Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
“[To] ‘make America great again’ we also need a comprehensive immigration reform that protects our borders and at the same time allows a path to citizenship for the millions who already live among us. If we need ‘walls,’ we need walls with ‘doors’ because some of our ‘greatest Americans’ have been immigrants or refugees … we won’t make America great again by making America mean.”
— Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, November 14
Where to begin.
This is a column impossible to imagine just 10 days ago. Despite raising and spending vastly more money than Donald Trump, despite celebrity endorsements, despite the predictions of experts and pollsters, despite the vigorous support of a sitting president, and despite the thinly disguised loathing of her rival by much of the mass media, Hillary Clinton is not the president-elect. Donald Trump is.
Whatever else can be said about the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s message clearly connected with massive numbers of ordinary Americans, and he won an open election fairly. He cannot be dismissed as a fluke. He deserves our prayers and an opportunity to serve the nation well without being deliberately undermined by his critics.
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As others have already noted, Mr. Trump is a pragmatist. After eight years of an ideologically zealous White House, that could be a good thing. But words and actions have consequences. The trademark Trump bluster on the campaign trail further divided a fractured nation and frightened millions of immigrants and members of ethnic and racial minorities. Media hostile to Mr. Trump have clearly made the problem worse. But the main author of the current ugliness is Trump himself. And only he can fix it with responsible language and behavior, and a willingness to listen to those who feel threatened by his victory.
Ensuring public safety, the solvency of our public institutions and the nation’s border security in an age of narco-syndicates and terrorism — Mr. Trump has voiced all these concerns, and they’re all legitimate goals. But the vast majority of undocumented persons in the United States are decent people. They pose no threat to anyone. They want a fruitful life, they work for a living, they raise families, and their children born here are American citizens.
In other words, they’re a vital resource for the future of our country, not a tumor to be cut out of the body. Sweeping talk of building a border wall and deporting millions of people is not just impractical and wrong-headed. It’s also dangerous. It fuels anti-immigrant resentment. And it feeds the anxiety now creating turmoil in immigrant and minority communities.
Over the past week I’ve heard from dozens of laypeople and pastors in our Latino and other minority communities. Many spoke of sleepless nights and “great concern and fear” among their people. Another wrote that his “community was very upset, and feeling numb and hopeless.” Another, who lives in Center City, said that someone threatened his foreign-born wife on the street and warned her to go back where she came from. These are not invented stories. They involve real people and real suffering.
One of our pastoral workers wrote of a young man we’ll call Eduardo:
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Eduardo’s younger sister is a citizen, but he is not. His mother is undocumented, living here, and his father was deported shortly after his asylum papers were denied. I’ve known Eduardo since he was a boy. Currently he volunteers his time to help others with computer, social media and young adult activities. Eduardo is now able to attend university, have a license, work and help support his family due to DACA [the Obama administration’s executive order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy]. He had a very successful internship with a bank this past summer and was already offered a job upon graduation. All of this could be lost if President-elect Trump overturns DACA and decides to deport all the undocumented members of our society and Church. This will tear apart families and have terrible consequences for many of our American citizens and the very fiber of our communities.
Hate crimes, racist incidents and anti-immigrant prejudice all rose during the recent presidential campaign. For a nation where most people still describe themselves as Christians, these things are inexcusable. But we’d also be wise to remember that hate has not been a monopoly of the cultural right over the past 15 months. There have been numerous incidents of Trump supporters who have been beaten, threatened, spit on, verbally abused, their property damaged and their meetings disrupted. Along with many expressions of fear from the immigrant community last week, I also received this email from a committed Catholic woman friend:
Please keep my extended family in your prayers. My guess is you may be receiving this kind of request from many families across the country. There’s a rift growing day by day between Trump and Clinton voters. I must say it is mainly the Clinton voters who are attacking the Trump supporters. The worst is one of my sisters who read the riot act to another sister who happens to be 85 years old and a nun. She [the religious sister] was driven to tears all the while thinking she must defend her vote. This must stop. I am not sure even how to handle all of this. Please pray for us.
Mr. Trump’s election has drawn the contradictions in American public life to the surface; poisons that have been brewing on both the cultural left and cultural right for a very long time. As Catholics, we now get to choose whether we’re Christians first and consistently, or just the latest version of political animals in religious clothing. We need to help the president-elect do what’s right, support him when he does, and resist him — respectfully but firmly — when doesn’t.
We need to begin that work now. And decency to the strangers and immigrants among us is the right place to start.
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Editor’s Note: Columns by Archbishop Chaput will be published regularly on CatholicPhilly.com and can also be found at http://archphila.org/archbishop-chaput/statements/statements.php.
