Thread: Pope Benedict and a Mexican Bishop Reflect on Immigration

About.com
By Scott P. Richert
Catholic Blog

But Bishop Sanchez, while noting that the Church recognizes the right of people to emigrate from their home countries, also noted that nation-states have the right to regulate immigration to their country. And, he added, the Church calls on the immigrant who is accepted into a new country to "assimilate . . . and to respect laws and the national identity."

Pope Benedict and a Mexican Bishop Reflect on Immigration

Sunday, January 16, 2011, was the 97th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which Pope Benedict XVI had dedicated to the theme "One Human Family." In his Angelus message yesterday, the Holy Father tied that theme less to the need to "welcome the immigrant" (as many Catholic bishops in the United States tend to put it) and more to the need for mankind to form a family—"marked, of course, by the differences that enrich it, but without barriers and in which we recognise one another as brothers."
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=107837

The barriers in question are not national borders, but the artificial barriers which even Christians draw between themselves and others. Pope Benedict explicitly tied the theme to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which begins runs from January 18 through January 25.

In this regard, remarks offered for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees by Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Sanchez Martinez of Durango, Mexico, are instructive. As the Catholic News Agency reported, Bishop Sanchez stressed the need for Mexican Catholics to treat those who enter Mexico through its southern border with the respect and dignity that Mexicans expect from Christians in the United States.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ ... mmigrants/

But Bishop Sanchez, while noting that the Church recognizes the right of people to emigrate from their home countries, also noted that nation-states have the right to regulate immigration to their country. And, he added, the Church calls on the immigrant who is accepted into a new country to "assimilate . . . and to respect laws and the national identity."

Too often in the immigration debate, only one side or the other is stressed. Within the context of each country's sovereign immigration policy, those who are allowed into the country must be treated with the Christian respect and dignity that we show to our fellow citizens. At the same time, however, those who are forced to leave their own countries—a tragic situation highlighted by the Holy Father in his remarks, who noted that it "impoverish[es] the countries in which their ancestors lived"—must show Christian respect for the laws and customs of the countries to which they have immigrated.

Too often the Catholic Church's rather nuanced position on immigration is distorted for political purposes—not only by those with an anti-Catholic agenda, but by certain Catholic bishops, especially in the United States, who regard demographic change as desirable in itself. The remarks of both Pope Benedict and Bishop Sanchez restore a much-needed balance, and remind Christians—both those who live in the host countries and the migrants who seek refuge there—of their Christian responsibilities to one another.

Source: http://catholicism.about.com/b/2011/01/ ... ration.htm