By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Believing Catholics join many others across this great land in calling the right to vote and determining who gets to vote one of the major, if not primary, issues of this time and of the election season before us.
One may justly debate the pros and cons of immigration law and debate the procedures for becoming a citizen. Certainly immigration is a cornerstone of this “land of the free and home of the brave.” The Church rightly supports and calls for the preservation of the right of those who seek to share our democracy to arrive on our shores, as they have for over 200 years, to pursue a better life for themselves and their families. Pope Francis during his recent visit to the U.S. reminded us that we are a land of immigrants and that we should continue to welcome new families among us as Christians and as Americans.
Of course, it is laws that must govern this process of immigration because we are a nation under the rule of law. Catholics also rightly support legal immigration by enforcing the laws already on the books. The chaos and corruption that result from disobedience to the laws of the land cannot serve the common good, a principle of Catholic social justice.
Immigrants working in this country to better themselves and support their families, but who up until now have been indifferent to the matter of citizenship, are now seeking the right to vote in order to use it against Donald Trump, according to a March 8 story in The New York Times. This may point to an underlying issue as to the reason why so many are working and living in this country. Are they here only for economic reasons? If they seek citizenship only because they oppose Trump’s policies to secure the rights of those who are already legal, loyal voting citizens, are they to be lauded and abetted?
This land offers citizenship through a settled legal process that is just because it is the same for everyone who seeks a future by following it. Catholics, other Christians, and all men of goodwill can in good conscience support this legal process as the path forward without moral qualms of conscience.
Trump has appealed to those who felt disenfranchised in the last election and has called for a wall in order to control the flow of illegals across our open borders. Some presidential candidates call for open borders as do some of our Catholic bishops.
Some members of the U.S. episcopate celebrated a Holy Mass at the border and distributed Holy Communion through a fence in a move that served unfortunately to do little more than politicize the Eucharist. Mexicans have access to Holy Mass on their side of the border just as do we, leaving the event looking more like political pressure than Christian charity.
Church social teaching does not dictate what position a Catholic should take concerning how the borders of a country are administered, and Catholics are free to disagree with their bishops on this issue without fear of losing their status as Catholics in good standing. Justice demands that human beings be treated with dignity but does not require that they be treated like legal citizens if they in fact are not.
Wherever we claim a home on Earth and however we pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness let us never forget that our true citizenship is in Heaven. Our eternal goal to share in heavenly glory that should above all serve to guide our lives on Earth.
Our faith gives us great freedom to make political decisions because there are relatively few cases where the Church makes clear that only one position is acceptable, such as in its complete condemnation of abortion in every case as an abominable crime.
Though some of our bishops may be very vocal in their personal support for changes in the immigration laws these remain only personal positions that we as individual Catholics may choose or not to follow. There is no official Church teaching as to how immigration should be administered.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church treats matters of citizenship under the Fourth Commandment. Citizenship and the rights attaching to it, such as voting in a democratic process, are treated in paragraph 2237:
“Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged.
“The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community.”
Are we facing the suspension of the “political rights attached to citizenship” in the rampant support for illegal immigration by some within the Church as well as across the spectrum? This is the question that voters should educate themselves about as they seek to vote according to their consciences in this most important process of seeking to confer the presidential office upon one of our citizens.
Let us never forget the most important goal which must remain before us as we pursue the common good through holy lives on Earth.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).
Thank you for reading. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
+ + +
(Visit Reverendo Padre-Kevin Michael Cusick on Facebook and @MCITLFrAphorism on Twitter.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress