The Pope on Immigration -- Sightings

Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to the US next week has everyone buzzing. We're all waiting to see what he'll say, who'll he visit, what he'll wear. We're looking for signals as to the direction the American Church will take -- Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Martin Marty writes this morning in his Sightings column about the issue of immigration and the Pope's take on it. We all know how divisive this issue has become, especially in this pivotal election year. The virulent anti-immigrant candidates haven't survived, though a 3rd party Lou Dobbs insurgency could be in the offing. The three remaining major party candidates have taken similar positions, though for different reasons. We are also seeing that none of the candidates are dealing with the issue in any substantive way. Indeed, John McCain has decided to back a wall and focus on enforcement before dealing with undocumented workers already here. Hillary and Barack got tangled in a debate over drivers licenses, but otherwise seem to want to steer clear of the discussion. It's understandable, but ultimately we'll have to deal with it.
The Pope, however, isn't beholden to electoral politics. His constituency includes a large portion of the Latino community. The Catholic Church in America is largely composed of descendants of immigrants. His church crosses national boundaries -- especially the boundaries separating the US and Mexico. He and Catholic leadership have taken a strong and undivided position on the issue -- they are pro-immigrant because they see this as a pro-family issue. So, we will be listening to see if he has anything to say on the issue.
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Sightings 4/7/08

The Pope on Immigration
-- Martin E. Marty

Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. visit next week during an election year will find him cast, willy nilly, in a political role. The chiding of Catholic voters, bishops and priests, and politicians who do not make enough of churchly anti-abortion positions will occur, but most concur in the view that such is "old news," unlikely to do much swaying of "undecideds," however valid debate on the subject might be. Other positions will be noted.

This first chance to size up the pope up close in America finds him to be a dialectical and complex thinker. One day he articulates long-held Catholic positions concerning other Christians and other religions with a hard, sometimes offensive (to "the others") line, and the next day he treats them more friendlily. Those who wanted to reduce him to being only an enforcer of Catholic sexual moral dicta now perceive a wider agenda. He also comes on as the theologian he is, in encyclicals on "love" and "hope."

Some secular-press anticipators of his visit suggest that themes other than the sexual and biological (from stem cell research to "euthanasia") are likely to be most notable and, to many, most jarring. The fourth or fifth most controversial issue in electoral politics this year, and the first among some cable network agitators and publics in states where it is most problematic, is immigration. True, Vatican leadership has articulated views protesting the Americans' initiation of war in Iraq, our official position permitting torture of humans, capital punishment, and more, but it is immigration that finds thoughtful Americans most uncertain or divided. The Catholic leadership is certain and undivided, and the Pope will be pressed to restate its case.

If the Pope pitches for reform of immigration policies, cynics will write it all off as a pitch for Latino/Latina votes, since "Hispanics" make up a huge component of today's American Catholicism. But Michael Sean Winters, author of the forthcoming Left at the Altar: How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats, argues that at base the church's position on immigration is "pro-family." He sets this forth in The New Republic (April 9), there showing how the Pope sided with immigrants and pitched for policies designed to help keep families together long before the U.S. visit came into view.

Winters quotes numerous papal papers, including a speech in which Benedict reminded anti-immigrants that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in the gospel story, were refugees and migrants. Beyond that narrative, Winters reminds readers that "the Catholic belief in the inherent dignity of every human being and the priority the Church places on keeping families together pushed Benedict leftward." (Why is that the "leftward" position?) For this year's celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the pontiff asked the Church's host communities to welcome migrating families and work to help them stay together, so that they "can overcome the obstacles and the material and spiritual difficulties [they] encounter." The American Catholic bishops are a strong lobbying force for liberal immigration reform. Will they be investigated by the I.R.S. for crossing a line forbidding political action?

It is hard to deny that any policy on immigration is problematic and that "reform" does not mean easy solutions. But the view that "the immigration policy we need in the U.S. must be based on the cornerstone of respect for the dignity of every human person" is to guide Catholic positions; how the Pope steers that is likely to be a hot topic.


Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.
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The March issue of the Martin Marty Center's Religion and Culture Web Forum presents an essay by Jerome Copulsky, Assistant Professor and Director of Judaic Studies at Goucher College: "The Last Prophet: Spinoza and the Political Theology of Moses Hess." Commentary from Rabbi Shai Held (Jewish Theological Seminary of America), Leah Hochman (University of Florida), Jeffrey Israel (University of Chicago) and Ben Sax (University of Chicago) will be available on the forum's discussion board,where readers may also post responses.
Access the discussion board at:https://cforum.uchicago.edu/viewforum.php?f=1
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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

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