As usual, Archbishop Chaput hits the nail on the head. However, I do take issue with the excessive amount of time devoted by the bishops conference to immigration. Hispanic immigrants are a net gain for the USA, no doubt. Especially since abortion, we have no workers and have to import them. But interestingly most of the Hispanics vote Democrat when the Democrat party supports abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage. Why? Could it be because the bishops are too busy talking about immigration instead of life and death issues that have greater moral gravity, i.e. killing of babies. They have failed in catechesis of newly arrived Hispanics. Babies are being cut up and sold, physician-assisted suicide is winning all across the country in elections and referendums, and immigration is the top issue? Last I knew, immigrants were not being killed, and their body parts sold to universities for research. Let immigrants stand up on their own two feet, get some help from the Church by all means, but please let’s not place immigration ahead of life issues.
I voted for Bernie and then for Hillary. And I am one of those voters who no longer feels the same way about people I know who voted for Trump. I don’t attack or insult them, but I wonder in my heart how they could have voted for someone who is a racist, bigot and misogynist. Are these people who I thought I knew, are they themselves racists and haters like the new President-elect or are they indifferent to his bigotry because they think Trump will make their own lives better? Either is intolerable.
This is not about political differences.
Often my candidate of choice loses an election and, of course, I have no ill will to my friends and neighbors who picked a winner. But this time is different. The President-elect is a dishonest businessman who ran on lies and deceit and promoted hatred for the vulnerable among us in a cheap effort to gain votes. I know these Trump supporters are all God’s children, but I also feel I need to protect my own children and other children, not only from Trump, but from the kind of people who voted for him.
Nations have the right and duty to protect and manage their sovereign borders. The consequences of persons such as “Eduardo” are not his fault but that of their parent who willfully sought to break US law in order to do what they thought was best for their family. Breaking just laws is not something we, as Catholics, are taught or encouraged to do – at least that’s how my conscience was formed both at home and in the Church.
That said, I’m empathetic to the (mostly) economic and (not so often) safety concerns that many illegal immigrants find themselves in. But to encourage or condone the willful disregard of US law for certain groups of people is not right or just to those who’re patient, often prayerfully so, and follow the process. In the case of “Eduardo” the opportunities that DACA supposedly provides doesn’t address the fact that he would remain ineligible for legal employment in the US despite a successful internship and education. Opportunities that seemingly granted at the expense of others here legally by birth or otherwise.
This is the tragedy of not casting our anxieties upon the Lord and seeking to do His will even in the face of evil; one cannot commit sin/evil so that good may come of it as it never truly does. Thus “Eduardo’s” sister may be a citizen but his family was already broken up and he remains legally unemployable making him more likely to suffer from unreported discrimination and underpayment (also causing a depressing economic effect for legally employable persons competing with him). The consequential state of “Eduardo’s” family falls squarely on the shoulders of his parents.
As a Hispanic who previously worked many years to ensure that all laborers received just compensation per US law despite legal status (also per US labor law), I can tell you that this abuse of illegals not well reported and does more harm.
Isn’t anyone actually listening to Trump’s specific plans? His stated, immediate goals are 1) deport those with criminal records, and 2) secure the border.
The third part – dealing with the otherwise law-abiding illegals – he leaves open-ended. He doesn’t clamor for deportation, nor does he offer amnesty… although his tone has been more conciliatory than what is commonly portrayed, and certainly seems to suggest that he wants to find a way of accommodating them.
He is making it clear that staying here isn’t something they’re entitled to… which I thought would have been obvious all along.
President Trump is more concerned about Christians and Pro- Life than any democratic official. We need to support him and peacefully let him know if he strays. Our Catholic Universities are not doing enough to support Pro-Life agendas.
Brothers and sisters, I urge all of us with strong opinions about Them and Us to remember that the Lord commanded us to love one another. I have met some of the “illegals” and those poor folks were escaping to save their children from horrors far south of us. I worry for those among us who are being targeted right now for looking different. It seems that we have to love everybody. Anything else is from satan who I suspect feels delighted with what is happening.
Donald Trump will not serve even one day as President of the United States.
To Jerry Botems —
Your latest posting is an obvious threat to the life of President-elect Trump. If so, that is a serious felony crime. CatholicPhilly.com is complicit in posting it. Don’t be surprised if the Secret Service comes calling to visit you AND the offices of CatholicPhilly.com
Thank you, Jerry.
Please clarify your point that Mr. Trump will not serve one day as President of the United States.
Obviously, no one on this website vetted this guy’s weird comment … why would our Archdiocese allow such a comment?
Illegal immigrants are just that – illegal. Had those people now expressing concern and fear because of potential deportation had followed the law like millions of other LEGAL immigrants, they wouldn’t be in this situation. There is no doubt that we are a nation of immigrants. But we are a nation of LEGAL immigrants and settlers. Follow the law like everyone else. It might be helpful for every Bishop and laymen to bother reading what the Catechism of the Church states regarding immigration. It certainly isn’t what the UCCB is espousing these days.
