Catholic News 2

Washington D.C., Jan 14, 2016 / 03:25 am (CNA).- A prominent proposal by GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump would ban Muslim immigrants from entering the U.S. and would monitor mosques in the country. 

The idea has garnered no shortage of publicity – or controversy. But religious freedom advocates say such measures could endanger the religious freedom of all faiths. 

“Our nation was founded by religious dissenters who fled statist persecution in Europe and ratified a First Amendment that guarantees the free exercise and free speech rights of all persons of faith – including Muslims,” Matthew Kacsmaryk, deputy general counsel at the Liberty Institute, told CNA. 

“An indiscriminate ban on all Muslims violates the very ‘first freedom’ principles that inspired dissident Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics to seek refuge in the new world,” he said. 

“Having once felt the sting of religious persecution in the United States, American Catholics understand that the majority can do great violence to the constitutional rights of an insular religious minority. Consequently, faithful Catholics should stand athwart any government policy that indiscriminately targets Muslims because they are Muslim.” 

Trump’s proposal comes after a string of terrorist attacks, including the Dec. 2, 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, California that left 14 dead and 22 more seriously injured.  

The San Bernardino shooters – Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik – opened fire at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center. They were later killed by police. The married couple pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on social media shortly before the attack. 

Farook, a U.S. citizen, and Malik, a Pakistan national, began plotting a terror attack before they were engaged and before Malik moved to the U.S. last year from Saudi Arabia on a K-1 fiancee visa, according to authorities. 

According to a 2012 U.S. Religion Census, Islam is the fastest growing religion in America, with numbers of Muslims in the U.S. more than doubling from 2000 to 2010. The Pew Research Center has estimated that the population of U.S. Muslims will more than double again over the next two decades, reaching 6.2 million in 2030. 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved funding to issue nearly 300,000 visas to immigrants from Muslim countries in 2016. 

In light of the terrorist attacks – both abroad and on U.S. soil – Trump suggested banning non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States. 

However, the proposal has drawn intense backlash, both from those concerned about its humanitarian effects on those trying to flee violent countries and those concerned with its effects on religious liberty.  

“The very idea is absurd,” Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Georgetown University Berkley Center, told CNA. “However, I believe that anyone whose profile suggests they are radicalized should be refused entry.”

“Religious freedom and national security overlap,” Farr stressed. “Advancing religious freedom abroad will increase U.S. national security by undermining religious extremism. The Obama administration sometimes gives lip service to that very important connection, but they have utterly failed to do anything about it.”

Supporters of Trump argue that the measure may be necessary for national security. FBI Director James Comey recently warned that there are at least 900 active ongoing investigations of ISIS terrorist plots with suspects in all 50 states. 

“Muslims should not be prohibited from entering the United States on a permanent basis but temporarily until the government gets its act together. No foreigner has a constitutional right to come to America,” said Jeffrey Lord, a CNN commentator and author of “What America Needs: The Case for Trump.”

“We need to fix our faulty government system that is allowing terrorists like Tashfeen Malik in,” he told CNA. “People should not go to an office party and then be shot senselessly and die. Trump’s policy simply makes sense and is not anti-immigrant.”

“All the signs were there with Malik and the Fort Hood shooter, but political correctness stood in the way of properly investigating these people,” said Lord, who formerly served as Ronald Reagan’s White House political director. “Now, many innocent Americans are dead.”

Tramp’s proposed policy does have legal precedent. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Navy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed several executive actions which prevented German, Japanese and Italian citizens from immigrating or traveling to America. The measures also authorized the surveillance of those allowed to remain in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the plenary power of Congress to regulate immigration. In 1973, it ruled in Kleindienst v. Mandel that the U.S. Attorney General has the right to refuse a person entry into the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. 

In that case, Dr. Ernest Mandel, a citizen of Belgium and a renowned Marxist scholar and journalist, was seeking a visa to speak at conferences and schools in the United States. He was denied entry under immigration law regarding “aliens who write or publish . . . the economic, international, and governmental doctrines of world communism or the establishment in the United States of a totalitarian dictatorship.”

According to the Supreme Court’s decision in Kleindienst v. Mandel, “the power to exclude aliens is ‘inherent in sovereignty, necessary for maintaining normal international relations and defending the country against foreign encroachments and dangers--a power to be exercised exclusively by the political branches of government . . . .’”

Howsoever, Kacsmaryk noted that while “the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the ‘plenary power’ of Congress to regulate immigration, it has never affirmed the categorical exclusion of persons based on religion.” 

“Because religion lies at the heart of the First Amendment Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses and is a protected class under several federal statutes, Congress should focus its immigration firepower on non-religious criteria that more closely correlate to terrorism,” he said.

