To the chagrin of perhaps many of the conservative audience this blog has left, I'm unable to disagree with Mark Shea here:
A Catholic who is sane looks at this and is glad that the Administration is doing the smart thing and calling in the largest charitable organization on planet earth to do one of the things it does best: offer works of mercy to desperate people. A Catholic driven mad by ideology forgets that the focus is on the desperate children and launches into foolish conspiracy theories, or terrors that “this might make Obama look good” or fantasies that the desperate children are part of a plot by George Soros to make conservatives look heartless, or suspicions that the Church agencies involved are complicit in a scheme to “liberalize” the Church or various other crazy blather that take our eyes off the fact that those children are Jesus Christ in desperate need of help.
Eyes on the prize. This is a chance for us as Catholics to bring glory to God by being there for the least of these. That’s all that matters.
Yes, there are some coming across who are criminal. Yes, some of these kids are sick, infested with scabies or worse. Yes, the Feds should be doing more to enforce existing law.
But no, I cannot ignore Catholic teaching on the dignity of every human being and the notion that in the least of these, there is Christ.
I cannot and call myself Christian. I cannot and call myself Catholic.
I cannot.
