General News | Jesuit Social Research Institute

Catholic immigrants didn’t make it on their own. They shouldn’t expect others to.

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The Washington Post, April 18, 2017

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By Una Cadegan
Recently, the results of the American National Election Survey (ANES) were released, showing troubling results: Convictions about the perceived failures of particular racial groups were a more certain predictor of votes than income inequality or authoritarianism. Specifically, the ANES found that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/04/17/racism-motivated-trump-voters-more-than-authoritarianism-or-income-inequality/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.3826b3bc0ed0" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(25, 85, 165); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); zoom: 1; font-size: inherit; margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 1.8em;">President Trump’s voters</a> tended to agree more than past Republican voters with the notion that “Italians, Irish” and other immigrants “overcame prejudice and worked their way up,” and that “Blacks should do the same without any special favors.”
There are plenty of reasons to object to this way of thinking. But foremost among them is this: Many of those immigrants presumed to have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps without “any special favors” — especially primarily Catholic immigrants such as those from Italy and Ireland — relied upon government spending to help them get a start in the United States. For voters convinced of the myth of immigrant self-reliance, the story of these Catholic immigrants is worth considering.
In the final decades of the 19th century, the number of Catholics immigrating to the United States began increasing at a rapid rate. Catholics constituted about 13 percent of the population in 1900; by 1998, they were about 23 percent. The rise in the percentage of Catholics was not a smooth curve — there was a sharp jump between 1900 and 1920, a couple of decades of leveling off, and another sharp jump between 1940 and about 1970. These variations are not hard to explain: The first wave, from southern and eastern Europe, was cut off by the start of the Great War in 1914; when it began again at the end of the war, it was cut off by intentionally anti-Catholic legislation passed by Congress in 1921 and 1924. And so the large number of Catholics who had immigrated before the war assimilated as a cohort, and as a cohort contributed to the baby boom that took off after the Second World War.
In both eras of significant growth in the Catholic population, Catholics arriving in America benefited from great expansions in government intervention and government power. In the Progressive Era at the century’s beginning, both local and national government took increasing responsibility for urban infrastructure, public health and education, among other things — commitments that helped establish the stability necessary for the upward mobility of these immigrants over the subsequent generations. Good sanitation, municipal garbage collection, public schools, pure-food-and-drug laws and child labor laws all ensured that these newcomers could acquire stable footing in their new homes. In that way, large government investments helped facilitate the transition from immigrant generation to American-born and -raised.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/18/catholic-immigrants-didnt-make-it-on-their-own-they-shouldnt-expect-others-to/?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.4a6c0e8106e8">MORE>></a>

Date

Mon, 04/17/2017 - 20:00

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IT IS TIME TO AFFIRM LIFE WITHOUT EXCEPTION: THE DEATH PENALTY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE

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(STATEMENT ISSUED APRIL 18, 2017)