In addition to banning Muslims entry into the United States, Trump is in favor of monitoring and closing down mosques with suspicious activities. There are more than 2,000 mosques in the country, most of which have been built in the last 30 years, according to a survey by Faith Communities Today. 

“Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it. A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" on Dec. 17.

“This is not about religious freedom, said Lord. “The FBI has investigated the Catholic Church during the pedophile scandal, as well as Protestant evangelicals for money laundering, and Jewish groups for illegal activity.”

“The U.S. government can investigate religious activists if they are breaking the law or there is a threat. In the 1950s, the FBI investigated the Italian mob and monitored Italian Americans,” said Lord. “You go where the problem is. You don’t say the mob is Italian so let’s investigate the Amish. You also don’t ignore a problem for fear of being called anti-immigrant.”

However, religious liberty advocates have warned that the measure could have a chilling effect on religious freedom in the country. They noted that the tables could easily be turned and another religion could find itself the subject of such scrutiny. 

“In principle, why not?” said Catholic University of America associate professor of theology Joseph Capizzi. “Once the government determines to screen people by religious affiliation – and not just by any religious affiliation, but one with over 1000 years of belief and practice and a billion or so followers, by what principle could it distinguish that faith from any other?”

“The only thing preventing that policy from identifying Catholics as subject to it is occasional: should the occasion arise because of some confrontation of Catholic doctrine with popular opinion, the policy could turn to Catholics as well,” he continued.

Capizzi told CNA that the proposal to monitor or close mosques “is misguided and a violation of religious freedom.” 

“If a mosque is fostering terrorism, one can make an argument for closing it down,” he said. “But as a general policy, it is bad to single out houses of worship of any religion. We cannot monitor or close down Catholic churches simply because a Catholic commits an act of violence.”

“There would have to be a viable threat and a direct connection to a particular religious leader or house of worship in order to act against it. Otherwise, this would violate the free exercise of religion, which our Constitution protects,” Capizzi stressed. 

Farr agreed that a justifiable reason must exist to monitor or close down mosques.

“It is a violation of religious freedom to monitor or close down a mosque unless there is probable cause to investigate a crime or proof that a crime is being committed,” Farr said. “I am a Catholic. If I believed a priest in my parish were preaching violence, I would not mind a whit if law enforcement personnel came and listened to his sermons.” 


Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran via www.shutterstock.com.

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Vatican City, Jan 14, 2016 / 05:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has sent a special message to the youth who will participate in the Jubilee of Boys and Girls in April, telling them the Holy Year is an opportunity to grow in holiness and mercy, so that they become Christians capable of making courageous decisions.

“Remain steadfast in the journey of faith, with firm hope in the Lord. This is the secret of our journey! He gives us the courage to swim against the tide,” the Pope said in his message to youth, published Jan. 14.

Francis told the youth to “pay attention,” because while going against the current is good for the heart, “we need courage to swim against the tide. Jesus gives us this courage!”

With Jesus “we can do great things,” he said, and encouraged the youth to commit themselves to great and important ideals.

“We Christians were not chosen by the Lord for little things; push onwards toward the highest principles. Stake your lives on noble ideals,” he said, repeating his appeal to the youth on whom he bestowed the sacrament of Confirmation in 2013.

Pope Francis’ message is aimed at youth ages 13-16, who are the primary protagonists in the Jubilee for Boys and Girls, which will be celebrated April 23-25 as part of the pontiff’s larger Jubilee of Mercy.

Youth who come on pilgrimage to Rome for the event will on the first day be able to have confession at St. Peter’s and pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, before processing to the tomb of St. Peter.

Day one will close with a youth rally, which will be followed by a Mass with Pope Francis inside St. Peter’s Basilica the next morning. The event will close with individual activities, as well as more visits to the Holy Door.

In his message to youth, Pope Francis encouraged youth to participate in the event, telling them that the Jubilee is “a year-long celebration, in which every moment becomes a chance for us to grow in holiness.”

“It is a time when we can discover that life together as brothers and sisters is like a great party, perhaps the most beautiful party we can imagine, the endless party that Jesus has taught us to celebrate by his Spirit.”

No one is excluded from this party, he said, adding that he is looking forward to seeing many youth in Rome for the April event.

Turning to the theme of the Holy Year, “Merciful Like the Father,” the Pope explained that being merciful means to grow in a love that is “courageous, generous and real,” while at the same time growing in both a physical and spiritual capacity.

As youth, “you are preparing to be Christians capable of making courageous choices and decisions, in order to build daily, even through little things, a world of peace,” he said, and encouraged them to be bold in making decisions contrary to what modern society tells us.

