Herman Melville once wrote, “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads and, along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes, and they return to us as results.” “Catholic” means universal. The Catholic Church has been a good reminder through time that all humanity is part of the same universe and shares the same human condition, and that we are all connected, all brothers and sisters to each other. Though there is disparity in riches and power from one nation to another, or one family to another, a central task for Catholics is to work toward and achieve the common good.
Archbishop Desmund Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of the mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Victims or targets of oppression in our times are hurt by our neutrality. Jesus accompanied many people who were victims or targets of injustice. He gave us a playbook to reference in the Gospel stories. And there have been powerful examples throughout history, like Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day, who studied and lived His teachings, reminding us that justice is not about getting even but getting right with God and with the world.
The Catholic hierarchy does not always agree on the best path to reaching the greatest good. News reports often point out that Pope Francis and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have different perspectives on numerous political and ecclesial issues. But they are certainly in sync on the issue of immigration. Starting with the experience of the Holy Family, a migrant family that departed their motherland because of imminent risk of life, they honor the Catholic Social Teachings and corporal works of mercy that Jesus presented as guiding principles for us to navigate through delicate issues. They ask us to respect the dignity of people who, in many cases, have left their homelands because of extreme poverty, persecution, or exploitation to come to our country, a land of opportunity. Though immigration laws have changed since most of our ancestors came here for similar reasons in the 1800s, the trail of tears that they trek is similar.
Both Francis and the United States bishops are among the world’s most vocal champions of migrants for good reason. They want us and government officials to follow not just a commonsense model of responding to undocumented immigrants but also a biblical and sacred sense model. The “worst-first” expulsion strategy of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deports citizens of other lands who have committed heinous crimes (murder, rape, assault, theft…). This tactic that detains, punishes, or expels perpetrators of serious crime, as it is for anyone who commits crimes against others, speaks to common sense. But many Americans support dignified and just immigration policies that can help people of goodwill whose only crime is being in our country without proper documentation. Immigrant Justice Centers across our nation try to assist migrants; churches and other social agencies try to help. Some in legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government or in legal careers are also looking for unchartered pathways that might result in good people gaining citizenship without first being sent back to the country they fled.
As Catholics, let us try to understand with a more universal vision; as spiritual people, let us try to see as God sees; as those born into the blessings of this great nation, let us remember those who were not so fortunate and who live under governments that oppress or in nations constantly threatened by wars or in lands that suffer poverty and hunger. Let us not remain neutral to the injustice of others. We don’t live alone; we are all connected.
