Regarding: "The bishops and clergy of the Catholic Church must, repeat must, engage in sustained preaching and catechesis on the Church’s teaching about migrants."
- Were that this is done without confusion.
- A migrant is a person in transit (farm workers, travelers, academics are examples of this). An immigrant is someone who has come to stay. Refugees can become immigrants, or they could return to their nation of origin at a later time. Asylum seekers are in effect seeking permanent residency outside the usual channels of immigration establish by US law.
- Fairly, both groups have a right to justice and dignity.
- The issue is, and the hierarchy of the church state this, that the civil laws are to be respected, that is, not ignored.
- So, at minimum, the clergy of the Catholic Church should be ensuring that those being deported are not abused, or bereft of the law, and that the clergy of the Catholic Church of the receiving countries are ready to aid those returning.