Published Monday February 16, 2009
Bishops take on immigrant policies
BY CINDY GONZALEZ
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER



Sergio Sosa was tending to church business last week when the frantic parishioner called. Immigration agents had arrested her husband.




Archbishop Elden CurtissSosa, an outreach worker at Our Lady of Guadalupe in south Omaha, contacted an attorney who agreed to talk to the woman. He offered the address of an emergency pantry. He made sure the kids had rides to school. He promised to check on the family later.

It's a scene repeated so often that Sosa and others who work in immigrant-populated churches have come to expect that they will spend chunks of their weeks guiding Catholic families through immigration problems.

With that in mind, Nebraska's three bishops have called on the state's 363,000 Catholics to pray for a path that legalizes foreigners. In a rare joint statement distributed this week in Spanish and English to churches and Catholic schools across the state, the prelates said the effects of immigration policy have "stressed pastoral services."

The statement by Archbishop Elden Curtiss of Omaha, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln and Bishop William Dendinger of Grand Island also discourages the Nebraska Legislature and local governing bodies from crafting their own immigration laws. The bishops fear that could lead to "profiling or other forms of intimidation."

They call the idea of a city ordinance outlawing housing for illegal immigrants (such as one considered by Fremont, Neb.) "fundamentally unjust, vindictive and harmful."

The bishops said they do, however, favor legislative efforts "to halt the wrongful conduct of unscrupulous employers."

The three issued the statement in response to events happening locally and nationally. Those events include divisive debate over illegal immigration proposals in the Nebraska Legislature and in Fremont and the raid that netted about 260 undocumented packing plant workers in Grand Island two weeks before Christmas 2006.

State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, a Catholic, said he has no problem with the bishops weighing in on the immigration discussion.

However, he disagrees that local government bodies should step aside.

While on the Fremont City Council, Janssen voted in favor of unsuccessful ordinances aimed at halting illegal immigration. While campaigning for the Legislature, he vowed to be tough on illegal immigration.

"Unfortunately, the federal government has put local and state governments in a defensive posture over the whole issue," Janssen said.

Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln, also a Catholic, said he appreciates the bishops' input but said he was acting as a "steward of taxpayer dollars" when he sponsored legislation targeting illegal immigration.

He said he speaks also as the son of a Philippine immigrant whose relatives are unable to enter the U.S.

"My family is overseas unable to come here," Fulton said. "When others break the laws, that is an injustice - a scandal - to people who respect our rule of law."

In the bishops' statement, they acknowledge "legitimate" concerns about border security. They said it is not "un-Christian" for Catholics to consider that the top priority.

"While immigration is predominantly a civil-law jurisdiction, it is a social and legal reality that illegal immigration is often connected to criminal activity, including identity theft and other forms of false representation, trafficking in drugs and human servitude and intentional violations of other laws and ordinances governing rights and privileges," the statement said.

But, the bishops said, opponents of illegal immigration should engage in "respectful political advocacy" to reform the nation's laws.

Before they prepared the statement, the bishops gathered input with the assistance of the Nebraska Catholic Conference from more than 100 Catholics who attended sessions in eight cities since 2007. Another 100 submitted written comments.

The responses collected represented the spectrum of viewpoints. Some supported the rule of law, quick deportation and a punishment approach. Others favored amnesty and providing all immigrants with the same benefits as U.S. citizens.

Most Catholics who responded fell somewhere in the middle.

The bishops' statement does not include an action plan. James Cunningham, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, said the bishops wanted to lay out the basic principles of Catholic teaching related to immigration. The statement's title, "Immigration: A Call to be Patient, Hospitable and Active for Reform."

Sosa, who works with the largest population of immigrants in the Omaha Archdiocese, wants to see fellow Catholics do more than reflect. He hopes to assemble a task force and possibly launch a campaign to pressure state senators and federal officials.

"Let's talk about the next organizing step," said Sosa. "We need to be more proactive."

The Rev. Carl Zoucha, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe and its sister parish, St. Agnes, hopes other worrisome byproducts of illegal immigration would be alleviated with a path to legalization. For example, he deals with families whose absentee fathers aren't held accountable for child support because they work under false names.

Not to be overlooked, the bishops said, are ways immigrants have enriched the church.

In south Omaha, for example, immigrants - legal and illegal - have revived parishes. Last year, Zoucha said, Guadalupe and St. Agnes baptized 500 babies. "Some of the rural parishes don't even have five baptisms a year," he said.

Nearby ethnic churches once filled with Irish and Polish families bustle again with Latino newcomers.

"So even in the midst of struggle," Zoucha said, "as a pastor I consider immigration a blessing."


• Contact the writer: 444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com



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