Apparently, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is rolling in dough. It's giving $800,000 more to propaganda efforts "aimed at mobilizing regular Catholics to push for the bishops' immigration platforms", i.e., mass legalization and open borders.
That comes on top of the $3.5 million the group has already spent to promote mass amnesty. For some wacky reason, this political money gets labeled "antipoverty" activity. That's really bizarre. And it flies in the face of the facts.
Our current legal immigration system hands out visas to an original immigrant's adult brothers and sisters, grown kids, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. — on no basis whatsoever beyond their being related, even distantly — and without regard whatsoever to their education level, skills, talents, resources, etc. This chain migration contributes to the importation of poverty, not poverty's alleviation.
Illegal aliens are likely to be even poorer and less educated and less skilled. Their legalization further boosts the poor population, because then former illegals can sponsor their relatives for visas — again, based solely on familial ties.
There's something wasteful about this expenditure by the bishops' conference. If $3.5 million hasn't really moved the dial among Catholic parishioners on immigration politics, why would $800,000 more? The Washington Post story reporting this allocation cites a Pew poll that shows that religious faith plays the biggest role in shaping the immigration policy views of a mere 7 percent of Americans. And a Zogby poll finds Catholics in the pews markedly differ with the open-borders beliefs of their religious leadership.
By contrast, faith does influence views on same-sex marriage and abortion, according to the Pew survey. The Post says the push for gay marriage rights has taken some of the Catholic bishops' focus off immigration the past few years. By pushing "comprehensive immigration reform", the Catholic Conference is working at cross purposes with itself. Its left-wing allies on immigration will insist on including the gay agenda in CIR. The George Soros-funded Center for American Progress is working to achieve family visas for homosexual couples in the coming amnesty package.
Perhaps the scales will fall from the bishops' eyes before it's too late. As my CIS colleague Dominique Peridans has put it, "I choose to believe that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church has the best of intentions in its statements on the issue of immigration. But leadership beckons wisdom. 'By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established.' Wisdom, in the case of immigration, ought to awaken Church leadership to the realization that the issue's complexity is poorly served by a simplistic approach that negates the autonomy of the human mind." I say, Amen! And urge the same clarity of thought to the Protestant "leaders" who hear the siren song of the open-borders zealots.