Many religious conservatives in the United States take a sharply contrasting view of immigration from that of the Catholic Church.
At a Catholic-run shelter just across the border from Laredo, Texas, dozens of Latin American migrants say grace and tuck into a hearty meal of sausages, beans and rice, before trying to swim across the Rio Grande into the United States.
Weary migrants on their journey north often recharge their batteries at a network of similar shelters run by the Roman Catholic Church — a lifeline sanctioned by the Vatican, despite increased U.S. efforts to keep out illegal immigrants.
*“Migration is a human right and migrants are some of the world’s most vulnerable people. It is the church’s obligation to help them,” said the Rev. Francisco Pellizzari, an Italian-Argentine missionary who runs the Nazareth migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo.
* Editors Note: The good Reverend Pellizzari and others like him are, in similar fashion, facilitating the demise of their own mother country Italy. Whereas the Catholic Chuch is now the very opposite to its ancient bulwark status against invasions of this kind speaks volumes about its weaknesses. Additionally, low birth rates in a country the size of Italy and the “Westernization” of its youth opens the door to ‘alternative parishoners.’
After long treks to the border, often from as far away as Central America, men, women and children at the shelter swap their torn clothes for fresh ones, heal their injuries and telephone family members for cash for their crossing.
The Nuevo Laredo shelter has been granted a papal blessing in a Vatican certificate that hangs proudly on the wall.
Many Catholic Churches in the United States have welcomed Hispanics, with some seeing their congregations double in size. They set up soup kitchens and offer support to families hit by workplace raids and deportations.
“It is time for some compassion in the immigration debate,” said Sister Christine Feagan, who ministers to Hispanics at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Iowa. “Welcome the stranger..”
But in a U.S. election year with illegal immigration one of the most passionate issues, some candidates have a tough message for undocumented immigrants.