Archbishop Thomas Wenski on Immigration. 'I was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me'

The Church teaches us not to fear the migrant - and the Church warns us not to mistreat the migrant. In a way, just as we call Jesus the King of Kings, we can refer to him as the Migrant of Migrants as well. In becoming a man like us, he 'migrated' from heaven. 

MIAMI, FL (Catholic Online) - Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami took his Episcopal motto, "Omnia omnibus" - "All things to everyone", from the Apostle Paul. His courageous public policy positions are well known. He embraces Catholic Social Doctrine in its fullness. A friend of the immigrant and the poor he is also a strong defender of every human person from conception to natural death and at every age and stage. This American of Polish stock looks like he could have come from the same home town as the Venerable John Paul II. Yet he is clearly at home in his beloved South Florida. His first assignment was to a Hispanic parish. He spent a substantial amount of his ministry in the early years building and leading a dynamic Haitian apostolate, the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center in Miami. A vibrant witness to the true meaning of Catholic Social Teaching's call to a love of preference for the poor, the Center Fr. Wenski helped to build embodied it. The center provided social, educational, legal and life assistance to Haitian immigrants. In fact, his love for the people of Haiti led him to that suffering Nation right after January's quake. He is an ardent champion of immigrants and a supporter of true immigration reform. In 1997, when he was consecrated as a successor to the Apostles, he served as an auxiliary Bishop of Miami. Then, in 2004 he was called to serve the Diocese of Orlando. There he led the Diocese in an extensive period of strengthening its mission and identity. His service in Orlando included launching a dynamic and thriving $150 million capital campaign. It also included extensive renovation of the cathedral of St. James and the erection of the stunningly beautiful National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe which  was granted official designation as a  "Basilica" in 2009. He is courageously Pro-Life, defending our youngest neighbors, those whom Mother Teresa rightly called the "poorest of the poor".  He does not back down from controversy as evidenced when he offered a Mass of Reparation after the University Of Notre Dame conferred an honorary Doctor of Law degree on President Obama. The Presidents opposition to the Right to Life for our youngest neighbors is well known.

