Thread: Illegals Aren't Criminals, Cardinal McCarrick Says

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp? ... 0411b.html

Illegals Aren't Criminals, Cardinal McCarrick Says
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Correspondent
April 11, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The head of the Washington, D.C., Archdiocese on Monday criticized immigration reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives because it would hinder the Catholic Church's ability to help the needy, he said.

"The difficulty was that it made all these people who are illegal, criminals," Cardinal Theodore McCarrick told Cybercast News Service at a protest on the National Mall in Washington. "There's a big difference between being illegal and being criminal."

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437) would categorize illegal residency in the U.S. as a felony. Democrats inserted the "felony" language in an effort to undermine the bill, said the bill's sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said he and other Republicans wanted to make "unlawful presence" a misdemeanor, not a felony.

The House bill also would punish employers who hire undocumented workers. McCarrick said that particular provision would threaten religious workers who offer help to the needy.

"In that bill they said that you couldn't help people who weren't authorized to be in the country," he said. "If an old lady needs some medicine and comes to you, you'd have to say, 'Show me your papers first.'" See Video.

McCarrick added that "some say it doesn't read that way, but as far as we read it, it would be too dangerous for us to tell our people [to] continue to do everything you're doing."

Sensenbrenner recently complained that critics of his bill are spreading misconceptions about it. He called it "fear-mongering" and "absolutely false" to say that "clergy and good Samaritans will be thrown in jail." Targeting alien smuggling gangs is the intent -- and the effect -- of the House bill, Sensenbrenner says.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, also called McCarrick's characterization "nonsense."

"The provision of the law that he (McCarrick) is referring to is intended to go after those groups who, under the guise of religious organizations, are actively engaged in aiding and abetting people who are in the country illegally," Mehlman said.

"It does not affect people who feed somebody at a soup kitchen," he added. "It doesn't affect the priest who administers communion."

McCarrick said the Catholic Church supports immigration reform that would pave the way for illegal immigrants to obtain legal status in the U.S. The current system, he said, "has all kinds of holes in it; it's not fair."

McCarrick was one of many religious leaders at the protest. Representatives from numerous Christian denominations, as well as Jewish and Islamic leaders, attended.

The National Park Service does not provide estimates of the exact size of large protests, but event organizers expected "more than 100,000" people to attend. The event in Washington was one of at least 65 rallies scheduled around the country Monday to protest the House bill and show support for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, told Cybercast News Service that the Episcopal Church has "taken a strong stand on rights for immigrants."

"Those who are here who have worked, supported their communities, have been law abiding residents of their communities, should be given a chance to remain legally," Parkins said.

In his address to the crowd, delivered mostly in Spanish, McCarrick compared the protest to civil rights marches of the 1960s. "We must still fight against racial discrimination in our land," he said, adding that Catholics are in "prayerful protest against discrimination ... of the immigrant who comes to our country seeking a better life for himself and his family."

boy...sounds like Cardinal Mahoney out here in So. Cal...it all comes down to one thing...money!! let's hear it for money!! *sigh* I thought religion wasn't supposed to get involved in politics?

i bet he said "those priest are not criminals and will be judged by god" or something like that about the other issue.

Originally Posted by dragons5

i bet he said "those priest are not criminals and will be judged by god" or something like that about the other issue.

I keep wondering where the illegals get the $2,000 or more to pay the smugglers to get them across the border. If they're that poor, someone has to be funding/financing them. Think the Catholic church helps front the money?

It just doesn't add up just like Rosa on the CNN show last weekend who worked for $5 hour, got fired, stayed unemployed but came up with $5,000 (is that the right amount?) to try to smuggle her kids in who certainly looked VERY well-fed. The little chubettes didn't look like they were starving living with their grandmother in Mexico. Rosa didn't look like she'd missed any meals either!

It's comming from the amnesty-receiver relative or the other illegal-relative already imbeded in America, sending it back to Mexico. Might be cock fight proceeds. You know, their house is not crowded enough so they are having some relatives sent from the old country.

I bet it would. I mean Catholic churches are losing their grip in Mexico as well as here. More and More protestant churches are building churces in Mexican villages and opeining support areas for the poor of the town.

"There's a big difference between being illegal and being criminal."

There is??? Only by degrees......

Rosa was to pay $5000.00 to try and get them across and $6000.00 if they made it, I believe was the deal. Maybe she had a "side" job??

Thanks God for Seperation of Church and State. I'm so glad the Catholics are not running this country, except through people like Teddy K.

What a mess we would be. I think the Pope needs to get control of his people and tell them to quit invading our borders. He needs to remind them of this.

Furthermore, Moses told the children of Israel in very clear and concise language, "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark." (Deut. 19:14) "Landmark" refers to territory, boundary, or border. Moses further declared, "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark." (Deut. 27:17)

National borders or boundaries are extremely important to the security and survival of any nation! In fact, the Bible promotes nationhood and condemns internationalism!

To the Old Testament nation of Israel, Moses said, "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people." (Deut. 32: Notice that God "separated the sons of Adam." God "set the bounds of the people."

That God has separated nations and expects them to function independently of other nations is also seen in the New Testament. Read the inspired author, Dr. Luke: "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds (boundaries, borders) of their habitation." (Acts 17:26)

National boundaries are divinely ordained. Nationhood is divinely ordained. Independent governance is divinely ordained. On the other hand, internationalism, globalism, multiculturalism, etc., is not of God.

Certainly, God instructed His people to be compassionate to "strangers." (See Deut. 10:19; Exod. 22:21.) And no nation has been more compassionate, more understanding, and more tolerant of "strangers" (i.e. non-citizens) than the United States of America!

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/baldwin/060331

I'm going to add that King David, "the apple of my eye"(God) spent a lot of time expelleing the Phillistines form the nation. Need I say more.

Amen

Dixie

The cost of bringing someone across the border is not that expensive, the media is blowing all this out of hand to confuse the issues. Most people coming across the border don't even pay a smuggler, they have made the journey themselves several times and don't need assistance. In my business I have spoken to many Mexicans who claim that its merely a few hundred dollars a piece when they do hire a coyote to help, and then its mostly those from farther down the trail, like Guatemala, Hunduras or Nicaragua that need safe passage through Mexico itself...

Also the Catholic church is in the business of making money not giving it away. The reason the Church wants to be on the side of the immigrants is because they know most those coming in, are of the Catholic faith and want them to stay so that they can become income to their churches, specially with Catholics in America leaving the faith in droves...

If the church really cared about the poor in Mexico they would do more to change the situation in Mexico, where the poor are a commodity for the upper class. Also by having the immigrants here the church collects twice, once from those here in America and again from their families in Mexico who recieve money from those here...[/i]

These crooked Cardinals are just trying to deflect the attention away from their child molesting priest problems.

I wonder if these crooks care just as much as the victims of their child molesting priests... I think not!