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LOUISIANA CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
Three centuries ago in the year 1722 our state of Louisiana performed its first recorded legal execution. Since that act we have dealt with this stain of the death penalty carried out by our state in the names of its citizens. This current legislative session allows us in a renewed way to move beyond this dark reality of our state’s history and toward a state that affirms life without exception. Therefore the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops unequivocally supports both Senator Claitor’s SB 142 and Representatives Landry and Pylant’s HB 101. 
Saint Pope John Paul II, in his historic papal encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), discussed at great length the distinction between a culture of life and a culture of death. In truth, our culture oftentimes mirrors a culture of death rather than one of life. It is clear that the use of the death penalty does not serve as an instrument to address the deep-rooted issues that are the cause of widespread violent crime within our society. Instead it is a "solution" that seduces us into believing that the taking of a life solved a problem, and in fact forces us further into a culture of death. 
Saint Pope John Paul II proclaims "that not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, as God himself pledges to guarantee this. For this reason whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself" (Evangelium Vitae, #9). In making this statement, Saint Pope John Paul II reminds us of our call to the foundational theme of Catholic Social Teaching–The Life and Dignity of the Human Person–and that we are to uphold human dignity which does not discriminate between the innocent and guilty. Given that life is valued above and beyond all else, we must advocate for an alternative to the death penalty. 
Strong statements of Pope Francis echoes the foundational principles laid out by Saint Pope John Paul II’s, Evangelium Vitae. In a 2015 letter to the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, our Holy Father stated that the death penalty "is an offense against the inviolability of life and dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society...It does not render justice to victims, but rather fosters vengeance. For the rule of law, the death penalty represents a failure, as it obliges the state to kill in the name of justice. Justice can never be wrought by killing a human being." To this end, we must ask ourselves whether or not there is vengeance in our hearts. In many ways that which we fear–violence itself–has forced us to become proponents of violence. Just as the pursuit of justice should never be perverted by vengeance, fear should never darken the ever-shining light of life. 
We remain deeply aware of the pain and grief that victims suffer, especially those who have lost a loved one through the crime of murder or crimes of violence. We pledge to deepen our commitment to persons who have suffered such violence, anguish and pain. Our opposition to the death penalty is not intended in any way to diminish what victims and their families have suffered. On the contrary it is a statement which affirms the lives of those lost and the ultimate value of life in general. The stark reality is that capital punishment fails to bring back life that has been lost. It does not provide healing, reconciliation, or even peace to those impacted. Our merciful heavenly Father does provide such things to us when we turn to Him and ask for his love to be poured out onto us. 
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls us to recognize the balance that must exist between a state which needs to protect its citizenry as well as the appropriateness of the punishment it uses to do so. "If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means...Today,...the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent" (CCC 2267). We believe that in Louisiana, a just alternative to the death penalty already exists. In 1979, Louisiana adopted a statute requiring all persons convicted of first degree murder to serve a life sentence without benefit of parole if they were not executed for such crimes. Therefore life imprisonment is the appropriate alternative given that it reflects a culture of life by valuing life itself. 
The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops asks all men and women of good faith, especially those members of the Louisiana legislature, to search their heart in an effort to seek mercy and love to support the repeal of the death penalty and aid in building a culture of life. We renew the call issued in our 1994 statement Violence in Our Society: Death is Not the Answer. "We must believe in the all-powerful redemptive love of God which can change hearts, convert people, and renew all things...We must be a people who see the value of a human life that others might think to be worthless. We must be a people who give praise to the God of all possibilities whose powerful Spirit of Love can renew the face of the earth." The time is upon us to affirm life without exception here within our great state of Louisiana. 
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Date

Mon, 04/17/2017 - 20:00

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Sins of the Past and Hope for the Future

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The Jesuit Post, April 18, 2017

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I knew from the playful twinkle in her eyes, the seriousness on the rest of her face, and the way she said “long” that she didn’t mean her mother had been the parish secretary before her. She meant her family had been working for the Church for a very, very long time — and not by choice.</div>
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I had just met a descendant of slaves. I, a Maryland Province Jesuit and alumnus of Georgetown University, was standing face-to-face with a woman whose biological forebears were the slaves of my spiritual forebears. I don’t think my jaw dropped, but my heart certainly fell.</div>
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<a href="https://thejesuitpost.org/2017/04/sins-of-the-past-and-hope-for-the-future/">FULL ARTICLE>></a></div>

Date

Mon, 04/17/2017 - 20:00

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Easter Monday: Duty of Solidarity

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Ignatian Solidarity Network

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By Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ 
To develop the “duty of solidarity,” Saint Pope John Paul II underscored the urgency of connecting action for justice to faith.  For him, solidarity was the structural response demanded by Gospel love. Solidarity, as a social principle, involved fundamental economic and social changes.  What does this solidarity require?  
 
John Paul’s answer connects us directly to the preferential love of the poor, a theme we have heard anew from Pope Francis, or, as John Paul describes them, “God’s beloved poor”:
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It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a “virtue,” is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual because we are all really responsible for all. [Solicitudo, 40, emphasis added]
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So, as we reflect this Easter Monday on social and political realities of our community, country, and world, it is not enough to bemoan this or that action by others.  We have to make our own the “firm and persevering determination” to act on behalf of others in the interest of the common good.
<a href="https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2017/04/17/duty-of-solidarity/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-pug">MORE>></a>

Date

Sun, 04/16/2017 - 20:00

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Wayfaring Spirit: Welcoming the Stranger in Xenophobic Times

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Are we still a nation of immigrants?

