New York Times
By Jason Horowitz
September 25, 2015
Immigration weighs heavily on the parishioners of Old St. Joseph’s Church, a centuries-old Jesuit parish that spread Catholicism through colonial America and now flies a “Welcome Pope Francis” banner over its gate.
In
a city, and a faith, sustained through tough times by waves of
immigration, the correct approach to undocumented workers has flared up
as an issue here in recent weeks
as Donald J. Trump in his presidential campaign has excoriated
so-called sanctuary cities such as Philadelphia for being overly
welcoming to immigrants.
While
a Republican mayoral candidate in Old St. Joseph’s congregation agreed
that the city needed to crack down, many others were appalled by the
injection of explicitly
nativist language into American politics and sought in Pope Francis a
powerful ally.
Their prayers have been answered.
Francis,
who will address thousands of Spanish-speaking families at Independence
Mall here on Saturday, has in his visit to the United States become a
virtual patron saint
of suffering migrants. He hugged immigrant children in New York, and in
Washington accepted a letter from a young girl seeking legalization for
her parents.
Already,
in his historic address to Congress, where efforts for a comprehensive
immigration overhaul have atrophied, Francis spoke about the masses of
South and Central
American immigrants who “travel north in search of a better life for
themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater
opportunities,” and urged more humane treatment of them by asking
legislators, “Is this not what we want for our own children?”
At
the White House on Wednesday, he pointedly referred to himself as “the
son of an immigrant family,” and one of the two recommendations “close
to my heart” that he made
to fellow bishops later that day concerned immigration.
“Now
you are facing this stream of Latin immigration which affects many of
your dioceses,” he said. Speaking “as a pastor from the South,” he
encouraged bishops to “not
be afraid to welcome them.”
Mr.
Trump still thinks people should be afraid — and he said in an
interview that the pope does not know what he is talking about.
“If
he is in favor of illegal immigration, he doesn’t understand it,” Mr.
Trump said. “Nobody has properly explained it to him. And I’m
Christian.”
Just
before the pope’s visit, Sarah Palin, who struck similar chords on the
issue during the 2008 campaign, spoke “with all due respect as a
baptized Catholic,” and said,
“Come on, pope! Follow the law.”
The
pope, who has emphasized a universal message of mercy and forgiveness,
has spoken up for migrants against the global backdrop of a refugee
crisis that is flooding
Europe’s borders; a coarsening national political discourse on
immigration; and a demographic shift to the Southern Hemisphere in the
global church, with Hispanics now accounting for nearly 40 percent of
all Catholics in the United States.
Philadelphia is a front line.
Since
2014, Philadelphia has refused to comply with requests from the federal
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to detain undocumented
offenders, unless the government
presents a judicial warrant and the person in question has been
convicted of a first- or second-degree offense involving violence.
The
city argues that such a policy fosters better cooperation between
immigrant communities and the police, and improves public safety. But it
has come under attack and
become a topic of local debate since Mr. Trump seized on the murder of a
woman in which an illegal immigrant has been charged in San Francisco,
which has a similar policy.
Bishop
Eusebio L. Elizondo of Seattle has said he hoped the pope would “shame
those who spew hatred and vitriol toward immigrants for political gain.”
Ralph McCloud, the
director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an
anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, shook the pope’s hand after his address to bishops on Wednesday
and said in an interview that the sanctuary cities policy
“saves lives and saves families.”
And
in a sign of how compassion toward migrants has become a rallying point
in a church hierarchy that has shown signs of division over Francis’
de-emphasis of social
issues, Salvatore J. Cordileone, the ultraconservative archbishop of
San Francisco, warned after the murder there against the “implementation
of policies that punish all immigrants for the transgressions of a
small minority.”
Charles
J. Chaput, the influential archbishop of Philadelphia, who has said his
fellow conservatives have “not been really happy” with parts of
Francis’ reign, has also
been a strong pro-immigration voice. But at a panel this month he drew a
line at the sanctuary cities policy, calling it “not a very good idea.”
The
Vatican is careful to recognize a legitimate diversity of opinion on
the issue of illegal immigration, advocating the rights of migrants to
seek a better life and
of sovereign states to regulate their borders. But in his speeches so
far this week, Francis has clearly focused his attention on the migrants
who see him as their champion.
Moments of Strength and Vulnerability
“When
you have these two rights in conflict, which one has to bend?” said
Greg Burke, the senior adviser for communications at the Vatican. “The
Gospel answers that it
has to bend in favor of human dignity.”
That
is an answer with which a majority of Americans appear to agree. A New
York Times/CBS News Poll this month shows that 65 percent of Catholics
nationwide said they
thought illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United
States and eventually apply for citizenship.
But it is also the answer undocumented immigrants and their advocates on the ground in Philadelphia want to hear.
“I
don’t think there is anything about the pope that is representative of
18th Street,” said Jim Kenney, the Democratic candidate seen as likely
to be the city’s next
mayor, referring to the headquarters of Archbishop Chaput, a longtime
adversary.
Peter
Pedemonti, who runs the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia out of a
small office opposite a Catholic church in the poor Kensington area of
Philadelphia, said
he personally had found inspiration in the pope’s urging people to
“encounter” the marginalized where they are.
“That’s
what Pope Francis is calling for,” Mr. Pedemonti, himself a Catholic,
said. “You can’t encounter people if you are deporting them.”
At
Old St. Joseph’s Church, the Rev. Philip Florio said he expected the
pope to preach “welcome the stranger at your door” and reject the
round-them-up and ship-them-out
approach of Mr. Trump, at the mention of whose name the priest
theatrically slid away on the pew.
One
congregant, Bethany J. Welch, directs the Aquinas Center in South
Philadelphia, near bakeries selling cookies printed with edible papal
faces. She is organizing a
pilgrimage of Mexican immigrants to the pope’s speech at Independence
Mall.
Another
Old St. Joseph’s parishioner, Melissa Murray Bailey, is running a
long-shot campaign for mayor against Mr. Kenney. Sitting in the church’s
courtyard, she explained
why she, like the archbishop, opposed sanctuary city status for
Philadelphia.
“We
are not solving the root cause of the problem, we’re saying we’re going
to ignore the laws,” she said. “It’s the law-and-order issue.”
But
she wanted to make clear that she was pro-immigration and that she
found Mr. Trump, who “makes it difficult for all Republicans,” odious.
She preferred to affiliate
herself with Francis.
“The things that drive him,” she said, “are very similar to the things that drive me.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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