{"id":14664,"date":"2014-04-02T01:01:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T06:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=14664"},"modified":"2014-04-02T12:12:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T17:12:39","slug":"cardinal-sean-omalley-releases-statement-on-usmexican-border-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2014\/04\/02\/cardinal-sean-omalley-releases-statement-on-usmexican-border-mass\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Se\u00e1n O'Malley's Homily at US\/Mexican Border Mass"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"border

Cardinal O’Malley celebrating mass on the US\/Mexican Border Photo: George Martel\/Boston Pilot<\/p><\/div>\n

Nogales, AZ–(RCAB\/Boston Pilot) On Tuesday, Cardinal Se\u00e1n O’Malley joined with his fellow bishops and more than 1,000 people to celebrate a Mass on the Border in Nogales, AZ to bring to the forefront the immigration issue.<\/p>\n

Please visit bostoncatholicphotos.com<\/a>\u00a0for photos from tuesday’s event.<\/p>\n

Following is the Cardinal’s Homily:<\/p>\n

USCCB Immigration Event
\nPhoenix\/Tucson
\nApril 1, 2014<\/p>\n

For 20 years I worked in Washington D.C. with immigrants from El
\nSalvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and from all over Latin America. \u00a0The
\nvast majority did not have the advantage of legal status. \u00a0Many came to
\nthe States in great part fleeing the violence of the civil wars in
\nCentral America.<\/p>\n

I often share the story of my first days at the \u2018Centro Cat\u00f3lico\u2019
\nwhen I was visited by a man form El Salvador who sat at my desk and
\nbursts into tears as he handed me a letter from his wife back in El
\nSalvador who remonstrated him for having abandoned her and their six
\nchildren to penury and starvation.<\/p>\n

When the man was able to compose himself, he explained to me that he
\ncame to Washington, like so many, because with the war raging in his
\ncountry it was impossible to sustain his family by farming. \u00a0So a coyote
\nbrought him to Washington where he shared a room with several other men
\nin similar circumstances. \u00a0He washed dishes in two restaurants, one at
\nlunchtime and one at dinnertime. \u00a0He ate the leftover food on the dirty
\nplates so as to save money. \u00a0He walked to work so as not to spend any
\nmoney on transportation, so that he could send all the money he earned
\nback to his family. \u00a0He said he sent money each week, but now after six
\nmonths, his wife had not received a single letter from him and accused
\nhim of abandoning her and the children. \u00a0I asked him if he sent check or
\nmoney orders. \u00a0He told me that he sent cash. \u00a0He said: \u201cEach week I
\nput all the money I earn into an envelope with the amount of stamps that
\nI was told and I put it in that blue mailbox on the corner.\u201d \u00a0I looked
\nout the window and I could see the blue mailbox, the problem was it was
\nnot a mailbox at all, but a fancy trash bin.<\/p>\n

This incident helped me to glimpse the hardships and humiliations of so
\nmany immigrants who come to the States fleeing from poverty and
\noppression, seeking a better life for their children. \u00a0Sadly enough many
\nimmigrants spend years without the opportunity to see their loved ones.
\nHow many rural areas are peopled by grandparents taking care of little
\ngrandchildren because the parents are off in the United States working
\nto send money back home.<\/p>\n

Many of the priests and bishops with me have much more experience of the
\nborder. \u00a0However I did bury one of my parishioners in the desert near
\nCiudad Ju\u00e1rez who was murdered there. \u00a0We know that the border is lined
\nwith unmarked graves of thousands who die alone and nameless.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Gospel begins with a certain lawyer who is trying to test
\nJesus. \u00a0The lawyer is an expert in the laws, but he is hostile to Jesus;
\nhe seems to want to know how to attain eternal life, but his real intent
\nis to best Jesus in a public debate. \u00a0Jesus responds to the man\u2019s
\nquestion by asking \u201cWhat stands written in the law?\u201d \u00a0The lawyer
\nanswers artfully with the great commandment: love of God above all else
\nand love of neighbor as oneself.<\/p>\n

