Saturday, November 22, 2008

West TN Catholic article

I read an interesting article today in the West TN Catholic regarding the Bishop of Little Rock, Bishop Anthony Taylor. He is issuing a Pastoral letter about the human rights of "undocumented immigrants". The article says that he "believes that being able to migrate to another country is an intrinsic human right." He says that because it's virtually impossible for immigrants, predominantly from Mexico, to come to the United States legally, "You can't be obligated to do what you can't do". (I beg your pardon???)

I will be VERY interested to see this document when it's released. Advocating breaking the law of the United States is an interesting interpretation of the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, it's important to be compassionate. That said, I have to obey the laws of Mexico if I go there--why should the people who want to come here not obey OUR laws. I'm not sure that's what Jesus meant when he said"render unto Caesar what is Caesar's....

1 comment:

Mark R said...

Being able to migrate to another country is a basic human right? I am curious to see how he figures that. Saying that it's "virtually impossible" for Mexican immigrants to come here legally is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? I believe it happens just about all the time. You would have to go pretty far to convince me that our immigration laws are so unjust that they must be broken in the name of human rights.

And also, do we in the U.S. not also have a right to be secure in our borders? I would say we have the basic human right to see that our communities are not invaded by those who disregard our laws (provided those laws are not intrinsically sinful).