The Bishop is a man well acquainted with the important public policy issues of our day. He cannot be "pigeonholed" by those who seek to marginalize Catholics by putting limiting political labels on us. He is not first "conservative" or "liberal" or anything in between. He is first, last and all in between, Catholic. In that, he shows us the way we should approach our own efforts to infuse our political participation with the teaching of the Church. This good Bishop gave the invocation at the Republican convention. He has also served on government commissions on homelessness. He has led efforts such as the delivery of 75 tons of food to Cuba after a devastating hurricane. He is still affirmed for his personal visit to Haiti after the horrific earthquake. He is well known for his love for the people of Haiti and his love for all those who are poor. Archbishop Thomas Wenski was installed on June 1, 2010, the Feast of Justin Martyr for the Archdiocese of Miami. He hit the ground running. We present a recent homily he gave at St. Clement Catholic Church at a Multi-Cultural Mass of Welcome. It addresses one of the most controversial - and most important- public policy issues of our age, immigration. It does so without entering into the rhetoric so often accompanying the current divisive debate over immigration reform. Archbishop Wenski reminds us of the teaching of the Catholic Church. That is where weas Catholic Christians must turn first in all of our efforts at faithful citizenship. ***** Archbishop Thomas Wenski: 'I was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me' "There was an Irish author, James Joyce, who in speaking about the Catholic Church said that "the Catholic Church means 'here comes everybody'." Now, I am not sure that he meant this as a complement but he did understand what the word "catholic" meant. The word comes from the Greek and it means "universal". We Catholics believe that when Jesus was born as a man in Bethlehem he came not for just one people but for all peoples, all races - of all times and places.. While Jesus' mission was first to the lost sheep of Israel it was not to be exclusively for them. Jesus would tell his Apostles: Go out into all the world and preach the good news. This would be something that the Jewish people would find difficult to accept. They knew themselves to be God's Chosen People - and indeed they were, and they still are. But in choosing the Jews, God in no way meant to disparage or belittle those who the Jews still call the "goyim" - or the nations. Indeed, the election of the Jews was not a put down for those who were not Jews - for in choosing Israel as a people peculiarly his own, God wanted them to be "a light to the nations", a light that would lead them to the knowledge of the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were elected by God not to be against the world but to be in a special way for the world. The good news of salvation is "catholic" for all peoples. If Salvation is "catholic", then the Church which Jesus founded to preach the good news of salvation must necessarily be Catholic as well. If the Church is the Father's House, then all those who are God's children through baptism should feel at home in their Father's House. Today the presence of so many ethnic groups that form part of our Archdiocesan community should show that all can and do find a home in the Catholic Church. Our diversity of languages, cultures, and races gives witness to the "catholicity" of the gospel message of salvation. This diversity does not divide the Body of Christ - it enriches it. Our unity is not founded on race or language or nation of origin - rather it is found on Christ. We acknowledge one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. The Church is the Israel of the New Covenant - and we are a chosen people as once the Jews were chosen: to be a light to the nations. We live in a divided world and what divides us is not the diversity we see around us. What divides us is sin. If we are to be a light to the nations we must model what a reconciled world looks us. This was the mission of Jesus who though he was the only begotten Son of God became our brother: he comes to make us members of God's family: sons and daughters of one Father reconciled to God and to one another through Jesus Christ in the gift of His Holy Spirit. Our world today is increasingly globalized: Pope Benedict XVI said that globalization has made us all neighbors but it has not made us brothers. It is the Church, the Church that is Catholic - that brings into its communion people of every race, language and culture - that must teach the world how to live as brothers and sisters. Part of the globalization we experience today is the fact of migration. In a globalized world, goods and merchandise made in one continent are bought and sold in another, half a world away; information and money can cross borders in an instant; and, in a globalize world, people also increasingly move across borders - often in dramatic ways. The Church teaches us not to fear the migrant - and the Church warns us not to mistreat the migrant. In a way, just as we call Jesus the King of Kings, we can refer to him as the Migrant of Migrants as well. In becoming a man like us, he "migrated" from heaven. He became a citizen of our world so that we in turn might become citizens of the world to come. And those who will enter into his heavenly homeland, will do so because, as he himself will tell us: "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me". So we can draw a parallel to Jesus' coming among us as man and a newcomer's arrival in a strange land -in this way, perhaps we can contemplate the face of Jesus in the visage of the immigrant. The divisive debates on immigration reform, too often immigrants - especially the undocumented -are demonized, seen as threats, and not as our brothers and sisters, or even among the "least" of his brothers and sisters. Xenophobic politics that focus on the "illegal immigrant" as a problem obscures the human face of immigration. Dramatic, "get-tough" arrests of poor low wage workers will not solve our immigration crisis. In fact, such actions often engender more confusion and bitterness. The real problem is not the immigrant but the broken system that cynically tolerates a growing underclass of vulnerable people, outside the protection of the law. Their labor is needed yet the present immigration regime does not provide them or their employers with the necessary avenues which would allow them to access the system and become legal. No human being should be reduced to being a "problem". Such reductive thinking demonizes the "illegal immigrant" and ultimately dehumanizes us all. Like the immigrant who arrives to our land, the Eternal Son of God through his Incarnation pitched his tent in our midst. And like Jesus who was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn, today, even while they toil at jobs that Americans cannot or will not do, immigrants hear again what Mary and Joseph heard in Bethlehem two millennia ago: there is no room in the inn for you. And like many of you here today, Jesus too was a refugee, a political refugee forced to flee from the despotic tyranny of King Herod. This is why the Church will continue to speak out on behalf of migrants everywhere. We speak out in defense of those, especially the young, who are trafficked across borders to be exploited in the sex trade. We will continue to advocate for a just and equitable reform of a broken immigration system that continues to separate families for unacceptable periods of time and that provides no path to citizenship for millions who work in jobs that otherwise would have gone unfilled. We will defend the rights of refugees and asylum seekers for a safe haven from persecution and violence. And, thanks to our Catholic Charities, over the years thousands have been successfully resettled here in South Florida and across the United States to begin new lives. And, because every child of God should feel at home in his Father's House, as a Catholic community we will continue to assure that - in our pastoral care and outreach to the newcomers among us - we will speak their Mother's tongue. The newcomer -regardless of legal status - is a human person, he is a brother, and she is a sister with a claim on our solidarity. And because of that solidarity we must build not walls but bridges. As I said earlier, as Catholics, if we are to be a light to the nations, we must model what a reconciled world looks us. We have to show that diversity enriches the Church and does not divide her - for our communion in Christ is greater than anything that could ever divide us. I want to encourage all of you - and all our ethnic apostolates - to contribute your gifts and your experience of the faith with your fellow Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Miami. St. Paul, the great apostle to the gentiles, brought the good news to all the nations. And as he preached to them he refused to impose on them the ways and customs of the Jews; he did not ask them to change their culture or their native tongue; he only asked that they change their hearts. In a world of broken promises and fragile hopes, may this local Church in its wonderful diversity of cultures and languages be always a beacon of hope, a light to the world. By modeling what a reconciled world could look like, we can - with the help of God's grace - show those whom globalization has made neighbors how to live as brothers and sisters." ***** We understand that there are disagreements concerning the volatile issues surrounding immigration policy. We know that good and faithful Catholics can - and do - come down in very different places in applying the principles offered in catholic Social Doctrine to immigration. Our readers have responded to articles on this subject in very diverse ways. We also understand that there is room for disagreement involving specific policy applications of the principles and teaching set forth in the Archbishops homily.

Witness the Words of Jesus Come to Life

However, we offer this homily as an invitation to prayerful reflection. We are, after all, Catholics first, last and all in between. We need the teaching of the Catholic Church to assist us in forming our consciences and informing the exercise of our civic duty.   

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