“The Catholic Church is wrong” stated Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s ICE man.
Homan and other MAGA elites were triggered by a statement released by America’s Catholic bishops.
Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer screeched, “It’s sad to see the Catholic Church work so hard to try to destroy our country.”
Matt Walsh, a right-wing political commentator, wondered why the bishops didn’t make a video criticizing Joe Biden’s administration “for supporting, funding and facilitating the mass slaughter of children in the womb” or “its support for the castration and sexual mutilation of children.”
Rodney Kennedy
At the request of Pope Leo XVI, the bishops issued a statement saying they are “disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.” The letter adds, “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”
The bishops grounded their statement in Catholic tradition: “Although Catholic theology has always promoted human rights rooted in natural law and God’s revelation, it was the encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor) in 1891 that developed a systematic presentation of principles of the rights and responsibilities of people. Rerum Novarum commented on the situation of immigrants; in later documents, popes and bishops’ conferences have synthesized the Catholic theological tradition to articulate three basic principles on immigration.”
Those include:
- People have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.
- A country has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration.
- A country must regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
The bishops actually defend the right of the government to control immigration: “Those who work to enforce our nation’s immigration laws often do so out of a sense of loyalty to the common good and compassion for poor people seeking a better life. In an ideal world, there would be no need for immigration control. The church recognizes that this ideal world has not yet been achieved.”
“What set him off is the call for justice and mercy.”
Surely, this didn’t incur Homan’s wrath. What set him off is the call for justice and mercy. Something about mercy and empathy has soured the American mind among MAGA evangelicals and some Catholics.
Homan speaks for the “gates of hell” in assailing the one, true, holy, apostolic church. These are giddy moments for Homan and the lower elements of our human spirit. Never before have our prejudices toward immigrants been so “trumped up” as virtue in our culture. Never has there been as hospitable an environment for demagogues, conspiracy theorists, liars, racists, haters and people lacking all human compassion. To listen as MAGA promotes the virtue of deporting millions of immigrants, and do so in the most unforgiving and harsh ways, is almost unbearable.
Homan, seemingly knowing neither his church’s history nor the Scripture, appears to have missed some catechism classes in church tradition and biblical teaching.
In 1952, Pope Pious XII issued a papal encyclical titled Exsul Familia Nazarethana. The document clearly states the church’s ministry to immigrants. The opening words are pivotal:
The émigré Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, living in exile in Egypt to escape the fury of an evil king, are, for all times and all places, the models and protectors of every migrant, alien and refugee of whatever kind who, whether compelled by fear of persecution or by want, is forced to leave his native land, his beloved parents and relatives, his close friends, and to seek a foreign soil.
In Deuteronomy, Moses details the “quadrilateral” of the vulnerable in the community: the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the poor. These are the ones without protection, status, or standing in an authoritarian society. Scripture insists God’s people are to sustain the vulnerable, the powerless and the oppressed.
“I believe Homan is ‘fighting against the purpose and will of God.’”
I believe Homan is “fighting against the purpose and will of God” (Acts 5:39). I believe his words blaspheme the God who “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).
The psalmist would raise a voice against Homan’s trashing of the church:
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Catholic Church is not wrong on immigration. Challenging the church’s historic teachings about the treatment of immigrants is like butting one’s head against the judgment seat of God. Trashing compassion in the name of cruelty defies all Christian decency.
Homan, breathing threats and chaos against immigrants, binding them in chains and deporting them, needs to heed a word from Jesus: “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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