WP/Reuters: L.A. Cardinal Leads Fast for Humane Immigration

[DeepModem Mom]

Cardinal Leads Fast for Humane Immigration
By Jill Serjeant
Reuters
Wednesday, April 5, 2006

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, fast becoming a national figure in the divisive debate on U.S. immigration, led Los Angeles Catholics on Wednesday in a day of prayer for lawmakers and fasting in solidarity with illegal immigrants.

The leader of the largest Catholic archdiocese in the nation said the debate in the U.S. Senate this week on immigration reform would have far-reaching effects for all Americans, "including those among us who are not citizens but who believe in the American dream."

The cardinal, whose 5 million-member archdiocese is 75 percent Latino, called for "just and humane" immigration laws and said the Christian gospels called on Catholics to stand in solidarity with "the poor, the stranger, the least among us."

"Let us fast in solidarity with those members of our community, especially the undocumented, who often endure lives of deprivation and hardship," he said in a statement.

The soft-spoken prelate last month became an unlikely protest leader by criticizing a House of Representatives bill that would make it a crime to help any of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040501518.html

[Missy M]

1. I think his humanity is self serving. The more illegal immigrants...

the more members in his archdiocese.

[MichiganVote]

2. Too bad he wouldn't do it for his own child victims in his own church

Like that would ever happen. Business as usual for the RCC.

[Bridget Burke]

3. O'Reilly agrees with those of you attacking the Cardinal...

(For those who didn't bother to read the linked article:

Mahony's stance reflects the position of U.S. Catholic bishops as well as a coalition of labor unions and other religious groups working to defeat any bill that would turn the illegal immigrants into felons.....

The cardinal's unflinching calls for solidarity with undocumented immigrants were widely seen as spurring nearly 500,000 mostly Latino protesters to take to the streets of Los Angeles on March 25 in an unprecedented political awakening of the city's largest but often unheard ethnic group.

Some conservatives have attacked Mahony, calling his stance a desperate effort to increase Latino attendance in a church reeling from the priest sex abuse scandal.

Fox News' commentator Bill O'Reilly said last week that Mahony opposed the bill because he "knows he'll get those people in church when he doesn't have anybody in church anymore."

O'Reilly's got pals everywhere, apparently.