Thread: Cardinal Has Immigration Message For Ash Wed. Mass

http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_060104049.html

(AP) LOS ANGELES The leader of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese is expected to call for parishioners to mobilize on behalf of illegal immigrants in his Ash Wednesday Mass.

Cardinal Roger Mahony told the Los Angeles Times that it's the first time he'll call the entire 5 million-member archdiocese -- the nation's largest -- to get behind a social issue.

Mahony made his comments as congress begins to consider regulations that would require social organizations and church groups to ask people for documentation when approached for help. He said he'll instruct his priests to defy that legislation if it is passed.

Mahony is criticizing efforts by the immigration control groups like Minuteman Project that police the border. He said he's against what he calls a "hysterical" anti-immigration sentiment sweeping the nation.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/ ... SECTION=US

Cardinal Vows to Defy Anti-Immigrant Bill
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Wednesday he would instruct his priests to defy a proposed federal requirement that churches check the legal status of parishioners before helping them.

The U.S. House of Representatives included the requirement in an immigration bill that the Senate Judiciary Committee is to begin debating this week. The legislation also would penalize social organizations that refuse to meet its requirements.

When asked if he would be willing to go to jail for the stance, Mahony said "yes" because "helping people in need were actions that are part of God's mercy."

Mahony, a longtime advocate of immigrant rights who oversees a racially diverse archdiocese of more than 4 million people, used Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season to urge Catholics to "make room" for immigrants.

"Unless you are a Native American, everyone in here is the son or daughter of immigrants," said Mahony, speaking during Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Mahony told those attending Mass he was not in favor of "unfettered immigration," but that the current system was inhumane and inefficient. He said stringent laws and government bureaucracy meant immigrants were often separated up to 15 years from family members trying to immigrate.

"We need reform that looks to family unification," he said. "What we have now is broken and invites violation."

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops support a guest-worker program, legalizing undocumented immigrants and more visas for migrants' families.

Mahony has long advocated for immigrant rights and opposed the 1994 state proposition that tried to deny public benefits to illegal immigrants. The proposition was approved by voters but struck down by federal courts as unconstitutional.

Why? Why does this Cardinal and his ilk show so much pride in the prospect of breaking laws and giving to the undeserving?

I'm not Catholic and I sure don't understand this thought process...

FAIR Was(n't) There: Mehlman Tossed from Church Where Mahony Was Speaking


FAIR Was There
In an effort to respond to many media requests about Cardinal Mahony's comments commanding law-breaking by all church employees in the Los Angeles diocese, I went this afternoon to the new cathedral to hear what he had to say. After speaking to several news organizations about Mahony's reported comments, I headed to the cathedral entrance to listen to his Ash Wednesday sermon. It was at that point that I was barred from entering by ushers who informed me I was a "protestor" and was being denied entry because I would "disrupt" the mass. Meanwhile, other members of the public continued to be welcomed in, presumably including other people who object to Mahony's statements regarding illegal immigration.

Ira Mehlman - FAIR Media Director

I was barred from entering by ushers who informed me I was a "protestor" and was being denied entry because I would "disrupt" the mass.

Apparently, Mr. Mahoney has appointed himself king of his church and is deporting anyone who doesn't agree with him. I hope his parishoners will see him for what he really is.

I thought the Pope came out last week and said the church needed to keep their nose out of our politics, obviously they don't listen to him either. Again, the more illegals, the more money the church gets. Note that they were in a new one. Hmmm, wonder where that money came from?

Having grown up a Catholic I was APPALLED to read what Cardinal Mahoney said. I was smart enough to leave that 'church' at age 14 when it dawned on me that they hade CHANGED the 10 Commandments. What do you expect from a cult led by pompous asses,tax cheats and pedophiles.

Doesn't the Bible say something about paying your taxes and obeying the civil authorities? Coulda swore it was in there. I think JC himself was quoted on this, right?

Originally Posted by PinestrawGuys

Having grown up a Catholic I was APPALLED to read what Cardinal Mahoney said. I was smart enough to leave that 'church' at age 14 when it dawned on me that they hade CHANGED the 10 Commandments. What do you expect from a cult led by pompous asses,tax cheats and pedophiles.