Francis then turned his attention to youth living in situations of war, poverty and loneliness, telling them to never lose hope.

“The Lord has a great dream which, with your help, he wants to come true!” he said, explaining that their peers who are better-off “have not forgotten you,” but are working to establish global peace and justice for everyone.

Rather than being taken in by all the messages of hatred and terror that surround us, it’s necessary to make new friends, the Pope said, encouraging them to give of their time and to always show concern toward those who ask for help.

“Be brave and go against the tide; be friends of Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace,” he said. “Everything in him speaks of mercy. Nothing in him is devoid of compassion.”

While not everyone can make it to Rome for the celebrations, everyone is invited to participate in the Jubilee for Youth and to celebrate in this moment of joy, even within their local dioceses, Francis said.

He told them that preparations for the event shouldn’t stop at just the banners, but they must also prepare their hearts and minds.

“Think carefully about the hope and desires you will hand over to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in the Eucharist which we will celebrate together,” he said, and told them to remember as they walk through the Holy Door that they are making a commitment.

“You are committing yourselves to grow in holiness and to draw nourishment from the Gospel and the Eucharist, the Word and the Bread of life, in order to help build a more just and fraternal world.”

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Washington D.C., Jan 14, 2016 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Church workers have to lead people toward Catholic teaching in their public lives, not away from it, the Archbishop of Washington has said. His comments follow the firing of a part-time church cantor after his D.C.-area parish learned he was in a same-sex marriage.

“When a person involved in ministerial activity offers a counter-witness to Catholic teaching by words or public conduct, however earnest they may be, experience shows that it can lead people away from the truth and otherwise have an adverse effect on our mission,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl said in a Dec. 31 blog post. “The Church not only must be free to then take corrective steps, it has an obligation in charity and truth to do so.”

He added: “no one can claim a right simultaneously to work for the Church and to work against her belief.”

“The Catholic faithful, and the other people that our ministries serve, have a right to the Gospel and to receive authentic Church teaching,” the cardinal continued. People are denied that right “either through explicit dissent, mis-catechesis or personal conduct that tends to draw people away from the communion of the Church.”

Jeffrey Higgins, 29, was for about one and a half years a part-time cantor and choir member at Mother Seton Catholic Church in Germantown, Maryland, 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. He led songs in public worship in the church sanctuary.

He had read and accepted the Washington archdiocese’s employment policies and code of conduct, which included requirements to act in a manner consistent “with the official teachings, doctrines, laws and policies of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Higgins said he was “shocked” when the parish's pastor, Father Lee Fangmeyer, asked him to resign his position Nov. 8 due to the discovery that he was in a same-sex marriage, the former church worker told ABC7 News of Washington, D.C.

“I told him I wouldn't resign, that I liked my job, that I was good at my job, and I didn't see the need to resign,” Higgins said. “He told me I'd been an asset to the music program at Mother Seton and that I'd be missed, but that I was terminated as of that moment.”

Cardinal Wuerl alluded to the case in his Dec. 31 blog post. He said that Catholic parishes, schools, and other entities, as well as their employees, have the task “to lead people to Jesus.”

“That purpose and task is challenged by a secular culture that is in contradiction to traditional concepts of marriage, family, the common good and objective right and wrong.”

The cardinal said the Church recognizes the need to grow in faith and closeness to God.

“Simply acting contrary to Church teaching on occasion would not preclude serving as a ministerial employee or volunteer,” he explained.

Acknowledging we are sinners admits a failure to live up to the truth, he said.

“On those occasions, we are expected to acknowledge our failings and seek to amend our lives in Christ,” Cardinal Wuerl added. “However, if one persists or effectively insists that they are right and the Church is wrong, in the face of such irreconcilable differences it is not discrimination or punishment to say that continued ministerial service is not possible.”

Continued service is “untenable” when conduct “might lead people astray regarding the Catholic faith.”

When Higgins first appealed his firing to the Archdiocese of Washington, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington Barry Knestout responded. The bishop sent a Dec. 7 letter noting that Higgins had signed the archdiocesan employment policy.

He said Higgins’ civil marriage was a public act “incompatible with a position as a liturgical minister in the Church.” Bishop Knestout emphasized that Higgins is still welcome in the Church.

“The issue, in this case, clearly became not the sexual preference of the music minister but his ability to publicly and authentically manifest the teaching of the Church,” the archdiocese told ABC7 News.

The dissenting Catholic group Dignity USA objected to Higgins’ firing. The LGBT activist group was a recipient of a $200,000 Arcus Foundation grant for a coalition “to support pro-LGBT faith advocates to influence and counter the narrative of the Catholic Church” and what the foundation grant listing described as “its ultra-conservative affiliates.”

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