January 29, 2010

The Church’s position on immigration reform

The Catholic Church does not support illegal immigration.

The Church respects the right of nations to control its borders, and the legitimate need for the state to have reasonable requirements for citizenship and its privileges.

Yet the Church sees some rights as inherent in the human condition, natural rights which extend beyond all national boundaries.

The Church evaluates public policy issues in light of sacred Scripture, the teachings of Jesus Christ, and from principles derived from our experience of trying to live and apply those teachings for many centuries.

The Church’s consistent life ethic, the belief that all human beings, from conception to natural death, have inherent dignity given to them by God himself, is applied to public policy.

The unborn, the elderly, the death-row inmate, the poor, the handicapped and the undocumented immigrant are all human beings deserving respect and dignity. The Church approaches the undocumented immigrant not from a legal perspective, but from a moral one.

For more information on immigration or to read the Indiana bishops’ statement on immigration reform titled “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: Meeting Christ in New Neighbors,” log on to www.indianacc.org. Click “resources” and scroll down to immigration. †

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