In response to “The Right Place To Start’ article:
Many Catholic clergy see only one side – the immigrant’s. They disregard ordinary American citizens (White/Black/Latino/Asian) who are struggling to make ends meet yet are forced to pay for an ever-increasing number of illegal alien’s benefits including welfare, food stamps, education. and healthcare. This, at a time when American citizens are having difficulty paying for their own needs – especially healthcare now that medical insurance costs and deductibles have skyrocketed beyond control because of Obamacare.
In fairness to President Elect Trump, he has made it very clear that he intends to deport illegal aliens with felonies. As an American citizen, I salute and thank him. I am tired of Sanctuary cities that let illegal alien criminals go only to create further mayhem. I’m tired of vicious MS13 gangs bringing drugs into this country and destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens. I am tired of the rape and murder and robberies committed by illegal alien criminals who have been let back into the general population by Mayors who put their interests above that of the citizens they serve. I want the criminals sent back to their country of origin or incarcerated as Trump has said he would do.
Further, I salute and thank Trump for insisting that those coming from unfriendly nations be ‘thoroughly vetted’ before allowed entry. It is not only prudent policy for a President to want to protect the citizens of this country; it is common sense!
Finally, members of the Catholic clergy often refuse to acknowledge America’s sovereign borders and our rule of law which prohibits illegal entry. Instead, they often cater to those who have disrespected our laws while demanding benefits and rights from us. Members of the Catholic clergy who want open borders might ask themselves, since a good part of the world wants to come to America, just how many immigrants are enough – a million, a hundred million, a billion? Just how many can one American citizen honestly support? I ask because the only money the government gets comes out of the taxpayer’s pocket – whether directly or indirectly. Please remember, it’s neither ‘charity’ nor ‘virtue’ if one is strong-armed by the government to pay for the welfare of others; it coercion.
Nanci Henning’s post should have been the Archbishop’s article.
Thank you, Nancy. You saved me the time.
Our bishops are entitled to their prudential judgements. However, Catholic Social Teaching clearly allows for nations to police their borders, and for immigrants to obey the laws of their host nation; something that objectively speaking those here illegally are not doing. What other laws are people free to disobey if they are inconvenient? If families are harmed by immigration enforcement that is an unintended consequence, as much as if a father commits a robbery and ends up in prison. Families are harmed. That is an unfortunate and unintended consequence of enforcing the law. The wrongdoers are ultimately responsible for any such harm, not the society that seeks to adhere to the rule of law.
i think what Trump is talking about (and what many are thinking about) is what’s so wrong about immigrants coming through the front door? That’s what Ellis Island was all about those many years ago. Why should they be “undocumented” or “illegal”. What’s wrong with documented and legal? This isn’t an either/or situation. Trump’s not saying “no immigration.” He’s saying yes to immigration, in the proper way.
Could you please send the Archbishop’s remarks to President – elect Trump? He needs much help – personally and politically. He also needs to know that separate from the shouters and rioters, there are millions of level headed Christians praying for him. I am also offering a personal prayer for his conversion to Catholicism.
While I have the utmost respect for the Order of Bishops, I must respectfully suggest that granting amnesty and a path to citizenship without restriction for all those here who are “undocumented”, read ‘illegal’ as in “BROKE THE LAW”, is an insult and a slap in the face to all “LEGAL” citizens and more so to those standing in line waiting to get here “LEGALLY”.I have empathy to many of them also, but why should they be shown preference to those who are being denied admittance, or being put on indefinite hold even as they have been forced out of their homelands in the face of real persecution? Where is your blog supporting admittance and amnesty for them?
It is terrible that families are torn apart due to immigration. What about what the Catechism of the Catholic Church that states people should respect the immigration laws of other countries?
I don’t know enough of the immigration laws but the U.S. can’t take in every person in the world. I’m exaggerating here but trying to prove a point. What about subsidiarity? What about doing things at the local level?
If I remember correctly also, countries should be taking care of their citizens more so they don’t have to go searching to another country to live in.
Why no comment about the 2.5 million deported under Obama but Trump is getting all the heat. Just trying to be fair here. Trump does need to rethink some of his immigration thoughts during the election.
Perhaps by some strange confluence of events, the election of Mr. Trump will lead to the enactment of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Neither President Bush nor President Obama were able to get it done. Maybe it will take someone perceived as a hard-liner but who is in the end a pragmatist to get something through Congress. I would not be surprised if it happens. It would have tough border security but be pretty lenient to those who are already here so long as they stay out of trouble with the law. The big question is, would it include a path to citizenship or just guest worker status?