USCCB Misrepresents Church’s Immigration Teachings — Again

The Bishops would have the US incentivize illegal immigration, rewarding lawbreakers with public health benefits.

America’s Catholic bishops are at it again: undermining the nation’s sovereignty and security for the sake of a misinterpretation of the Catholic Church’s teachings on immigration. In a ten-page public comment, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) not to bar illegal aliens from receiving public health benefits. In 1998, HHS interpreted a 1996 public health benefits law to include illegal aliens. President Donald Trump and his administration rescinded that interpretation, and the USCCB is now asking HHS to rescind that rescindment.

“Our concerns with the revised interpretation stem from the Catholic Church’s fundamental commitments to upholding the God-given dignity of every person, promoting the well-being of families, and furthering the common good,” the USCCB wrote. “Inherent in each of these priorities is the recognition that immigrants — regardless of legal status — possess a dignity equal to that of citizens.”

It is, of course, true, that the Church recognizes the inherent dignity of all persons and that illegal immigrants are just as much sons and daughters of God as are the most law-abiding of citizens. However, with its public comment, the USCCB is continuing a troubling trend of misinterpreting the Catholic Church’s teachings on immigration. (I’ve written on this subject numerous times: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) The Church demands that nations treat immigrants — chiefly refugees — with respect. The Church also demands that immigrants respect the laws of the nation they are entering — something large numbers of illegal aliens have clearly not done, violating the first American law that they have encountered. Nowhere does the Church demand that nations provide public health benefits and all manner of resources to alien lawbreakers.

While aging bishops prattle on about spending other people’s money on illegal aliens, they fail to properly apply the Church’s ancient teachings on law and order. In City of God, Doctor of the Church St. Augustine wrote that a nation must uphold and enforce its just laws or else it becomes nothing but a “band of robbers.” Another Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, expanded on Augustine’s arguments, noting the importance of laws and their enforcement for maintaining order and temporal peace.

Continue reading at The American Spectator
 

TAKE ACTION: Contact Archbishop Broglio at tpbroglio@milarch.org or 202-719-3600 and let him know what you think.