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Friday, June 3, 2005
the living word
Immigration issues Seemingly, our Congress is in deadlock. The political infighting has brought our legislators to a blind wall. So polarized are the political parties that the true cares and concerns ofthe·nation are sidetracked and often ignored. This self-inflicted grinding halt has led .the country into a real stalemate. As a result, some of the pressing issues of our times have gone unaddressed. Such is the case dealing with the tremendous concerns of immigrants and immigration. Since 9/11 we really see how vulnerable are our national boundaries. As a country, we indeed are in harm's way. The national security reaction' to the horrors of that day have been confused and fragmented. The current administration embarked on a strategy oflargescale arrests ofnon-citizens, registration programs that targeted temporary visitors from certain countries, and dozens ofother immigration restrictions. In a recent address, Donald Kerwin, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, spoke out on this particular immigration issues. He reflected that the government has offered different theories of "national security" to justify all of its immigration control strategies. For example, the lack of control over the vigilante groups self-protecting our southern borders is nothing more than people taking the law into their own hands. This violation of our legal system is in itself a national security threat. The United States needs to collect better intelligence on terrorists and share that information among its various agencies. Solid intelligence should be accessible to officials making adrnis,sion decisions. No one would disagree that we need greater visa controls and security checks on those seeking to enter this country. However, we must also admit that we need immigrants as part of ow: national labor force. Our economic system depends on immigration. Without this work force the country would find itself paralyzed. What we should be encouraging is honest and true immigration reform. It is estimated that there are more than 10 million undocumented aliens in this country and hundreds of thousands entering each year. The current immigration policies force these people into fearful exploitation. This unknown reality is an underground world where people are viewed as subhuman. It is imperative that we help these people surface into the light and freedoms that this nation has offered to people seeking a new and better life. It must be done legally and fairly, especially in the light of the tensions of the times. It is important for all of us to remember that each and every human being enjoys like human rights; these rights are those that people possess not by nature of any particular role or status in society, but by nature of their humanity. Blessed Pope John XXIII in "Pacem In Terris" reminds us that every person has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from his Of her very nature. And "these rights and obligations are universal and invaluable so they cannot in any way be surrendered." Our late Holy Father Pope John Paul II urged us "to be a vigilant advocate, defending against any unjust restriction of the natural rights of individual persons to move fully within their own borders, and from one nation to another." It is clear that sovereign states may impose reasonable limits on immigration. However, the common good is not served when basic human rights of the individual are violated. Natural rights are inviolable, absolute and unalienable. If our Congress ever gets back to work and takes up immigration reform, which it must do, let's hope it upholds these principles.
The Executive Editor
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OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF FAll RIVER Published weekly by the Catholic Press of the Diocese of Fall River 887 Highland Avenue P.O. BOX 7 Fall River, MA 02722-0007 Fall River, MA 02720 Telephone 508-675-7151 FAX 508-675-7048 E-mail: TheAnchor@Anchornews.org Send address changes to P.O. Box, call or use E-mail address
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Rev. Msgr. John F. Moore EDITOR David B. Jollvet
NEWS EDITOR OFFICE MANAGER James N. Dunbar Mary Chase _.,
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SUE MALONE PRAYS THE ROSARY, ALONG WITH FELLOW PARISmONERS OF HOLY ANGELS PARISH IN UPTON, MAss., AS PART OF A CANI?LELIGHT VIGIL OUTSIDE THE OSBORN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION IN SOMERS, CONN., PRIOR TO THE MAy 13 EXECUTION OF CONVICTED MURDERER MICHAEL Ross. MALONE, AND NEARI.Y 1,000 OTHER PROTESTERS, STOOD IN THE UNSEASONABLY COLD WEATHER IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS TO VOICE THEIR opPOsmON TO THE DEATH PENALTY.
"You SHALL APPOINT JUDGES AND OFFICIALS THROUGHOUT YOUR TRIBES TO ADMINISTER TRUE JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE IN ALL THE COMMUNITIES" (DEUTERONOMY
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Our eucharistic heart'transplant Because of the Incamation, refer to a person's moral characevery part of Jesus, body is ter, the sacred writers routinely ·sacred. describe that person's heart, We have never celebrated the because there the person finds feast of the Lord's sacred brain, ,his unity and interior orientation. however, even though through it The heart is the symbol and the Word-made-tlesh taught us synthesis of the person. Therethe way to salvation. fore to adore Jesus' sacred heart We have likewise never feted is to worship him in his totality. the Lord's sacred hands, full of But the heart is also the most calluses from the carpenter shop in Nazareth and yet so gentle in reaching out to touch and heal sinners, cure the sick and even raise the dead. By Father Roger Nor have we given J. Landry public adoration to Jesus' sacred throat, sacred lips, sacred feet, sacred eyes or any other part of striking symbol oflove. To focus his sacred !;lody, even though on Jesus' sacred heart is to focus each and every part of Jesus' on Jesus as love incamate. Jesus body is worthy of adoration. said as much when he appeared The only part of Jesus' holy to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in corpus that the Church has 1675: "Behold the heart which adored over time has been Jesus' has so much loved men that it sacred heart. has spared nothing, even exThis is something that makes hausting and consuming itself in the Solemnity.ofthe Most Sacred testimony of its love." Heart of Jesus, which the Church But the heart which St. universal marks today, particuMargaret Mary beheld was larly special. surrounded by a crown of thorns. Why Jesus' heart - and only It was wounded. Thus the image his heart? The answer is both , of the sacred heart is not only a simple and profound. symbol of the love that made In the Bible, the "heart" refers those sufferings bearable, but to the "center" of the person, also of the sins that cause that where reason, will, temperament heart to be pierced by a lance on and tenderness converge. To Good Friday.
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Those sins continue. Jesus told St. Margaret Mary that the reason he asked her to spread throughout the world devotion to his heart was because so many ignore that love or treat it with scorn. He made a particular reference to the way people treat him in the sacrament of the Eucharist. "Instead of gratitude," he told her, "I receive from most only indifference, by irreverence and sacrilege and the coldness and scorn that men have for me in the sacrament oflove." Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to begin the reparation, inviting , her to take St. John's place during the celebration of the Mass, to rest her head on his heart and, not only sense his love, but share in it. She felt the Lord take her heart, put it within his own, and return it buming with divine love into her breast. Jesus wants, in essence, . through the Mass to give us the same type of transplant. He wants us to rest our heart on his as he celebrates in the upper room and to receive from him his own heart so that we might love God and others as he loves us. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God .had prophesied, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; I will Turn to page 13 - Heart