Jesus says \u201cYou answered correctly. \u00a0Do this and you will live.\u201d
\nGod\u2019s love and love of neighbor is the key to a good life. \u00a0The
\namazing thing about the Gospels is how love of God and love of neighbor
\nare intimately connected.<\/p>\n

The lawyer is a little embarrassed so he asks another question to appear
\nintelligent and perceptive. \u00a0The question is so important: \u201cWho is my
\nneighbor?\u201d \u00a0This wonderful question affords Jesus the occasion to give
\nus one of the great parables of the New Testament \u2013 the Parable of the
\n\u201cGood Samaritan\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 day the term \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d was never used by the
\nchosen people. \u00a0Indeed it would seem a contradiction of terms. \u00a0How
\ncould someone be both a Samaritan and good?<\/p>\n

The Samaritans were the despised foreigners, heretics and outcasts. \u00a0Yet
\nJesus shows us how that foreigner, that Samaritan, becomes the
\nprotagonist, the hero who saves one of the native sons who is rescued
\nnot by his fellow countryman and coreligionists but by a stranger, an
\nalien, a Samaritan.<\/p>\n

Who is my neighbor? \u00a0Jesus changed the question from one of legal
\nobligation (who deserves my love) to one of gift giving (to whom can I
\nshow myself a neighbor), and of this the despised Samaritan is the moral
\nexemplar.<\/p>\n

Jesus is showing us that people who belong to God\u2019s covenant
\ncommunity, show love that is not limited by friendship and propinquity
\nbut a love that has a universal scope and does not look for recompense.<\/p>\n

The parables function either to instruct or to shock. \u00a0This parable was
\nto jolt peoples\u2019 imagination, to provoke, to challenge. \u00a0The usual
\ncriteria for evaluating a person\u2019s worth are replaced by that of
\nunselfish attention to human need wherever one encounters it.<\/p>\n

We come to the desert today because it is the road to Jericho; it is
\ntraveled by many trying to reach the metropolis of Jerusalem. \u00a0We come
\nhere today to be a neighbor and to find a neighbor in each of the
\nsuffering people who risk their lives and at times lose their lives in
\nthe desert.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis encourages us to go to the periphery to seek our neighbor
\nin places of pain and darkness. \u00a0We are here to discover our own
\nidentity as God\u2019s children so that we can discover who our neighbor
\nis, who is our brother and sister.<\/p>\n

As a nation of immigrants we should feel a sense of identification with
\nother immigrant groups seeking to enter our country.<\/p>\n

The United States is a nation of immigrants. \u00a0Only the indigenous Native
\nAmericans are not from somewhere else. \u00a0So the word of God reminds us
\ntoday that our God wants justice for the orphan and the widow and our
\nGod loves the foreigners, the aliens and reminds us that we were aliens
\nin Egypt.<\/p>\n

Because of the potato famine and political oppression, my people came
\nfrom Ireland. \u00a0Thousands upon thousands perished of starvation. \u00a0On the
\ncoffin ships that brought the Irish immigrants, one third of the
\npassengers starved. \u00a0The sharks followed the ships waiting to devour the
\nbodies of those \u201cburied at sea\u201d. \u00a0I suspect that only the Africans
\nbrought on the slave ships had a worse passage.<\/p>\n

Frank McCourt of Angelas\u2019 Ashes fame wrote a play called: \u201cThe
\nIrish\u2026 how they got that way.\u201d \u00a0In one of the scenes the Irish
\nimmigrants are reminiscing saying: \u201cWe came to America because we
\nthought the streets were paved in gold. \u00a0And when we got here we
\ndiscovered the streets were not paved in gold, in fact they were not
\npaved at all, and we found out we had to pave them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hard work and sacrifices of so many immigrant peoples is the secret
\nof the success of this country. \u00a0Despite the xenophobic ranting of a
\nsegment of the population, our immigrant population contributes mightily
\nto the economy and well being of the United States.<\/p>\n

