October 10, 2010

Sunday 28, Cycle C

2 Kings 5:14-17;  Psalm 98:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17: 11-19

With an election campaign season in progress, the topic of foreigners in our midst has become a political football.

Some would like to emulate the position of the Sarkozy government in France, which began expelling Roma from the country in August.

In the United States, there are those who suggest a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship.

A recent article in the New York Times describes Cesar Vargas, a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn who is currently studying law at the City University of New York.

He was brought by his parents to the United States from Mexico when he was 5. Although he wants to be a military lawyer, he cannot join the armed forces.

He cannot vote. He cannot travel outside the country because he would not be allowed to return.

Mr. Vargas was brought to Washington to speak at a news conference held by Senator Durbin of Illinois to push for enactment of the Dream Act, which would give legal residency to children who arrived before age 16, subject to a variety of conditions.

Sadly, the problem with highlighting Mr. Vargas' situation is that once again people in difficult circumstances are being used, this time as a political pawn.

Kevin Appleby, director of immigration policy for the USCCB, said about this, "The tragedy is that the kids believe [the debate about the bill] is an honest process and get played by both sides. It can be very disheartening to them.

They deserve a simple majority vote based on the merits, not one caught up in procedure and pre-election politics."

It will be difficult to have any kind of dispassionate and coherent discussion about immigration in the weeks before the election.

 As Catholics, we have always been a church of immigrants, even as established residents continued to practice the faith.

 For instance, in the late 19th century in Milwaukee there was great consternation among the established German Catholics as the newly arrived Poles made their way to the city's churches.

The Poles successfully took their place in Catholic culture only to find themselves supplanted years later by large Hispanic communities who now worship in the very buildings that the Polish Catholics built.

A century ago a German parish in a farming community outside of Milwaukee was so opposed to welcoming Irish Catholics that the Irish had to build their own clapboard church just a block away.

A decade ago, both churches merged into a single community that is now home to the Vietnamese Catholic community as well.

One of those Poles, whose forbears succeeded the German Catholics in Milwaukee, now leads a church rich in ethnic diversity. In an August article in the diocesan newspaper,

 Archbishop Jerome Listecki pointed out that welcoming immigrants is rooted in human dignity.

He also clearly enunciated Catholic teaching as regards this perennial American issue.

We could focus on lepers this weekend—Naaman the Syrian, and the ten who were cured, one of whom was a Samaritan.

We could also focus on gratefulness—Naaman's desire to worship the LORD and the Samaritan leper's return to give thanks.

 But we could also think about foreigners many of whom, like Naaman and the Samaritan, are so grateful for where they are and what they have.

And we can recognize that as a church we have a lot to say to politicians of all stripes as we hold them accountable to respect life from conception and birth, through childhood and adolescence, to adulthood and natural death.