Is Christianity Useful?

Migration and Catholic Social Teaching (USCCB)

1. Persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland (i.e., the right not to migrate).
2. When the conditions necessary for a dignified life are absent, persons have the natural right to migrate to support themselves and their family.
3. More prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome those in search of the security and means of livelihood unavailable in their country of origin.
4. Countries have the right to maintain their borders and regulate immigration, consistent with the common good and with respect for the sanctity of human life.
5. Refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection.
6. The God-given dignity and rights of undocumented immigrants should be respected.
7. Immigrants have a responsibility to respect the country that receives them.

Religious Liberty

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… (First Amendment)

Nations have a right to regulate their borders and safeguard the communities within them and also an obligation to accommodate, to the extent they are able, those migrating in order to preserve human life (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2241). As governments attempt to operate according to these principles and uphold the common good, it is especially important that they respect the basic rights of Christian ministries to serve the vulnerable as Christ has taught us. When a person in need comes before us, we don’t ask for documentation before providing food, clothing, and shelter. Rather, we recognize their inherent God-given dignity and the reality that “[e]very migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance” (Caritas in veritate, 62). Ministry to migrants is not peripheral to the work of the Church. It is central. It institutionalizes those corporal works of mercy which are an expression of the love of Christ. (USCCB)

Evangelization

Attorney General Paxton argued that the charity is not religious because its work is not focused on evangelization or sacramental ministry. (USCCB)

Evangelization – to proclaim good news

Proselytization – to add members to my religion

Migrants in Scripture

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. (Matthew 25:35-36)

For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving them food and clothing. So you too should love the resident alien, for that is what you were in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to proclaim good news [literally: to evangelize] to the poor, to embrace the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners… (Isaiah 61:1)