Doesn't the Bible say something about paying your taxes and obeying the civil authorities? Coulda swore it was in there. I think JC himself was quoted on this, right?

Good for you for leaving that church. You did the right thing even though I'm sure it pained you to do it. As far as I'm concerned you don't need organized religion to believe in God, Jesus and read the bible. You don't need organized religion to tell you what to do. The heck with those money grubbing, greedy, corrupt church leaders. You know what God thinks of those who trust for power and greed for their own personal agenda.

These churches have become nothing more than over glorified PAC's for politicans and the like. When they go the route that the Catholic church has gone, they no longer can consider themselves a house of God. They are a house of criminals. Catholics who despise what is happening need to follow the example of the person I just quoted in my post and leave this church in droves and tell these arrogant hypocrits why your leaving. Tell them you will not be a pawn (or a cashcow for that matter) for their criminal activities. I really feel sorry for those true Catholics that have to be subjected to these money grubbing vulchers that claim to be men of God like Phoney Mahoney.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.


- Plato

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 4669.story

Mahony's Lenten Message Irritates Some at Service
By Teresa Watanabe
Times Staff Writer

March 2, 2006

Stepping up his campaign for humane immigration reform, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony urged his Roman Catholic flock at a packed Ash Wednesday service to "make room in our hearts" for immigrants, but his message drew mixed reviews.

While many Catholics hailed the cardinal's remarks, delivered on the first day of the Lenten season at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, others expressed anger that he injected politics into a religious service.

"I came for my ashes, and I don't like him to be so political," said Josee Kubiak, a 75-year-old Belgian immigrant and retired lab technician. "He has no business butting in on this."

Emerging from the cathedral with an ash-smudged cross on her forehead, Kubiak said she legally immigrated to the United States in 1952, with a proper sponsor and health checks. But today, she said, "we are overrun with illegals and they want everything for free. I am very much resentful, and especially that the Catholic Church wants to support them."

Dolores Luna, a retired Los Angeles nutrition specialist and fourth-generation Mexican American, said the church and society needed to take care of Americans first before opening the doors to more immigrants.

But Marilyn Carino, 52, a government tax examiner and Filipino immigrant, hailed Mahony. "The church should be a sanctuary that welcomes everyone no matter where they come from," she said.

Mahony said this week that he intended to ask the 288 parishes of the 5-million member Los Angeles Archdiocese to fast, pray and press for more tolerant and humane immigration reforms during the 40-day Lenten season of reflection and penitence. He denounced what he called "hysterical" anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping the country.

The remarks drew several "nasty and emotion-filled" calls to the archdiocese Wednesday from callers demanding harsh measures against undocumented immigrants, according to archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg. But they did not deter Mahony from reiterating his message to a multicultural crowd of 3,000 at the noontime service, just a day before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee prepared to open debate on immigration reform proposals.

Wearing a red skullcap and purple robes, Mahony told the congregants that the church did not support unfettered immigration, but a solution to what he called a broken system. Then he outlined five principles for immigration reform developed in a national "Justice for Immigrants" campaign by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and other church organizations.

They include more visas for family members of migrants to reduce what can be decades-long waits to reunify; a guest worker program with a path to permanent residency; better legal processes to guarantee immigrant rights; legalization of undocumented migrants; and economic development in poor countries to reduce the need to migrate.

"The church has always been in the forefront of welcoming waves of immigrants," Mahony said, reminding congregants of their own probable immigrant roots. "This has been a constant theme of the church since the 1700s."

He asked congregants to use the Lenten season to open their hearts to Jesus Christ, each other and immigrants.

"There seems to be strident voices that are very much anti-immigrant," he said. "But here in Los Angeles, we have such an enormous diversity of people … each one of you is a gift and a blessing."

The message struck deep chords with Tess Bautista and Rea Lazo, two sisters who emigrated from the Philippines two decades ago to escape poverty in their hometown of Manila. "We all come from different countries and we need to unite," said Lazo, 39, a Los Angeles accountant.

In particular, the sisters said, they supported the bishops' call for economic development in countries such as the Philippines; both said they would have much preferred to stay in their homeland than immigrate.

"Nothing compares to staying in your own home," said Bautista, 42, a Los Angeles accountant. "If opportunities were there, why would you leave?"