Last Saturday, two major events took place in Chicago. On the South Side, in Rate Field, approximately 30,000 people gathered for a special Mass celebrating the first Pope from Chicago, Pope Leo XIV. Down in the Loop more than 20,000 people marched in the No Kings Demonstration. Both happenings were mostly peaceful! There were Assumption parishioners at each events. Where was I? Back at church. There were two weddings.
Although the No Kings demonstration included groups protesting or demonstrating for many different causes, the central theme was the Administration’s policy of arresting and deporting or imprisoning migrants who are not presently legal citizens of our country. I use the word “presently” because the rules have changed since some of them arrived. About a half million people were admitted under what is called “Temporary Protected Status.” It is an humanitarian program that allows individuals from designated countries experiencing a crisis to enter the country without threat of deportation. Last month the Administration revoked the protected status for about 500,000 of these individuals, including people from Afghanistan. You might remember that Assumption helped sponsor a family from Afghanistan who were humanitarian refugees, and helped them to adjust to life in the United States.
During the last few years of the Biden administration, so many people seemed to be just walking into the United States without much screening, were showing up by the busload in places like Chicago without resources and without family members to welcome them, that it led to a huge backlash and a demand for greater border security. Why were these new arrivals being provided with food and shelter, when people who were born here and had been on long waiting lists for social services still left waiting. But is what we have what we wanted? People arrested who are gainfully employed? Families separated? People imprisoned or deported to foreign jails without due process? Even the Administration has had to recognize that arresting people on the job is counterproductive.
At the Mass in Rate Field, Cardinal Cupich addressed this issue in his homily for Trinity Sunday and received a rousing ovation: “Without question, countries have the right to protect their borders, to protect their citizens from crime and violence, and to enact reasonable rules for immigration. At the same time, it is wrong to scapegoat those who are here without documents, for indeed they are here due to a broken immigration system, and it is a broken immigration system which both parties have failed to fix. The task before us at the moment as Christians is to call each other to live with authenticity, as authentic persons, rejecting language which demonizes or degrades the dignity of others, that pretends that some people are unworthy to be connected to us. That is foreign to our calling to be persons in the image and likeness of God, and it is also dishonest, because many of the undocumented have been for decades connected to us. They are here not by invasion but by invitation: our invitation to harvest the fruits of the earth that feed our families, an invitation to clean our tables, homes, hotels, and hotel rooms, an invitation to landscape our lawns, and, yes, even an invitation to care for our children and our elderly. I have no doubt that if we are honest about our connections to one another, we can respond to this moment and reclaim our calling to live in the image of the divine persons.”
In Los Angeles, which has been to this point the epicenter of both Immigrations and Customs Enforcement activity and sometimes violent demonstrations, Archbishop Gomez said, “We all agree that we don’t want undocumented immigrants who are known terrorists or violent criminals in our communities. But there is no need for this government to carry out enforcement actions in a way that provokes fear and anxiety among ordinary, hard-working immigrants and their families. I urge Congress to get serious about fixing our broken immigration system that leads so many to seek to cross our borders illegally. Other nations have a coherent immigration policy that respects the natural rights of people to emigrate in search of a better life and also ensures control of their borders. America should too. It’s been almost 40 years since the last reform of our immigration laws. That’s too long, and it’s time to do something about it.”
Fr. Joe |
