The crèche outside St. Susanna parish near Boston has drawn nationwide attention. Shepherds and Wise Men are present, a is the baby Jesus. But Mary and Joseph are absent: In their place a sign reads, “ICE was here.”
The Archdiocese of Boston wants the sign taken down, but the parish refuses, and an accompanying sign denotes an increasing message of Catholics in America: “The Holy Family is safe in the sanctuary of our church.” Take that, Donald Trump.
The Church is standing up to Caesar. Once itself the target of anti-immigrant know-nothings and Ku Klux Klansmen, the Church is pushing back against an authoritarian, nativist regime in Washington, D.C. that labels people as “illegals” and demonizes them with a broad brush. The Boston Archdiocese notwithstanding, the message is coming from above. Pope Leo XIV is transforming the American hierarchy.
In words of the pope, “I think we should look at ways of treating people humanely, treating people with dignity.” He is pushing back against growing inequality, nativism, violence, and unjust actions by rulers, in his native United States and elsewhere.
Just as the Trump Administration began moving toward trying to revoke citizenship from those already naturalized, Leo was replacing New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, pal of Trump and frequent presence on Fox News. Incoming is Archbishop Ronald Hicks, like Leo a Chicago area native (he does root for the Cubs while the Holy Father is a Sox fan) who has worked in Latin America. Hicks’ vocation has taken him to El Salvador. He has celebrated Christmas mass with hospitalized inmates and supervised orphanages in the region.
As of February 6, he will preside in a diocese with 2.1 million Catholics, one million of them Hispanics. It is the second noteworthy recent naming in the U.S. hierarchy, hitherto the province of orthodox reactionaries and a company-man genre of bishops.
Under Church rules, Dolan was required to submit a resignation letter when turning 75, but Leo did not have to accept it. By tapping Hicks, however, Leo signals moving the Church away from top-down hierarchical authority and cultural combativeness, and in a pastoral direction that stresses listening, compassion, and synodality.
Shortly before his death, Pope Francis tapped the scholarly Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop of San Diego and champion of immigrant rights, as the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C. As well, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at its fall meeting, delivered a “special pastoral letter” on the Trump Administration’s pursuit and detention of “illegals.”
The USCCB did not name Trump, but the bishops said they are “disturbed” at racial profiling and “saddened at heavy-handed enforcement.” They also took note of intrusions, notably ICEmen making apprehensions on parish grounds in the Diocese of San Bernardino: “We are saddened by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools.” They also noted living standards in detention centers and “lack of access to pastoral care.”
The bishops took exception to “vilification” of immigrants. Another response, this month, saw seven California bishops celebrate mass outside an ICE detention facility in the Mojave Desert. Across the country, the University of Notre Dame marked Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe with a mass for migrants. “It is imperative that we treat the people who are in this country, many for years, contributing and enriching our country, with the respect that their God-given dignity demands,” the Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., the university’s president, said in his homily.
The Catholic Church in Washington can be flagged on a couple counts. We have a sizable undocumented immigrant and refugee population: more than 500 new citizens are sworn in each Independence Day st the Seattle Center. Note also a Catholic laity that refuses to be docile. Its support made the Vatican back down when it sought to strip beloved Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of his authority.
Nowadays, the Bishop of Yakima, the Rt. Rev. Joseph Tyson, has begun speaking truth to Trump. In his recent Guadalupe homily, Tyson warned: “We live in a diseased political climate where migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are subjected to dehumanizing and racially charged epithets from the highest elective offices of our nation.”
He could have been talking about Trump’s hurried speech to the nation. The bishop described himself as “shocked” at the “brutal and violent” detention recently of Jose Lopez outside the Home Depot in Yakima. And Tyson has pointed out a couple of salient facts. Agriculture is the state’s largest economic-driving and export-driving force, which is powered by labor of immigrants. They, and their employers, must work in a climate of fear.
A news report some years back had Donald and Melania Trump attending a Christmas Eve eucharist at an Episcopal church in Palm Beach, Florida. In a feast that honors good will toward all, he put out abusive and derogatory posts later that night.
Wealthy right wing Catholics, and convert Vice President J.D. Vance, have defended the immigration crackdown. The conservative Napa Institute has helped to marshal forces in America’s culture wars. Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society, is a leading “influencer” of both right-wing judicial appointments and Trump’s authoritarian agenda. Such folk define Catholicism in large part by discipline, opposition to abortion, contraception, and LBGTQ rights. A Catholic U.S. Attorney General, William Barr, advocated and presided over reinstatement of the federal death penalty.
The Christian year begins with the first Sunday of Advent, continues with the Guadalupe feast and feasts of the Nativity (Christmas) and Epiphany. It is, for the Christian faith community a time of renewal. As preached by new St. James Cathedral pastor Fr. Gary Lazzeroni, the faith obligation goes beyond leading a Christian life, to reaching out to the poor, the immigrant and the lonely.
Battered by the clerical sex abuse scandal, and coverups by some in the hierarchy, the Catholic Church in America needs renewal. The blueprints are there in the Gospels — notably St. Matthew – which are proclaimed and preached by Pope Leo in multiple languages, and the Bill of Rights. Who thought the impetus would come from two guys from Chicago? The Holy Spirit operates in mysterious and wondrous ways.
Discover more from Post Alley
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Catholic Church, though one among several, is currently the largest of all the Christian sects using its moral authority to impress on government that the human rights of ALL people living within our borders must be observed and protected. Cruel, violent and/or illegal behavior by government agents cannot be condoned, even as they carry out their lawful duties.
Migrants provide much-needed labor resources in agriculture. manufacturing and service industries; America needs them just as much as they need America.
Just as American citizens deserve a properly functioning immigration system and control over our borders, prospective economic migrants deserve a fair and reasonable process to apply for legal immigration and work status. And individuals seeking asylum deserve to have their cases adjudicated on their merits, not on the basis of a quota system dictated by the Executive branch.
The most effective and humane action regarding immigration that the people of the United States could take, however, would be persuading Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform along the lines of the Senate Bill which passed in 2013, but never got a vote in the House.