Mahoney replacement wants amnesty for illegal aliens

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Archbishop Gomez – ‘Immigration is the great civil rights test of our generation’

Back in October, ‘08, Archbishop Jose Gomez was the keynote speaker at the Missouri Catholic Conference Annual Assembly. In his speech from the podium of the State House of Representatives in Jefferson City, Archbishop Gomez traced the history of the Christian imperative to welcome the stranger and reviewed its implication for today. At the time, I only posted excerpts from his speech since I deemed it too long for a blog post. Given his newfound prominence and the interest in his views on immigration, I’m posting the whole thing. It is the best presentation I’ve seen on the topic:

My brother bishops, my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus:

Greetings, my brothers and sisters! It’s so very good to be with you today! Thank you for your very warm welcome. I’m honored by your invitation to speak with you today about immigration.

In recent years, the work of the Missouri bishops and the Catholic Conference has been a model for mature, reasoned, and compassionate participation in the immigration debate. When we finally achieve the comprehensive reforms America needs, it will be in no small part thanks to the kind of witness and leadership you’ve provided. So I thank you for your work. And I’m humbled that you would ask to hear some of my perspectives.

As you know, the immigration issue is very important to me, too. In fact, I believe immigration is the great civil rights test of our generation. I was recently honored to be appointed as a consultant to Pope Benedict’s Pontifical Commission on Latin America. And immigration is one of the critical challenges the Church faces in our hemisphere.

This issue is also deeply personal for me. I come to this debate as both an American citizen and an immigrant, born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. Some of my ancestors were in what’s now Texas, since 1805. (At that time it was still under Spanish rule.) I’ve always had family and friends on both sides of the border. So I have many conflicting emotions about the way this debate has played out in recent years.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to back into the subject of our discussion today. I want to go back in history a little bit. To the short reign of the Emperor Julian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 361 to 363 A.D.

You remember your history, I’m sure. After centuries of persecution, Christianity became first a “tolerated” religion, and then the official state religion under the Roman Emperor Constantine, beginning in the early fourth century. Well, Julian was the son of Constantine’s half-brother, Julius Constantius, and he came to power after a series of bloody struggles. More…

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