AMERICA/UNITED STATES - Mgr. Farrell remembers Catholics the duty to welcome foreigners

Thursday, 6 August 2015

Dallas (Agenzia Fides) - "The recent wave of anti-immigrant sentiment on behalf of public figures is not new to American history", said the Bishop of Dallas (Texas, USA), His Exc. Mgr. Kevin Joseph Farrell in his column in the diocesan magazine.

"The ghost of Nativism again prowls our land. The vilifiers and the vilified are different, but the script is the same", he said on 31 July.

Catholics, in particular, should remember that "we were once aliens residing in the land" - not of Egypt but of America", he said, referring to the fact that the Catholic faith was considered until the beginning of the last century as subversive for American democracy. Banned from holding public office and practicing their faith openly, Catholics were treated as second-class citizens who do not deserve the full rights of citizenship.

However, it was not only the religion to create the suspect of nativist groups like the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan, said the Bishop; even racial minorities, like the Chinese, Eastern Europeans, Italians and Irish were seen as a threat to America.

These racial and religious minorities "were vilified as sub-human, ne’er-do-wells and drunkards incapable of productive citizenship".

Today this same "fear and suspicion of others" is behind what the Bishop called the recent trend of "attacking immigrants". Monsignor Farrell said that Catholics, in particular, should recall the passage of Exodus in which the Israelites are told, "you shall not oppress or afflict a resident alien, for you were once aliens residing in the land of Egypt".

The situation of migrants in Texas is still very uncertain because only religious groups welcome migrants and give their support, pending the approval of the law on migration (see Fides 08/05/2015 and Fides 10/04/2015). (CE) (Agenzia Fides 06/08/2015)


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