Reading through my son’s high school history book, I came across a quote from John Carroll, the first bishop of the United Sates: “I have observed that when the ministers of religion leave the duties of their profession to take a busy part in political matters, they generally fall into contempt; and sometimes even bring discredit to the cause in whose service they are engaged.” I felt it was an astute observation and it so struck me that I ended up marking it so I could find it for later. I’m glad I did.
For, no more than a week afterwards, I watched an interview in which actress Jennifer Lawrence said that she was no longer going to speak out politically because she noticed it didn’t change people’s minds and she was worried that it was “turning people off to films and art that could change the world.” She was acknowledging that by making herself a political entity, she was turning people off from what she actually did. She was turning people off from the very fruits of her industry that might successfully change people’s hearts and minds.
A few more days ensued and I saw a video making the rounds on social media that the American Catholic bishops had put together condemning the current administration’s deportation of illegal immigrants. After watching the video and reading various reactions to it on social media, it occurred to me that Katniss was starting to get something very important that, apparently, our bishops are nowhere near discovering. Despite the fact that America’s first bishop discovered it over 250 years ago and wrote it down. And he probably wrote it down so that future bishops wouldn’t have to stumble around in the dark looking for it, only to have a Hollywood actress beat them to the find.
Perhaps the Catholic Church in America is turning people off from the fruits of its industry–eternal salvation–because it has become so political. This immigration video is a perfect example.
Though immigration happens to be a political issue, it is possible to discuss immigration without making it political. The bishops, however, chose to make it political, especially with the video’s timing. Immigration was a pretty darn big issue during the last administration as well and yet, no video from the bishops. In fact, some of the points discussed in this video –such as not having a just and orderly immigration system leading to immigrants facing trafficking and exploitation–exactly describes what was happening under the prior administration’s open border policy.
Further evidence that makes one suspect the video had political instead of pastoral motives presents itself when one finds out that the current administration cut off the USCCB’s funding for “refugee assistance programs” and the USCCB is currently suing the Federal government for reinstatement of said funds (for those who don’t know the acronym, the USCCB is, essentially, a union for Catholic bishops). This evidence seems to reflect that the bishops didn’t “feel the need to raise their voices” at the height of the open border chaos that led to trafficking, exploitation and 300,000 missing children, because they were being paid to participate in it; and it’s hard to argue against the very political nature of that situation.
The video also marginalizes the bishops’ own assigned flocks. Even looking at America’s immigration troubles through the lens of the fantasy the bishops present for us in which every person crossing over our border illegally is a good person who is 1. only coming here for a chance at a better life and, 2. plans on fully melting into American culture without causing any trouble, they completely ignore the ramifications of such a massive migration to the population already living in this country. The people in power opened up that border and let anyone and everyone into this country despite the dangers and suffering caused to the immigrants or to the American people. The calamity has been felt and suffered by both the immigrants and the natives. Even in the bishops’ wildest pro-open border dreams, one can still see–if one has spent any time outside of the chancery–that both the immigrants and the American population (specifically poorer Americans) are victims of difficult circumstances foisted upon them. Despite this, the bishops don’t mention the suffering of Americans at all. The people who are actually under their assigned pastoral care by accident of being in this country legally aren’t mentioned even once.
If I might offer a final proof that the American Catholic Church has become too political: practically the entire country now knows where Church leadership stands on the issue of immigration, but only 30% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence. That seems to suggest that “the ministers of religion left the duties of their profession to take a busy part in political matters.”
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of being political, as Jennifer Lawrence found out, is turning off half the country (or more) from everything one does or says. Or, as Bishop Carroll put it, “bringing discredit to the cause in whose services they are engaged.” Ironically, the cause in whose services the bishops are engaged is the very cause that would have formed up the hearts and minds of the lay faithful in such a way that the Bishops probably wouldn’t have felt the need to make the video in the first place. But here we are.
It would have been nice if instead of adding to the left/right binary, they could have added a universal (or Catholic) dimension to the discussion. Lawrence discovered that movie goers are put off by politics in their entertainment. I pray that one day, the bishops will figure out that the restless hearts of the world are put off by politics in Christ’s Church.
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