John Allen has an interesting commentary on the Cardinal Cupich debacle in wanting to give a Catholic award to Senator Durbin for his immigration efforts which are laudable despite his rabidly pro-abortion advocacy in the senate. You can read his commentary at Crux HERE.
The scandal was about the award to be given to a Catholic who ignores the foundation of the seamless garment of pro-life teachings of the Church, the foundation of what it means to be pro-life.
It is like giving an architect who designed a stunningly beautiful skyscraper from the ground-up, but left out the foundation for it, only to have the whole thing collapse. Well, he designed a pretty building, let’s give an award for it anyway.
I don’t think that we can make a caricature of pro-life Catholics whose only passion is the protection of the unborn. They have the foundation of the seamless garment of Catholic pro-life teachings, but haven’t yet built the rest of the building, but the foundation is in place!
I think most who advocate for saving the life of unborn babies are flabbergasted at the police-state tactics directed to immigrants to this country, who were allowed by governmental authorities to break the law to enter into this country and then enabled to find jobs that others didn’t want and in the long time they have been here have been assets in quiet ways to the communities in which they live as well as to their faith communities.
In the USA, the death penalty is no longer needed to keep society safe and many who champion the right to life of the unborn are also seeking to find alternatives to the death penalty.
Are there Catholics who are rabidly anti-abortion but are lauding indiscriminately deporting all illegal immigrants, regardless of their contributions to their communities? Yes, just as there are those passionate about immigration reform and protection of illegal immigrants but are rabidly pro-choice.
What many, like John Allen, are missing in all of this is that Cardinal Cupich wanted to give an award to a Catholic politician whose pro-life record has no foundation and therefore is quite dangerous to the seamless garment of the Church’s Pro-life teachings and agenda.
And in case anyone has a short memory about how bishops shuffled priests from parish to parish but accused and guilty of grotesque child and teenage sexual abuse as well as abuse of vulnerable adults, the reason given was they did other good things in their ministries, especially helping the poor and downtrodden. And supposedly, they were rehabilitated.
Was that a debacle? No, that is too kind of a description to give to that kind of horror that destroyed lives, led many to suicide and has diminished the moral authority of the Church!
5 comments:
What exactly were Sen. Durbin's contributions to immigration policy? Letting in murderers and child traffickers? Giving them taxpayer funded health care, college tuition and housing? Who is being rounded up by ICE: murders, drunk drivers, violent criminals, traffickers, drug dealers, gang members...read some of the rap sheets on these (mostly) guys. Do others get swept up in these raids who are "only" guilty of immigration violations? Yes. But the vast - even overwhelming - majority are not those who "only want a better life". Those illegal immigrants are not normally hanging around with drug dealers and gang members.
Were illegal immigrants permanently denied the right to vote, their Democrat support would vanish. Democrats have caused any injustice legal, worthy immigrants now face.
William of course. I remember when Dems were anti illegal aliens due to labor union opposition!
monkmcj:
“But the vast - even overwhelming - majority are not those who "only want a better life". Those illegal immigrants are not normally hanging around with drug dealers and gang members.”
I think your information is out of date. Here is an October 2, 2025 article discussing ICE statistics on those in detention:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/more-third-ice-detainees-no-164400221.html
“Nearly 17,000 immigrants without a prior criminal record are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to government data released last week. . . .
During the first few months of the administration, the number of ICE detainees in all categories increased steadily — the most pronounced change being in detainees with pending criminal charges. At the end of April, ICE maintained that 75% of those arrested were criminals.
Since setting a goal in May to arrest as many as 3,000 people each day, there has been a steep climb in detainees with no criminal record, while the rise in arrests of convicted criminals or those with pending charges has remained relatively the same. These detainees — who made up less than 10% of the population in ICE detention — now account for nearly 40% of those currently being held by ICE.”
So, it seems that 40% of those currently being held by ICE have no convictions of pending criminal charges. Moreover, let us not forget that those who have pending criminal charges against them are innocent until proven guilty.
As for those with criminal convictions, it seems that a substantial percentage may have committed only relatively minor infractions:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/08/15/ice-georgia-traffic-stop-arrest-immigration
I suspect that the rabid Stephen Miller wants to deport every single undocumented immigrant.
The bottom line is that we can legitimately disagree over policy toward the removal of undocumented immigrants, but we should at least share a common base of accurate facts. If you have different data, please share it with us.
Mark J.
Human beings are not aliens!
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