Wenski on Immigration

From an interview with John Allen, Miami’s new archbishop had this to say:

“Immigration has always been a part of the history of this country, and more importantly it’s been a part of the history of the Catholic church in this country. I think some of the anti-immigrant feeling that we’re experiencing in this country is just a revival of the Know-Nothing movement of the past, which sometimes was a veiled anti-Catholicism. That makes me even more upset where I hear Catholics spouting anti-immigrant things, because they’ve forgotten their history, and it’s a history that’s maybe only one generation removed from where they are today.”

That might be because the noisiest Catholic voices against immigration are either converts or those who have “over-integrated” into the dominant Protestant culture.