By DEXTER DUGGAN
Although he’s no longer president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, New York’s Timothy Cardinal Dolan might show more discretion while presiding for the Church in one of the world’s media capitals.
The cardinal has misstepped on topics including homosexuality — “Bravo” for Michael Sam — and parading for St. Patrick. Repeatedly, he also has alleged inexcusable bigotry against those who disagree with him on “immigration.” Dolan’s is an embarrassing approach best forgotten.
However, in an opinion article under his byline in the New York Daily News posted July 29, Dolan returns to this task. He first writes of past manifestations of nativists, Know-Nothings, the Ku Klux Klan, and other racists. He commends himself for having had the wisdom to know this “was a continual virulent strain in the American psyche, which would probably sadly show up again.” And Dolan knows which Americans are these bigots today.
There are two ways to respond to “the immigrant,” he says, the rejectionist way and the welcoming way. However, Dolan’s own way is rejectionist toward the thinking of those he looks down on, the majority of lawful U.S. residents.
The cardinal only refers to “the immigrant.” Readers’ feedback points out that Dolan ignores what distresses so many legal U.S. residents, “illegal immigration.” Massive, lawless immigration that has Southwesterners on edge and sometimes armed.
Dolan may think it’s unfair of U.S. people to single out the lawbreakers. But that’s what anyone does when the neighborhood is threatened. It’s not the good neighbors we worry about, but the bad ones. It’s not, “Help, Officer, my friend José is planting his vegetable garden!”
It earns Dolan no credit to pretend the situation doesn’t exist when it’s as much a presence in the well-informed consciousness of the U.S. as criminal invaders themselves — and not simply “Mexican” arrivals, as the cardinal suggests. Every city has its stories of dangerous invaders, adding to the burden of dealing with native-born lawbreakers.
Dolan refers obliquely to his “Trump card,” condemning his fellow New Yorker and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. However, it’s inescapable that Dolan and like-minded bishops and Catholic bureaucrats are directly responsible for assisting in the rise of Trump.
Dare anyone mention their legitimate concerns about a literal invasion of the U.S. by criminals who know they can take advantage of Barack Obama’s lenience and indulgence? In response, Dolan utters his insults about Klansmen and Know-Nothings.
Unable to find a welcoming ear among hierarchs or others in the ruling class, people turn to a brash candidate who at least appears to recognize and acknowledge the seriousness of their concerns.
Trump may be a calculating trickster. If so, he’ll deserve punishment for that deceit. But so do public figures deserve admonition who preach a limited gospel refusing to acknowledge that even illegal aliens, like the rest of us, can be rebukable sinners.
Orthodox Catholic John Zmirak responded to Dolan in an August 2 column at The Stream website and rejected the arguments of those who say their lax position is the Church’s mandate. Zmirak wrote:
“Those of us who, after serious reflection, come up with our own answer about the optimum number of migrants for our country to admit while remaining consistent with the common good ought not to be falsely branded as ‘dissenters’ or ‘apostates’ or ‘nativists,’ or charged with any of a long list of other made-up hate crimes that are routinely adduced by leftist activists and well-meaning but addled Catholics who have internalized leftist arguments.”
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