In First Things, I have been critically appreciative of the urgings of Samuel Huntington ("Who Are We?") and others who contend that at stake is whether the United States will remain a sovereign nation in legal and cultural continuity with its history. Such arguments may be overblown, but they cannot be dismissed as nativist or lacking in moral seriousness. Anyone who thinks a devotion to nation and peoplehood is incompatible with Catholic social doctrine should spend some time with John Paul II’s last published book, "Memory and Identity."
Again, I don’t know what specific policies should be adopted. The choice should certainly not be between enforcement-only, on the one hand, and virtual amnesty that encourages yet more illegal immigration, on the other. But the hotting up of the immigration debate is turning my long-standing hunch into a deepening conviction that no immigration reform will be possible until Americans believe that the lawlessness of the past decade and more has been brought under a reasonable approximation of legal control.
As I've said before, I have a belief that the anxiety many Americans feel over the immigration question has far less to do with the supposed racism and xenophobia that many on the left would like to think fully explains opposition to the proposed immigration reforms, and much more to do with a general anxiety that the economic and cultural fates of everyone is slipping out of our control. There really is something very wrong with a country that cannot control who comes in and out of it -- and in the case of the Mexican immigration issue, a country that will not control who comes in and out of it. As Father Neuhaus indicates, people are not wrong to insist that we first get control of basic law and order, then we'll talk about comprehensive reform.
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The inability of certain Catholics to think about any issue continues to amaze and disturb. Immigration is just another serious issue in which Catholics (and other Christians) avoid serious discussion, opting instead for tired plattitudes about Xenophobia, racism, and the ridiculous assertion that Jesus would favor open borders, render unto Caesar notwithstanding.
Asserting that RJN is "reading National Review instead of the scriptures" is no more intelligent than saying that social-justice Catholics are secretly reading Karl Marx instead of the bible. It's a cheap and cowardly way to avoid real debate, but so typical.
Pro-amnesty Christians understand the immigration issue the way that Pat Robertson understands Darwinian evolution. It's completely emotional.>
Paul P:
VERY well said.>
M.Z.:
Unless you were trying to make a point about monarchy, it's "magisterium".
And.......the last time I looked, First Things was pretty open about culture and politics being a large part of what its about.
Loved your line about "Our Lady of the Republican Party", even if it's ~2 years out of date (in *some* measure due to, or reflected by, Rod's efforts). There is a large, and I believe growing, number of faithful Catholics who are looking for an alternative political home. Where might that be, in your judgement?>
It seems that what Neuhaus is looking at serious concerns, though, in that quote, and this can't be sidestepped by saying it isn't addressing other serious concerns enough.
What is mentioned in that quote, is something that can be integrated with other concerns.
Enforcement only isn't the solution, is what he said, some consistency and sense in the law was what he thought would set a foundation for some kind of future resolution. Very sensible, on that level.
On a personal moral level, there are many other concerns.
And even on a political and economic level, there are other concerns, too.
I didn't think Neuhaus was being simplistic or wrong-headed in this quote.>
From a humanitarian perspective, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.
Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections.
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