OK they (iLLEGALS) are Catholics for the most part in Latin America so when the come to America they attend the Catholic church. It is a little more than that however. In the smaller towns of Mexico and Latin America you will find those parks or plazas right in front of the old, sometimes, 500 years old, Catholic church. Catholic mass is not only a church service but it is a meeting place or a place to socialize. Young men will look for potential wives in the park in front of the church. It is a tradition.

Yes, however, Tom Tancredo's remarks about the church recruiting new church members is dead right on. (The mormons in Utah are doing the same thing and are taking members away in droves from the church in Latin America!) Tancredo has every right to criticize the Catholic church and the remarks of the pope. The pope would have been smarter to keep his mouth shut about immigrants in the United States. If immigrants were treated so badly then why have they not been massively rounded up deported like the NAZI's treated jews. Because the church wants amnesty and nhas little regard for our immigration laws. Plain and simple! Perhaps the church should be billed for the costs of education, health care and other services that illegals receive?

You cannot expect the church to put a sign out front that says "NO ILLEGALS ALLOWED". But by the same token one needs to ask why the church is dividing itself between two languages and two cultures?

When the church in DENVER spent $2 million to build "CENTRO JUAN DIEGO" the bishop said and I quote "....this building will bring Catholics together..." both English and Spanish speakers. Absolutely not! As a bi-lingual anglo I have seen what happens when Anglos and Hispanics get together and one group cannot speak English and the other cannot speak Spanish. They sit together at seperate tables on different sides of the room. No interaction takes place. This is diversity? I think not!

There are now two different Catholic churches in the United States. One for English speakers and one for Spanish speakers. It is what it is!

The priests are using the bible and their pulpits to shame Anglos into accepting the illegals. Donated funds are being spent on importing priests legally just as school districts have done the same with teachers from Latin America for bi-lingual education programs. This must infuriate some citizen Catholics should it not?

There is nothing wrong with the church offering English classes for immigrants but what does one conclude when church buildings are used to allow officials from the Mexican consulate to use church facilities to have open meetings for ILLEGALS? The message is that the church is conding the breaking of federal US immigration law. The same church that has hidden sexual predators from law enforcement when bishops have known that there were sexual predator priests in their parishes.

Unfortunately, there are those Catholics who have been so indoctrinated into the Catholic rituals that any discussion of what I say above infuriates them since they live in a perpetual state of denial.

The church is a political entity. The Vatican State is a nation. The United States appoints an ambassador to that nation. Noboduy should be surprised that the Pope speaks at the UN as any head of state may do.

Many of us Catholics, at least in name, do not practice the religion for various reasons. No women priests, no room for gays and birth control etc. The church is NOT a democracy. I would argue that the better educated the Catholic is the more they will be inclined to leave the rituals while the lesser educated (ie from Latin America) will stick to the religion out of ignorance. With many American Catholics not practicing the faith and the millions the church needs to pay off the sexual abuse cases then the church yes is looking for immigrants to fill the void and the coffers. However, immigrants don't have a lot of money so do they risk offending traditional Catholics who do still attend and donate? I think they do.

Finally, I would argue that another reason why the Catholic Church has shown so much vigor towards the illegal immigrant has to do with those priests and nuns who have returned from Latin America on mission and simply see illegal immigration as the same poor they encountered in Latin America. (leftist Jesuits and Maryknollers et al!) They cannot, or choose not, to see the effect that the illegal is having on wage rates, medical costs, education and criminal justice. Why does the "social justice" of the church take precedence over the community well being as a whole?

Anyone who thinks the church is not a political and economic entity in and of itself is sadly living in ignorance and denial!