Title: Trump’s Bid to End Birthright Citizenship Faces Moral, Legal Challenges
Source: National Catholic Register
Link: ncregister DOT com/news/birthright-citizenship-trump-admin-immigration-laffin
The Money-Quotes:
According to the USCCB, ending birthright citizenship is morally problematic because it would potentially punish innocent children.
“The Church opposes the repeal of birthright citizenship because it would render innocent children stateless, depriving them of the ability to thrive in their communities and reach their full potential,” the USCCB website reads. “The Church believes that a repeal of birthright citizenship would create a permanent underclass in U.S. society, contravening U.S. democratic tradition; undermining the human dignity of innocent children who would be punished though they did nothing wrong; and ultimately weakening the family.”
[…]
Kristin Heyer, professor of theological ethics at Boston College, believes that, in addition to being morally dubious, repealing birthright citizenship won’t have the desired effect on illegal immigration. She also believes the efforts come from a rise in “nativist populism” and “an opportunistic politics of exclusion.”
"The framing of birthright citizenship as an incentive for undocumented immigration does not reflect the reality that most immigrants come to the United States seeking labor opportunities or freedom from violence,” Heyer told the Register. “The Catholic commitment to universal human dignity supports equal treatment for all born on U.S. soil and conflicts with the scapegoating or stigmatizing of so-called ‘anchor babies.’ ”
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Connecting the dots by creatively compounding the quotes:
"[A] repeal of birthright citizenship … contraven[es] U.S. democratic tradition [by] support[ing] [un]equal treatment for all born on U.S. soil."
IOW, such a repeal discoheres with the framework of Liberal Democracy — puts it, one might say, under pressure.
Title: Trump’s dare for the Catholic Church during his second term[Analysis, Opinion]
Source: La Croix
Link: international DOT la-croix DOT com/opinions/trumps-dare-for-the-catholic-church-during-his-second-term
The Money-Quote:
Compared to 60 years ago, the presidency of the second Catholic in the White House ends with both America as a country and the Barque of Peter in the United States in much less safe waters and without a map. One of the greatest contributions of American Catholicism to the development of doctrine in the 20th century and especially to the role of the church in the public square was the theology of religious liberty and constitutional democracy. With the re-election of Trump, also thanks to U.S. Catholic votes, it is not clear what will be the contribution of American Catholicism to the fight for the survival of democracy in the United States and around the world. Even if one accepts the idea that the United States was the bastion of democratic ideals in the world, it’s not clear what will be the role of Catholics and on which side they will be found. The problem now is how to keep the contagion of this slow death of democracy away from Europe and the rest of the world.
The role of U.S. Catholicism as the leading ecclesial and theological hub for the path of the church in political modernity might be over. There are reactionary, authoritarian, and outright neo-fascist voices. But the real novelty is the emerging forces within U.S. Catholicism that are converging around post-liberal ideals, or a neo-Thomistic revival, or small-community projects, in a prudent retreat or sometimes angry rejection of the vision of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ worldview of Fratelli Tutti. Rebuilding a relationship between competing American political philosophies and Catholicism is one of the Herculean tasks before the new archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Robert McElroy, appointed by Pope Francis on January 6. McElroy is a scholar of the relations between US politics and Catholicism. His PhD dissertation from Stanford was on morality and U.S. foreign policy; the thesis of his doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome was on the Jesuit US theologian John Courtney Murray and American political philosophy, which he published as an important book in 1989. He is the most notable thinker among U.S. bishops today, and his appointment could be the harbinger of a new season in Pope Francis’ efforts to reshape the U.S. episcopate.
The re-election of Trump is not just a political defeat but also the consequence of a theological and cultural downfall. Moving Cardinal McElroy from San Diego to the nation’s capital is much more than just a response of the Vatican to the new Trump administration. It must be seen as a step in the long march to rebuild American Catholicism around a center — not a political center located ideologically somewhere between the two aisles — but a moral and spiritual one.
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According to most accounts, the Pope has installed Cardinal McElroy as the new Abp. of Washington DC in order to put the brakes on the worst excesses self-avowedly on the new Admin's menu. Complicating this is the spectre of a deeply divided US Church buoying the political fortunes of MAGA, whether for better or worse. But even leaving aside playing the Vance-card (Vance is Catholic and thus, should be influenceable), the good cardinal seems well-positioned to help keep Trump in intermittent check, even if mate is out of reach.
According to most accounts, the Pope has installed Cardinal McElroy as the new Abp. of Washington DC in order to put the brakes on the worst excesses self-avowedly on the new Admin's menu. Complicating this is the spectre of a deeply divided US Church buoying the political fortunes of MAGA, whether for better or worse. But even leaving aside playing the Vance-card (Vance is Catholic and thus, should be influenceable), the good cardinal seems well-positioned to help keep Trump in intermittent check, even if mate is out of reach.
Woke Lady Bishop at the National Shrine today has pretty much poisoned the well, as far as influencing Trump and MAGA Christians is concerned.
Normally, Pope Francis and the US bishops could influence American Catholics, as a group. And this voting bloc could put pressure on Congress and the White House.
This has been largely ineffective, in regard to the MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE of American Catholics -- the killing of unborn children. We were unable to budge Catholic Joe, and Kamala ran on killing children as her Vital One concern.
So if fringe woke Catholic Democrats hope that Pope Francis and Cardinal McElroy can nudge Trump somehow.... well, they'd better come up with some powerful, common-sense arguments that secular Democrats have completely overlooked.
Trump is arguably the most pro-life, pro family president in quite a few decades. That's a good thing, right?
DC museums have been warned not to harass tourists with pro-life hats/t-shirts so it will be interesting how the DC March for Life goes down this year
There is also scuttlebutt of imprisoned pro-life prayer warriors getting pardons and Planned Parenthood getting kicked off the Federal dole.
I'll watch and see what happens.
It'll be interesting what 47 does at the DC March for Life.
Actions speak louder than words.
Hovannes wrote: 22 Jan 2025, 12:43
Trump is arguably the most pro-life, pro family president in quite a few decades. That's a good thing, right?
DC museums have been warned not to harass tourists with pro-life hats/t-shirts so it will be interesting how the DC March for Life goes down this year
There is also scuttlebutt of imprisoned pro-life prayer warriors getting pardons and Planned Parenthood getting kicked off the Federal dole.
I'll watch and see what happens.
It'll be interesting what 47 does at the DC March for Life.
Actions speak louder than words.
I will be shocked if we don't see some significant pro-life action from 47 during this March For Life. There will be lots of cameras and lots of eyes on the March this year!
Ahead of the March For Life tomorrow, Trump White House sources are leaking that pardoning the pro-life prisoners is a "top priority" for Trump. "In the next few days."
Trump is expected to address the March with a pre-recorded video message.
Republican senators have re-introduced a bill to repeal the FACE Act, which levies special penalties on those how disrupt, endanger, and damage churches and healthcare clinics -- but has, in practice, only been used to lay felony penalties upon peaceful pro-lifers.
