Today’s New York Times has an
incredible editorial about the call of Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles for all Christians to practice civil disobediance against the looming new immigration “reforms.” Excerpts below–
March 3, 2006, Editorial
“The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437”
It has been a long time since this country heard a call to organized lawbreaking on this big a scale. Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, urged parishioners on Ash Wednesday to devote the 40 days of Lent to fasting,
prayer and reflection on the need for humane reform of immigration laws. If current efforts in Congress make it a felony to shield or offer support to illegal immigrants, Cardinal Mahony said, he will instruct his priests – and faithful lay Catholics – to defy the law.
The cardinal’s focus of concern is H.R. 4437, a bill sponsored by James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin and Peter King of New York. This grab bag legislation, which was recently passed by the House, would expand the definition of “alien smuggling” in a way that could theoretically include working in a soup kitchen, driving a friend to a bus stop or caring for a neighbor’s baby. Similar language appears in legislation being considered by the Senate this week.
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Cardinal Mahony’s defiance adds a moral
dimension to what has largely been a debate about politics and economics.
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The cardinal is right to argue that the government has no place criminalizing the charitable impulses of private institutions like his, whose mission is to help people with no questions asked.
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Cardinal Mahony’s declaration of solidarity with illegal immigrants, for whom Lent is every day, is a startling call to civil disobedience, as courageous as it is timely. We hope it forestalls the day when works of mercy become a federal crime.
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And here’s a
link to a short article on this by an immigration lawyer.
for this particularly necrotic piece of Hitlerian garbage to pass before initiating massive acts of civil disobedience.
There have been reasons more than ample for such acts for some time.
As for Mr. Sensenbrenner’s “bill,” while I have no doubt that it will be hailed and praised with letters of commendation wrapped around generous checks from his devotees, and win him many new and ardent admirers and contributors, it will be unlikely to pass because while it offers a bounteous feast of delectable hatred into which the spoons of the voting class can dig in with hearty appetite, there is really nothing much in it for the corporations.
In a sad little scrap of irony, it will be greed, the single greatest cause of all suffering on earth, that will save its intended victims – who are for the most part already victims of that greed.
“while it offers a bounteous feast of delectable hatred into which the spoons of the voting class can dig in with hearty appetite,…”
Wow DF – only you could create such a poetic way to describe some truly hideous actions. Very well done!
And I agree – why wait until OUR Titanic is already 3/4 under water before we act.
Don’t forget, they are building concentration camps, allegedly, for illegal immigrants; I believe Halliburton has that contract.
This may indeed have a chance for passage, as the U.S. government continues to look for, and identify, scapegoats, to divert attention from their own criminal actions.
Creating a new prison system for illegal immigrants could be profitable, though I suspect this is one step in the direction of imprisoning “ordinary” Americans for dissent of their country’s actions.
First they come for the least of us…
The Real Reason For Fema’s Fuck Up
Thanks for the link.
Glad to see some comments here. As an immigration lawyer who is also a bleeding heart idealist, I spend an awful lot of time trying to help people who are not currently in lawful immigration status. Under the literal language of this damned legislation, I’d be committing hundreds of felonies every week! That is absolute tyranny. If this law passes, I am going to actively and openly disobey.
Thank you for this diary alert and the work you do.
Hi, Arminus. Just wanted to let you know that I checked Street Prophets for the first time in a little while, and found that there’s a front page story about this:
“The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437”
http://www.streetprophets.com/story/2006/3/4/184153/7907
Thanks much for this link. I hadn’t seen Street Prophets, because I got nuclear annihilated under another user name on DKos on Easter Sunday 2005 in a diary about the Terry Schiavo case, and I’ve been away. But I made an account on Street Prophets. It’s exactly up my alley!
The report I saw said that before any church give services they must have proof of legal Us residence. This violates the very spirit of the church… See Matthew 25.
Every Catholic church and order I know has an overriding principle that each person must be honored as if they are the Christ come calling in his/her need…. and that no one be turned away. (Yes, I know about Angela’s Ashes… and I know they do not always live up to this principle… however)
This call to Civil Disobedience is the greatest news I have heard in eons…. can’t wait to hear the repurcussions on “the other side” of the pond, wall, barrier, world.
Do you think there is any possibility that this is a “set-up” law? I mean, something they would pass knowing that people would disobey it. Thereby giving them the perfect excuse to nail you, not because you disagree with the government of Bush, but because you “broke the law”.
Yes, I think that is exactly right. I do believe that the few Republicans on the inside who have drafted this legislation (supported mainly by Richard Mellon Scaife, the architect of the Clinton impeachment who is also the major force behind FAIR, the “Federation for American Immigration Reform” and several other fascist nativist groups) have exactly that thought in their minds. I don’t know whether the majority who will vote for it understand that. Probably not. Or at least so I’d like to think.
This law will destroy the attorney-client privilege. It will destroy the priest-penitent privilege. It will destroy the husband-wife privilege (it criminalizes the act of residing with an undocumented person).
It is an attempt to completely strip all rights and traditional legal protections and privileges from all the best people in the country.
What a concept, Christians acting like Christians.
Hey! I know a lot of Christians, like me, and my wife, and our employees, who act like Christians every day, as best we can, treating people by the Golden Rule and trying hard to help the poor and needy. And of course we (especially me) don’t do that perfectly. There are MANY good Christians. Unfortunately, it’s the asshole pseudo-Christians like Pat Robertson who attract attention of the news.
boran2, I haven’t read enough of your posts to have my irony meter properly tuned. Forgive me if this comment sounds really stupid! I’m happy to have a comment on my diary.
Thanks. It’s just a little Saturday night sarcasm. You’re right, a few pseudo-Christians have made things uncomfortable for many others who take things more seriously.
I’m watching Iron Jawed Angels about women suffragettes during President Wilson’s presidency. Makes me ashamed that I am just blogging.
These women were arrested for standing in front of the White House everyday wanting the right to vote. They had a hunger strike and after a bit were forced-fed. Once the media picked up the story things changed.
If we had a media of honest integrity Bush would have been impeached years ago!