in the past century in terms of knowledge of Catholic tradition? Why does he not mention all the papal and conciliar writings about the State, its responsibility, and its limits in enforcing justice and promoting the common good?
Is Fr. Torraco turning blind to the many families that are suffering due to the current injustices found in the enforcement of immigration policies? Is Fr. Torraco condoning deportation that is considered a grave sin against human dignity in Gaudium et Spes?
Sadly, it turns out that Fr. Torraco is the Executive Director of the Society for the Study of the Magisterial Teaching of the Church and has written books and articles on the social teaching of the Church. You can find all his credentials in the EWTN Q&A “Catholic Experts” page. There you will find his e-mail as well. I e-mailed him several months ago expressing my concerns when I first found this and I have not heard back from him since then.
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