By TONY CHEONG: Donald Trump would not approve.
At a recent summit at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove — formerly Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral before it was bought by the Catholic Church — Catholics agreed to support legal AND illegal immigrants.
By TONY CHEONG: Donald Trump would not approve.
At a recent summit at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove — formerly Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral before it was bought by the Catholic Church — Catholics agreed to support legal AND illegal immigrants.
The details on supporting illegal immigrants were vague. Many Catholics simply talked about compassion and one Catholic leader said, “This is a crisis that must be measured with names, stories and families. Documents … it’s important to have them, but they’re not what make us human.”
The church was more clear when it comes to legal immigrants. It supports the naturalization of about 2.5 million legal permanent residents.
Participants included Archbishop Jose Gomez, Cardinal Roger Mahoney and several other members of the clergy, along with representatives from parishes in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
There are thousands of Catholics in the communities I cover: Garden Grove, Stanton and Westminster.
Folks are sometimes surprised that Westminster, with such a large Vietnamese-American population, has so many Catholics, but they forget that the majority of Vietnamese-Americans are either Buddhist or Catholic.
The summit came on the heels of Pope Francis's strong support for all immigrants, which he emphasized during a recent visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. He went so far as to question Trump's Christianity because Trump has advocated building a wall to keep illegal, Mexican immigrants out of the United States.
Don't shoot the messenger.
I'm only relaying the facts.
Some legal immigrants have said they find the path to citizenship to be arduous (there are about 160,000 legal immigrants in Orange County who have gained the status of legal residents but not U.S. citizens).
Under a new program, Catholic Charities, a nonprofit arm of the church, will help qualifying families to get the $680 application fee waived and assist them with filing the forms and necessary documents.
Richard Doubledee, a deacon at St. Philip Benizi in Fullerton, was on hand and stated, to paraphrase, that God made a world without borders.
Which provokes critical questions when considering the matter of illegal immigration: Yes, man made borders in the form of cities, states, countries, etc. But he did it for practical purposes.
For instance, how does the United States track illnesses coming into our country from around the world that could threaten the general populace unless we have immigration laws?
How do we track terrorists?
How do we ensure that all citizens are tax-accountable?
It's a tricky subject. In this case, what we see is the intersection of religion and politics.
Religion, I think, tends more the idealistic. Politics is the business of compromise toward a greater good. Sometimes one is right and one is wrong. Sometimes both are wrong. And, every now and then, both are right.
Which one do we have on our hands here?
Do you have a question, comment or news tip for Tony on the Town? Email tonyontown@yahoo.com.