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by Edward B. “Ted” Arroyo, S.J., Ph. D.
“Immigration policy should be generous; 
it should be fair; it should be flexible. 
With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, 
with clean hands and a clear conscience.”                   
― John F. Kennedy, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1423547">A Nation of Immigrants</a>
            The Christian season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday, this year at the start of March. It commemorates God’s people’s 40 years of wandering in the desert and Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. In this same season we are witnessing an explosion of Xenophobia in our country. Although, as President Kennedy wrote, the United States is a “nation of immigrants,” memories tend to become short when, generations after arrival on these shores, we may be tempted to distance ourselves from our wandering, wayfaring roots as people on the move.
            For Christians, Lent is a time of movement into the desert for quiet listening, reflection and encounter, and a time to examine our demons and confront them for growth in the good spirit. In our Jesuit tradition, “examen” means taking some “desert time” for discernment about our own battles with evil, a time to contemplate our own thoughts, desires, and deeds, a time to pray and learn in the desert and look forward to a greater future: ad majorem dei gloriam (AMDG) (For the Greater Glory of God).
            As our March reflection, JSRI offers this Xenophobia Examen as a faith resource for discovering and countering such anti-immigrant temptations on our own journeys through the desert this Lenten season so as to move along “with clean hands and a clear conscience.”  Such examens could be done personally in private and also in a group context. Some Bible passages might be helpful resources, such as Exodus 16, Psalm 51, and Mark 1:1-13.
            Here we propose in outline form a process of examen.         
Presence
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Come to a place/time of quiet</li>
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Take a relaxing posture</li>
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In the silence, ruminate on a word or phrase, maybe from a bible passage, such as the ones above, or “my father was a wandering Aramean.”</li>
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Express your personal prayer for wisdom in your own desert journey.</li>
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Exploration:
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Where and when have I encountered the stranger, or migrants in my own life?</li>
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What differences did I notice: cultural differences? skin color? other bodily features? dress? language?</li>
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How did I deal with this encounter? What feelings surfaced? What assumptions might lie underneath? What did I think? How did I judge</li>
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How did I act or not act in response to this encounter? Attitude, body movement/language, engagement, or avoidance? Listening or shutting them off? Welcoming or distancing? Were there any mutual “gifts” shared and received?</li>
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Celebration
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How might God have been present in this encounter?</li>
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How might we celebrate an exchange of diverse gifts in such encounters?</li>
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Looking Ahead
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How might I welcome others in the future?</li>
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How can I foster a culture of welcoming in my local situation?</li>
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How can we acknowledge and celebrate the gifts shared by people on the move?</li>
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What public advocacy might help?</li>
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In addition to insights you might gather from this examen, a wealth of resources for healing Xenophobia can be found on the internet, for example:
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<a href="https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2017/02/28/the-letter-below-was-distributed-to-priests-of-the-archdiocese-on-february-28-2017">Cardinal Cupich’s recent letter on this topics</a></li>
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<a href="http://www.caritas.org.nz/system/files/SJW%202016%20All%20Resources_1.pdf">Caritas New Zealand’s many educational resources</a></li>
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And, of course, <a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/migration">JSRI’s website resources on migration</a></li>
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Fr. Arroyo was the founding director of JSRI and is now a JSRI Associate. He is currently a retreat director at the White House Jesuit Retreat Center outside St. Louis.  Cf. <a href="http://www.whretreat.org/">http://www.whretreat.org/</a>
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Date

Wed, 03/22/2017 - 20:00

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Louisiana Criminal Justice Reform

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Justice Reinvestment Task Force Report, March 2017

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Louisiana’s Justice Reinvestment Task Force was created to study the state’s criminal justice system and recommend strategic changes to get more public safety for each dollar spent. The inter-branch, bipartisan panel of experts found that, with the highest imprisonment rate in the United States, annual corrections spending at two-thirds of a billion dollars, and high recidivism rates, Louisiana’s taxpayers are not getting a good public safety return on investment.
Examining practices in states like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and others that have adopted data-driven policy changes, the task force now recommends that Louisiana lawmakers adopt a comprehensive set of reforms to improve the performance of its criminal justice system. The reforms would ensure consistency in sentencing, focus prison beds on those who pose a serious threat to public safety, strengthen community supervision, clear away barriers to successful reentry, and reinvest a substantial portion of the savings into evidence-backed programs and prison alternatives and services that support victims of crime.
<a href="http://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Issues/Criminal-Justice/Justice-Reinvestment-Task-Force-Report_2017.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(217, 155, 37);" target="_blank">Click here to read the task force's full report.</a>

