03-30-2006, 02:18 AM
|
#8 (permalink)
|
| Community Leader Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 693 Level up: 31%, 139 Points needed |  |  From CNN, 3 March 2006: Quote:
On Ash Wednesday, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles spoke in defense of illegal immigrants.
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY, ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS Angeles: The bishops are asking all of us across the country to enter into prayer and special fasting remembering and recalling our own immigrant roots to make sure that we don't slam the door in the faces of those who are here.
VILES: Mahony also defended giving charity to those here illegally.
MAHONY: We must be able to minister to people, regardless of how they got here. People come to our Catholic charities. We need to be able to minister to these people in the name of Christ.
VILES: At issue, a House-passed bill that states, in part, "Whoever assists, encourages, directs or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such person is an alien who lacks lawful authority to reside in or remain in the United States shall be punished.
TOD TAMBERG, ARCHDIOCESE SPOKESPERSON: It would criminalize simple humanitarian gestures like giving a sandwich to a starving person if that person happened to be undocumented, and it could even intrude inside the doors of the church.
VILES: Those who favor the House bill say it would crack down on the business of smuggling illegal aliens and anyone who knowingly harbors them.
IRA MEHLMAN, FAIR: You have church institutions that are providing shelter, help people, knowingly help people to get into this country illegally and remain here illegally. And no institution, even religious institutions, are above the law.
VILES (on camera): Cardinal Mahony has made a personal appeal to the president on this issue. In a letter to President Bush, he said the bill as written would "penalize Catholics for doing what their faith demands of them."
Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
| |