Special to WorldTribune.com
Steve Bannon is right: The Catholic Church has a vested economic interest in unlimited illegal immigration. To deny it — as the U.S. church hierarchy is doing — is not just wrong. It’s foolish and hypocritical.
The former Trump chief strategist made the remarks in a recent interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Top church officials blasted Bannon’s comments.
“That’s insulting and that’s just so ridiculous that it doesn’t merit a comment,” scoffed Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
The archbishop of New York, however, went on to argue that supporting DACA, amnesty for young illegal immigrants, is justified by scripture. In other words: What would Jesus do? According to Cardinal Dolan and the Catholic bishops, Christ would support open borders, DACA and amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal aliens in America.
There is only one problem: Cardinal Dolan is wrong. And he is being disingenuous as well. It is obvious that the church has powerful economic interests in supporting unlimited immigration — both legal and illegal. For example, Catholic Charities receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government each year to help resettle (predominantly Muslim) refugees. Moreover, most of the illegal aliens in the United States are from Mexico and Latin America. They are overwhelmingly Catholic and Spanish-speaking. Illegals help fill-up the pews in churches across America, especially in big cities, such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and Boston. Fuller pews means more money. Take away the illegal population and the Catholic Church in America is in decline. Native regular churchgoers are an aging, greying and slowly dying population. Hence, demographically and economically, the church desperately needs to support massive illegal immigration. It is their lifeline.
Which begs the question: Should it? Under Pope Francis and Cardinal Dolan, the Catholic Church has aggressively defended not just DACA, but open borders and amnesty. They argue it is part of being “pro-life”; that Jesus himself embraced the stranger and called for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and giving shelter to the homeless. The church, they insist, can — and must — do no less.
They are wrong. And here I must make a full disclosure: I am a devout, practicing Catholic. You have no idea how much it pains me to have to openly and publicly rebuke my church’s leaders — people, who in theory, should know what they are talking about. My family, the Kuhners, come from a long line of Christian and Catholic martyrs. Sent to modern-day Croatia many centuries ago, my ancestors fought the invading Ottoman Turks as they sought to breach the gates of Vienna. Pope Leo X called Croatia “Antemurale Christianitatis” — the ramparts of Christendom. Furthermore, many of my ancestors were massacred first by the Nazis and then Tito’s communists. The reason: Our family’s Catholic faith. As an example, my grandfather’s brother, a village priest, was hung with piano wire from the roof of his church by communist butchers. I never imagined in my life that I would ever have to side against the Holy Father and leaders of the church. But here we are.
The Pope hides behind 40-foot walls at the Vatican. He is safely protected from the onslaught of illegal immigration. Vatican City is a papal state; it is sovereign. Hence, the Holy See could easily allow for countless illegal aliens to pour into the Vatican and grant them amnesty. Yet, he doesn’t. Why? Because the consequences would be overwhelming. In other words, the church is not following the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Pope Francis and Cardinal Dolan are asking America — and American Catholics — to do something the Vatican itself refuses to do. This is hypocrisy masquerading as compassion.
Also, they are manipulating and distorting church teachings to suit their liberal agenda. They are placing their liberalism above their Catholicism. This is perhaps the greatest betrayal of all. Bannon is correct. Nowhere does church doctrine state that Catholics must support amnesty and illegal immigration. What it is clear on, however, is regarding abortion and marriage. Church doctrine is unequivocal: Abortion is murder and same-sex marriage is an abomination. Pope Francis and Cardinal Dolan have never — not once — publicly denounced pro-abortion or pro-LGBT Catholic Democrats. Even though they champion policies, such as mass murder and the destruction of the family, that fundamentally violate bedrock church principles. More to the point: The Pope and Cardinal Dolan are demanding that American Catholics stand against the rule of law. They want us to embrace lawbreaking and criminal behavior. This is not only morally wrong, but grotesque. They are asking us to become outlaws in our own country.
Contrary to the claims of liberal Catholics, Jesus was not a crypto-globalist — and Christ certainly wasn’t a hypocrite. He would never demand that, while He remained protected behind high barriers, ordinary people would have to bear the massive costs of unlimited immigration. Illegal aliens have stolen millions of jobs, driven down wages for working-class Americans through a flood of cheap labor, crowded our emergency rooms, severely reduced the quality of education for U.S. citizens as our classrooms are filled-up with students who do not speak English and devastated our communities with rampant crime, gangs and drugs. Illegal immigrants are not just “dreamers”; many of them are murderers, rapists and violent thugs. Just ask Kate Steinle’s family. Yet, for the Catholic Left there is no mercy — no compassion, no understanding — for law-abiding Americans, who have borne the brunt of this onslaught. Suicide is a sin. Christianity is not a suicide pact. Countries have a right to defend their sovereignty, control their borders and protect their citizens.
God created distinct nations, tribes and peoples for a reason: It is part of the natural order. What is profoundly unnatural is the kind of one-world, liberal multiculturalism being peddled by Pope Francis and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is anti-American, anti-human and ultimately, anti-Christian. Heaven itself sets the example: Only those who are invited and chosen are allowed to enter its pearly gates. Liberal Catholics are preaching not just nonsense, but heresy. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at WorldTribune.com and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 12-3 pm EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.
Columnist calls out Catholic hypocrisy on ‘Dreamers’: Jesus Christ was no ‘crypto-globalist’ added by World Tribune on
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