Here in the desert of Arizona, we come to mourn the countless immigrants
\nwho risk their lives at the hands of the coyotes and the forces of
\nnature to come to the United States. \u00a0Every year four hundred bodies are
\nfound here at the border, bodies of men, women and children seeking to
\nenter the United States. \u00a0Those are only the bodies that are found. \u00a0As
\nthe border crossings become more difficult, people take greater risks
\nand more are perishing.<\/p>\n

Last year about 25,000 children, mostly from Central America arrived in
\nthe US, unaccompanied by an adult. \u00a0Tens of thousands of families are
\nseparated in the midst of migration patterns. \u00a0More than 10 million
\nundocumented immigrants are exposed to exploitation and lack access to
\nbasic human services, and are living in constant fear. \u00a0They contribute
\nto our economy by their hard work, often by contributing billions of
\ndollars each year to the social security fund and to Medicare programs
\nthat will never benefit them.<\/p>\n

The author of Hebrews urges us to practice hospitality, for through it
\nsome have unknowingly entertained angels. \u00a0He urges us to be mindful of
\nprisoners as if sharing their imprisonment. \u00a0We have presently over
\n30,000 detainees, most of whom have no criminal connections. \u00a0The cost
\nof these detentions is about $2 billion a year.<\/p>\n

The system is broken and is causing untold suffering and a tenable waste
\nof resources, human and material.<\/p>\n

We find in those prisoners, neighbors, fellow human beings who are
\nseparated from their families and communities. \u00a0The sheer volume of the
\ncases has led to many due process violations and arbitrary detentions.<\/p>\n

At Lampedusa Pope Francis warned of the globalization of indifference.
\nPope Francis, speaking at the borders of Europe, not a desert, but a
\nsea, said: \u201cWe have lost a sense of responsibility for our brothers
\nand sisters. \u00a0We have fallen into the hypocrisy of the Priest and Levite
\nwhom Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our
\nbrother half dead on the side of the road and perhaps we say to
\nourselves: \u2018Poor soul\u2019 and then go our way. \u00a0It is not our
\nresponsibility, and with that we feel reassured, assuaged. \u00a0The culture
\nof comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive
\nto the cries of other people living in a soap bubble, indifference to
\nothers.\u201d (burbujas, pompas de jab\u00f3n)<\/p>\n

Our country has been the beneficiary of so many immigrant groups that
\nhad the courage and the fortitude to come to America. \u00a0They came fleeing
\nhorrific conditions and harboring a dream of a better life for the
\nchildren. \u00a0They were some of the most industrious, ambitious and
\nenterprising citizens of their own countries and brought enormous energy
\nand good will to their new homeland. \u00a0Their hard work and sacrifices
\nhave made this country great.<\/p>\n

Often these immigrants have been met with suspicion and discrimination.
\nThe Irish were told \u201cthey need not apply\u201d; our ethnicity and
\nreligion made us undesirable. \u00a0But America at its best is not the
\nbigotry and xenophobia of the no nothings, but the generous welcome of
\nthe New Colossus, that mighty woman with a Torah, the Statue of Liberty,
\nthe Mother of Exiles who proclaims to the world:<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep, ancient lands, your storied pomp,\u201d cries she with silent
\nlips, \u201cGive me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to
\nbreathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. \u00a0Send these,
\nthe homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden
\ndoor!\u201d (Emma Lazarus)<\/p>\n

We must be vigilant that that lamp continues to burn brightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nogales, AZ–(RCAB\/Boston Pilot) On Tuesday, Cardinal Se\u00e1n O’Malley joined with his fellow bishops and more than 1,000 people to celebrate a Mass on the Border in Nogales, AZ to bring to the forefront the immigration issue. Please visit bostoncatholicphotos.com\u00a0for photos…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9791],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14664"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14672,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14664\/revisions\/14672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}