Hijacking Catholic Doctrine

The controversy over Arizona’s immigration law should be used to highlight the shameful role of the Roman Catholic Church in facilitating the foreign invasion of the U.S.

This scandal deserves as much attention as the seemingly never-ending cases of sexual child abuse involving priests.

In a major embarrassment for followers of the U.S. Catholic Church, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles compared Arizona’s new law to “German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques.” He actually wrote this on his personal blog, under the headline, “Arizona’s Dreadful Anti-Immigrant Law.”

Mahony is described by the Los Angeles Times as “a nationally influential figure who heads the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese with 4.3 million members.” In other words, he is not a fringe player. Indeed, he is typical of Catholic Church leaders.

Why do Catholic officials want to encourage illegal immigration? The answer is quite simple. Most of the illegal aliens are Catholics. Plus, the church makes lots of government money by hosting and serving the immigrants.

These facts are considered by some to be anti-Catholic, which is why you seldom read or hear about them in the major media. But the fact is that millions of American Catholics are disgusted and outraged by the Catholic hierarchy’s statements and antics on this issue. They are organizing across the country.

James Russell, a Catholic who serves as National Secretary of Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy, tells the story of betrayal of America by the Catholic Bishops in the book, Breach of Faith: American Churches and the Immigration Crisis.

In a major decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that a Christian cross could remain on public land, despite the so-called separation of church and state. It has become a national controversy. But where is the debate or discussion over the Catholic Bishops getting $51 million a year from the government? A lot of that money is being used to cater to immigrants, legal and illegal. These immigrants, in turn, go to church, contribute to the collection plate, and vote the way the liberal priests and bishops dictate.

In short, the evidence shows that the Catholic Church hierarchy has become an agent of the government in facilitating a foreign invasion of the United States. There is no other way to describe it.

This explosive story of scandal and corruption must be told because “comprehensive immigration reform” cannot be defeated unless the role of the Catholic Church is exposed and addressed.

If you are in the market for more outrageous statements from Catholic officials, take a look at Russell’s book, Breach of Faith. He notes that Cardinal Edward Egan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn supported and addressed a 2003 illegal alien “Freedom Riders” rally in Flushing Meadows Park in New York, “not far from the site where five illegal aliens had assaulted a woman and her boyfriend, then dragged her to a makeshift hut in the vicinity of Shea Stadium, where they repeatedly raped her and nearly beat her to death.”

Russell formed the group, Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy, in order to expose the Mahony-type characters in the church and church institutions.

In another book, On the Immorality of Illegal Immigration, also distributed by Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy, Father Patrick Bascio notes that an estimated 70,000 criminal gang members have infiltrated U.S. cities. His book charges that Catholic Church leaders have aided and abetted “all the evils connected with illegal immigration” and have become corrupted in the process.

In going into detail about Catholic Church corruption on the immigration issue, Russell notes that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) promotes amnesty for illegal aliens through its funding of such groups as ACORN and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).  The CCHD is funded by ordinary parishioners asked to provide money to assist the poor.

He says one of many American Catholic Bishops who have “achieved notoriety” for pro-immigration activism is Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, who solicits donations of cash and first-aid items for illegal aliens making their way into Arizona.

So the Catholic Church in Arizona has aided and abetted the problem that the citizens of Arizona, through their elected representatives, have now decided to confront. It is a major breakthrough.

Russell traces the church’s involvement in the entry of illegal aliens into the U.S. to the Marxist-oriented “liberation theology” movement, also known as “social justice.” Russell particularly faults Jesuit Catholic institutions such as Georgetown University for adopting this approach and indoctrinating students to be in favor of liberalized immigration policies.

Russell is honest about the motivation behind these efforts, noting that the Catholic Bishops and their agencies, some of which get government money to provide services to illegal aliens, “benefit from immigration by increasing the number of Catholics in the United States.”

He cites figures that most of the new immigrants to the United States are Catholics coming from Latin America.

He goes on, “When Catholic immigrants become naturalized, they may vote for candidates who support church policies.” What’s more, he writes, “The network of Catholic agencies relies on high rates of immigrants in need of social services to maintain government funding.”

Many Americans don’t realize that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which receives a federal tax exemption as a non-profit entity, gets one-third of its annual $146 million budget from the government.

“The USCCB is generally recognized as the single most active and most influential religious force for liberalization of American immigration policy, as well as for refugee resettlement, and hence merits our scrutiny,” Russell writes.

Pastor Ralph Ovadal of Pilgrims Covenant Church in Monroe, Wisconsin, is also providing that scrutiny. Ovadal has been pointing out for years “that the Roman Catholic Church is aiding and abetting the criminal invasion of America from Mexico because the illegals are almost all Roman Catholics.”

Ovadal says the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is “looking to turn America, founded and still a Protestant country, into a Roman Catholic country.”

These comments may sound harsh, but when a Catholic writer such as James Russell documents most of the information that lies behind such tough statements, one has to pay serious attention.

If anything, Russell writes, the position of the USCCB over the years has become more radical, to the point where the Bishops are emphasizing that amnesty for illegals―they call it “legalization”―has to be a “central component” of any federal immigration proposal.

Russell makes the case that current religious attitudes toward immigration “did not evolve slowly and authentically from traditional Christianity, but rather have been assiduously advanced by radical intellectuals, both Protestant and Catholic, whose goals have been primarily political, and have run counter to the best interests of the vast majority of native-born American citizens.”

The hijacking of the Catholic Church by Marxist elements is now front and center. Who in the major media has the courage and guts to write about it?

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. This is an excerpt of one of his columns, which can be read in its entirety here.