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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Bishop defends bid to help immigrants

    http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... ea7fe.html

    Bishop defends bid to help immigrants
    CAMPAIGN: The leader of Inland Catholics plays a role in a national drive to change laws.


    12:34 AM PDT on Friday, July 8, 2005


    By MICHAEL FISHER / The Press-Enterprise

    Undocumented immigrants who have spent years working in the United States without otherwise running afoul of the law should have a chance to pay a fine and work toward legalized status without the threat of deportation, Catholic Bishop Gerald R. Barnes said.

    Barnes, spiritual leader of the Diocese of San Bernardino, is overseeing a controversial national campaign launched by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops to seek changes in federal immigration laws.

    The Justice for Immigrants program aims to educate the public, including the nation's 67.3 million Catholic faithful, about church teachings on immigrants and the contributions of immigrants while generating political pressure for new immigration laws.

    "Others might say that they should be deported and get in the process in their country of origin," Barnes said of the immigrants.

    "We say these people have already been here, they have some equity here," he said. "Some of their children were born here. They have contributed in some way to society by their job. ... Why would you not grant them some kind of legalization while they're here?"

    As chairman of the Migration Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Barnes said he had the authority to stop the three-year campaign before it was launched in May. But the Inland bishop said he believes in the movement to change immigration laws.



    "The system is broken," said Barnes, whose diocese encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties. "It's an ambitious campaign because we are dealing in a climate that seems to be more anti-immigrant."

    The campaign upsets some Inland residents, including Chuck Orman, of Redlands. Orman, 60, argues that the federal government needs to crack down on illegal immigration.

    He said undocumented immigrants have undermined the quality of life in California by overloading roads, schools and hospitals.

    "When (the church) crosses into the political field in trying to influence policy, they may be treading on ground that they maybe should not be treading on," said Orman, who worries that the effort will attract more undocumented immigrants to the state.

    "This kind of campaign only leads to a worsening of the situation," he said.

    But Barnes said the nation's estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants are scapegoats and not the cause of problems within the nation's education and health-care systems.

    "We believe that there is a lot of misconceptions about immigrants. There's a lot of fear, there's a lot of ignorance. People don't know the stories, they don't know the facts," he said.

    Twenty Catholic-affiliated groups, including Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association, are joining in the campaign that calls for legalizing undocumented immigrants in the United States, creating a temporary-worker program and streamlining the process for obtaining family-reunification visas -- which now can take years.

    In coming weeks, dioceses across the country will receive parish resource kits with homily notes and immigration facts and figures for use in educating Catholics in the pews, said Kevin Appleby, director of Migration and Refugee Policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Each diocese will individualize its efforts, he added.

    Barnes is weighing how the campaign will be conducted at Inland churches, perhaps through litany sessions, from the pulpit, through educational programs or by staging community forums.

    Since the campaign's launch, the diocese has received a stack of letters criticizing the effort, including some notes from Catholics who say they will no longer donate to the church, Barnes said. But the church's positions on abortion, euthanasia, the war in Iraq and other controversial social issues have generated similar criticism, he added.
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  2. #2

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    Shouldn’t they be keeping an eye on that bad priest that like to molest small children. Oh wait the illegal population gives them a new generation that wont says anything because they simple are to afraid to allow in the authorities for feel of deportation. What happened to the separation of church and state, isn’t this a direct play into politics.

    Prometheus

  3. #3
    Senior Member LegalUSCitizen's Avatar
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    Dear God,

    Please teach the Catholic Church that it is the right thing for a country to protect it's sovereignty, and to protect it's citizens at any time, ESPECIALLY when that country is at war, and the enemy can easily cross the border and harm the people and the children of that nation. Please God, teach the Catholic Church that in the bible you actually say that one MUST obey the laws of his country.

    Please God, teach the Catholic Church that they should be focusing all their money and energy IN MEXICO, not in America, if they truly want to aid the Mexican people in helping them establish a safer, more productive country. Please God, teach the Catholic Church that it is NOT right to assist those who are committing a federal crime, other than to help them return to where they should legally be.

    Please teach the Catholic Church that we can go to confession to get into heaven, but that is not the way we get into countries. Please give this Bishop a plane ticket to Mexcio City, so that he can TRULY help the Mexican people, WHERE they most need it.

    Thank you, Father.

    AMEN
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  4. #4
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    LegalUSCitizen: AMEN!!

    __________________

    Listen Up you silly, tithe chasing money-mongering Bishops....GET OUT OF OUR POLITICS AND STAY OUT!!

    If you don't, it will be my mission for the rest of my life to jerk your 501 C 3 Status; shove those fraudulent papers you filed with our US Government and stuff 'em down your throats until you choke and beg for mercy!!

    Now crawl back into your worm holes and stay out of our laws.

    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

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  5. #5
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    Undocumented mean $ for Catholic Church

    How many Catholic priests have you heard of who have had jobs bid away from them by illegal aliens at reduced wages? Most of the churches are paid up and a lot of them have unused capacity. The cost of maintaining churches, monasteries, convents and schools is relatively fixed. Whoever they can get in goes to the bottom line. Of course they are backing illegal aliens it helps them even if it hurts their other poor adherents. As for a connection between Catholic clergy sexual cover up William Murphy the Bishop most implicated in Boston is now an advocate for the undocumented on Long Island.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  6. #6
    Senior Member LegalUSCitizen's Avatar
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    Question for Bishop Barnes.

    Bishop, do you believe that people should obey and respect the laws of the Catholic Church regarding completing the prescribed classes and indoctrination into the Church prior to receiveing Holy Communion, as well as all the other Sacraments?

    Why? These people just want to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
    Why does the Catholic Church demand these classes, (which are not free, I might add).

    Is it because the Church wants to uphold some form of orderly process, and make sure that people understand what they are doing?

    Is this God's Law or the Catholic Church's law?

    Were the Catholic Church's laws put into place to be followed and respected, or are they there to be broken?

    Why shouldn't I teach my children at home about the Sacraments, and then drive to church and just partake in them? Why?

    If my children go to church tomorrow and first go to Confession (Sacrament the Church wants them to fulfill certain requirements prior to doing), and then attend Mass afterwards and accept Holy Communion, do you have any problem with that?

    What is really wrong about doing that? Who is harmed by that?

    Why not allow them to start now, while we hope and wait for the Church to drop these requirements and change the rules?

    Believe me, with today's hectic schedule, it isn't easy getting the kids to all of those CCD classes. Why don't we change these rules immediately.
    Grant people amnesty from all these classes.

    Or let people start participating in the Sacraments, but offer a one or two hour course, always available once each month for people who never went to the CCD classes, but decided just to get started without delay.

    Don't put up ROADBLOCKS to people who only want to exercise their faith in God.

    The point is you want to downplay or change the laws of the United States of America, which are in place for a reason. Why not change the Catholic Church's laws? That is the point I am trying to make.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  7. #7

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    They need to replenish their lost funds from all the molestation and they need a new source to molested from and who else than to exploit the illegals that come here and cant say anything to the authorities.

    Pro

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