The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz, the Wisconsin-born prelate who’s served the Dallas and El Paso dioceses for more than 40 years, believes Texas is a ‘place of faith’ with a ‘storied and colorful history.’ However, the 70-year-old bishop has also seen the state ‘become a laboratory for the most inhospitable and dehumanizing policy” since he was appointed by the pope to oversee border parishes in 2013.’
“’We are witnessing a new stage in the deadly militarization of our border with Mexico, a country with which we are not at war,’ Seitz said this week in a keynote address at an event cosponsored by the Houston Chronicle- and The Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
“The bishop is an outspoken critic of Gov. Greg Abbott’s alleged ‘racist projects,’ including multi-billion-dollar efforts to challenge the Biden administration and stack the U.S.-Mexico border with National guardsmen and concertina wire. . .
“At Tuesday’s conference, Seitz described the importance of welcoming the stranger in the Gospel of Matthew. “The church’s thought has always been influenced by its lived, pastoral realities on the ground,” he said. “Right from the beginning of her history, the church was attending to the needs of the displaced. . . .
“Seitz, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, recently condemned litigious attempts by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to shut down the Annunciation House, a Catholic-backed nonprofit sheltering migrants in El Paso. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops joined Seitz ‘in expressing solidarity’ with border ministries as state and federal governments ‘pursue failed migration and border security policies.’
“In February, Paxton filed a suit against the nonprofit, accusing the staff of ‘astonishing horrors’ and claiming it was “facilitating illegal entry to the United States. . . . ‘ Paxton’s office demanded the nonprofit hand over records on their immigrant clients, but the nonprofit refused what it considered an anti-Catholic position to shut down the shelter, saying it was protected by constitutional rights that included religious freedom.”– El Paso Bishop Takes on Ken Paxton, Blasts ‘Dehumanizing” Immigration Policy, Eric Killelea, Chron, 5/2/24 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: The notion that our southern border is “militarized” is absurd. Quite often these days, the Border Patrol is more involved in processing illegal aliens into our country than expelling them. Long stretches of the border have no walls or fences. They are wide-open to anyone who wants to pass through. Bishop Seitz, cited in this article, says efforts to control the border are “racist projects.” Here, as is so often the case, illegal alien advocates toss out the race card, almost as an unthinking reflex action. But if they did think, they would consider that illegal aliens are not a race. They are people of different races, united by a common distain for the laws of our country.
Seitz says that the Gospel of Matthew justifies mass immigration, as it records the injunction of Jesus to welcome strangers. But a careful reading of that verse reveals that he identifies these strangers as his “brethren.” i.e., his followers. Thus he will judge individuals and nations on how they treat Christians, perhaps most particularly those who are missionaries. It is not a statement about immigration policy. (For a full discussion of this issue, see The Immigration Crisis by James Hoffmeier, pages 148-150.)
The bishop tries to hide behind religion by attributing the lawsuit of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against Annunciation House to anti-Catholic bias. Paxton was not swayed by such arguments. He observed that “Annunciation House’s own sworn testimony has shown that Annunciation House operates as a criminal enterprise. It knowingly shelters illegal aliens who evaded [the] Border Patrol when crossing. It even goes into Mexico to retrieve aliens who Border Patrol denied. Then, by its own admission, it conceals those people in its shelters from law enforcement. It will let any alien in, yet it paradoxically refuses to comply with any law enforcement demands. Its own website even boasts that it houses people who crossed the border with ‘help from a coyote.”
He added that “Annunciation House initially claimed it had a religious right to refuse compliance with the [Office of the Attorney General’s] investigation. But when asked under oath how his religion would be burdened by producing documents to OAG, Annunciation House’s Executive Director admitted that it would not. And when OAG sought to ascertain what religious practices even occur at Annunciation House, its senior staff gave nonsensical answers, including practicing ‘the seven commandments.’
Some illegal advocates like to twist the words of Jesus for their benefit. His words could apply to them when he warned of wolves in sheep’s clothing.