Letter to the Editor from Peachtree City, GA

Published: March 9, 2006

To the Editor:

At the risk of sounding insensitive or uncharitable, I feel I must ask a few questions regarding the last issue of The Georgia Bulletin and its seven pages of material on immigration reform.

Let me start by asking if so much coverage has been given to the abortion issue or other pro-family issues which plague our society? I don’t recall, but I would hope those issues merit as much attention from our Church leadership and diocesan newspaper.

Next, I would like to affirm that we should be charitable and loving towards immigrants and foreigners in general and that even if folks arrive here illegally, we have a basic duty to respect their dignity, provide necessary medical care, and communal support.

But Archbishop Gregory’s letter and the other articles seemed to imply that since the current immigration laws are unjust or at least unfair, it is OK for “undocumented” immigrants to violate them and come to our country anyway. I don’t see the Catholic leadership saying we ought to ignore laws which keep abortion legal. Rather, they advocate—sometimes not sufficiently—working through the system to change the laws while at the same time respecting the rule of law in a democratic society.

Shouldn’t the same basic standard apply to immigration law? The Catholic bishops are doing their job in advocating legal changes, but I fear that they are over-stepping their authority and competence when they fail to ask all interested parties, whether immigrant or citizen, to obey the current laws as they stand.

St. Paul admonished Christians to be obedient to the state at a time when the state was dictatorial, brutal, overtly anti-Christian and often unjust. How much more does his admonition apply nowadays when we have a government by and for the people?

Trey Hoffman, Peachtree City

(Editor’s note: Abortion and other pro-life issues have been and will continue to be the subjects of many Georgia Bulletin articles.)