The Hill (Op-Ed)
By Bishop Eusebio Elizondo
October 7, 2015
The
visit of Pope Francis to America featured many moments and messages,
but one consistent theme was his focus on immigrants.
While he did not
endorse specific legislation,
he set—or shall I say, reset--a moral framework for the national
immigration debate.
The
pope’s goal, which he achieved, was to remind all Americans of our
immigrant past and that immigrants help renew, not destroy, our
country. His first formal sentence
in America was that he was the son of immigrants and that “he was happy
to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by immigrants.”
In one sentence, he identified with the American people and reminded us
that immigrants helped build this country.
It was a sign of more to come.
In
his address to Congress, he talked about the history of the American
continent and how all here, including himself, are foreigners or
descended from them. It received
one of the loudest rounds of applause. He applied the Golden Rule, but
explained that its application was also in the nation’s best interest:
“In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life,
let us give life; if we want opportunities,
let us provide opportunities.” At Independence Hall, where our country
was born, he spoke to the gifts that immigrants bring to the nation.
“By contributing your gifts,” he told immigrants to America, “you will
not only find your place here, you will help
renew society from within.”
Such
powerful messages resonate with the American people, an immigrant
people, which is why the usual suspects of elected officials,
anti-immigrant groups, and presidential
candidates are attacking Pope Francis as being unworldly and uneducated
on nation-states and borders. That is quite an insult to the moral
leader of 1.2 billion persons across the globe. It is akin to the
Pharisees telling Jesus He did not know the scriptures.
Pope
Francis is painfully aware of the borders that govern the earth, which
in part is why he speaks against globalization that allows commerce and
capital to cross borders
but otherwise uses and then disposes of the individual—the human being.
“We need to avoid a common temptation these days,” he told Congress,
“to discard whatever proves troublesome.”
Catholic
teaching acknowledges the right of the sovereign to control its
borders, as did Pope Francis, who urged us to respond to immigrants “as
best we can.” Given our
record deportations and family separations, the lack of action on
immigration reform, and the scapegoating of immigrants for our social
ills, we are at our worst, not our best.
The
church also teaches that all nations—particularly rich and powerful
ones--have an obligation to the common good, which knows no borders.
Speaking to Congress, Pope
Francis invoked the common good five times, defining it as the purpose
of political life. “Politics is, instead, an expression of our
compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest
common good,” he stated. “Our efforts must aim at
restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus
promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples.” In other
words, as a global leader America cannot turn its back on the rest of
the world.
The
lasting legacy of the Pope’s visit is that he was able to humanize
immigrants and highlight their contributions to our country, in part as
an answer to those in the
public square who dehumanize and minimize them. Listen to their
stories, he implored us, and accept their gifts, and it will benefit our
nation’s future.
“Building
a nation,” he said, “calls us to recognize that we must constantly
relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one
of reciprocal subsidiarity,
in a constant effort to do our best.”
“I am confident we can do this,” he concluded. Amen.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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