June 24, 2018 - "Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration"

I want to begin my column today by quoting from a statement issued on June 13, 2018 by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB):
 
“At its core, asylum is an instrument to preserve the right to life. The Attorney General's recent decision elicits deep concern because it potentially strips asylum from many women who lack adequate protection. These vulnerable women will now face return to the extreme dangers of domestic violence in their home country. This decision negates decades of precedents that have provided protection to women fleeing domestic violence. Unless overturned, the decision will erode the capacity of asylum to save lives, particularly in cases that involve asylum seekers who are persecuted by private actors. We urge courts and policy makers to respect and enhance, not erode, the potential of our asylum system to preserve and protect the right to life.
 
Additionally, I join Bishop Joe Vásquez, Chairman of USCCB's Committee on Migration, in condemning the continued use of family separation at the U.S./Mexico border as an implementation of the Administration's zero tolerance policy. Our government has the discretion in our laws to ensure that young children are not separated from their parents and exposed to irreparable harm and trauma. Families are the foundational element of our society and they must be able to stay together. While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety. Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral."
 
I also want to begin today a reflection on the three basic principles of Catholic Social Teaching on immigration.  This is available (like the statement by Cardinal DiNardo) on the USCCB website:  www.usccb.org. 
 
Although Catholic theology has always promoted human rights rooted in natural law and God’s revelation, it was the encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor) in 1891 that developed a systematic presentation of principles of the rights and responsibilities of people.  Rerum Novarum commented on the situation of immigrants; in later discussions, popes and bishops’ conferences have synthesized the Catholic theological tradition to articulate three basic principles on immigration.
 
First Principle:  People have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.
 
At the end of the World War II, with the fall of the Nazi empire and the subsequent creation of the Soviet “Iron Curtain,” Europe faced an unprecedented migration of millions of people seeking safety, food, and freedom.  At that time, Pope Pius XII wrote Exsul Familia (The Émigré Family), placing the Church squarely on the side of those seeking a better life by fleeing their homes.
 
When there is a massive movement of people such as during a war, natural disaster, or famine, the lands that receive these displaced people may be threatened.  The influx may make it impossible for the native population to live securely, as the land may not have enough resources to support both.  Even in more orderly migrations, such as in the United States, citizens and residents of the land may fear that newcomers will take jobs, land, and resources, impoverishing the people already present.

Because of the belief that newcomers compete for scarce resources, immigrants and refugees are at times driven away, resented, or despised.  Nevertheless, the first principle of Catholic social teaching regarding immigrants is that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.  This is based on biblical and ancient Christian teaching that the goods of the earth belong to all people.  While the right to private property is defended in Catholic social teaching, individuals do not have the right to use private property without regard to the common good.
 
Every person has an equal right to receive from the earth what is necessary for life—food, clothing, shelter.  Moreover, every person has the right to education, medical care, religion, and the expression of one’s culture.  In many places, people live in fear, danger, or dehumanizing poverty.  Clearly, it is not God’s will that some of his children live in luxury while others have nothing.  In Luke’s Gospel, the rich man condemned for living well while the poor man starved at his doorstep (Luke 16:19-31).
 
The native does not have superior rights over the immigrant.  Before God all are equal; the earth was given by God to all.  When a person cannot achieve a meaningful life in his or her own land, that person has a right to move.
 
Next week we shall look at the second principle of Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration:  A country has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John