Date

Sun, 03/19/2017 - 20:00

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Lower-Income Families See Healthcare Costs Soar in House Repeal Bill

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[Families USA, March 2017]

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Date

Mon, 03/13/2017 - 20:00

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Statement of the bishops of the border between Texas and Northern Mexico

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“The cry of Christ in the voice of the migrant moves us”

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The cry of Christ in the voice of the migrant moves us
1. We greet you joyfully from the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas. We speak on behalf of the bishops, priests, religious, and committed lay persons who are participating in the biannual meeting of the Tex-Mex Border Bishops. For this meeting we have also invited representatives from other border dioceses between the United States and Mexico.
2. We began these biannual meetings in 1986 as an expression of the communion of the Universal Church. The primary concern in all these years has been to address the life and pastoral needs of our migrant brothers and sisters.
3. In this difficult moment in our history we hear the cry of our migrant brothers and sisters, in whose voices we hear the voice of Christ Himself.
4. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, as immigrants and refugees, sought a place to live and work, hoping for a compassionate human response. Today this history repeats itself; this morning we visited detention centers and respite centers for mothers and their adolescent and minor children traveling with them. Centers like these have been described as places of intolerable and inhumane conditions. There we heard the gospel call: “Because I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was hungry and you gave me food…” (Mt 25:35-36).
5. Over the years we have seen firsthand the suffering that is brought about by a broken immigration system caused by political structures and economic conditions that result in threats, deportations, impunity, and extreme violence. This situation occurs in relation to immigration both between Central America and Mexico and between Mexico and the United States.
6. We have seen the pain, the fear, and the anguish suffered by the persons who have come to us and who have to live among us in the shadows of our society. Many have been exploited in their workplace, have lived under the constant threat of deportation, and have suffered the fear of possible separation from their families and friends.
7. This reality is made evident today as we consider the measures taken by civil authorities. We can sense the pain of the separation of families, loss of employment, persecutions, discrimination, expressions of racism, and unnecessary deportations that paralyze the development of persons in our societies and the development of our nations, leaving them empty and without hope. 
[...]
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Statement of the bishops of the border between Texas and Northern Mexico.pdf">FULL STATEMENT>></a>

Date

Mon, 03/06/2017 - 19:00

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Florida Catholic Day at the Capitol

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April 4-5, 2017

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Make the Trip to Catholic Days at the Capitol and Make a Difference</h2>
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Each year Catholics from around the state gather in Tallahassee to participate in Catholic Days at the Capitol. This two-day event provides the opportunity to put into action our faith's call to political responsibility and allows us to strengthen the presence of our Catholic values in the public square. By joining with Floridians who share our faith to advocate for laws that protect and defend human life and dignity, we can give a voice to some of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in our state and help promote the common good for all of Florida's residents. 
 
Catholic Days activities include:
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A legislative briefing on policy issues affecting human life and dignity</li>
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Pre-scheduled meetings with lawmakers</li>
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A luncheon for Catholic Days participants, Florida's bishops and legislators</li>
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Group photos of each diocesan delegation with their bishop</li>
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Tours of the current and historic capitol buildings</li>
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The opportunity to view the legislative process in action during committee meetings or floor sessions</li>
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Annual Red Mass of the Holy Spirit celebrated by the bishops of Florida to pray for those working in the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government</li>
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<a href="https://flaccb.org/documents/2017/3/2017ParticipantsSchedule.pdf" style="color: rgb(134, 10, 30);">Participants schedule of events</a>
 
<a href="https://flaccb.org/cdac">MORE INFORMATION>></a>
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Date

Thu, 03/02/2017 - 19:00

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Affordable Care Act Memorial

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Missed the ACA Memorial? Watch personal testimonies about the importance of keeping the ACA. Video Credit: Our Revolution- New Orleans

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Date

Thu, 02/16/2017 - 19:00

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