PhotoCardinal O'Connor's Homily




Welcome the Stranger

Cardinal states reasons to open hearts, minds to immigrants

This is the text of Cardinal O'Connor's homily at Sunday Mass April 18.

Yesterday afternoon we had a ceremony in the cathedral that we have each year that fills everyone present with a great deal of joy, a ceremony in which those couples who have been married 50 or more years renew their marriage vows. We had some 450 such couples yesterday. It was a very touching ceremony. Each couple comes up and shakes hands with the Archbishop of New York and is given a certificate after renewing their marriage vows. As the couples came up, I noted the names of each on a card given to me, and I was again astonished at the great number who are either immigrants themselves or families of immigrants. Possibly 60 percent or more were of Italian background, others of German, Slovak, Polish, Irish and other nationalities and ethnic backgrounds.

Knowing that today I was going to be talking about immigrants and refugees, I could not begin to reflect on the tremendous contributions that all of these couples have made to our society, whatever their origin; not only the contributions that they have made, but the example that they give in a country in which marriage has been torn to shreds. In many, many cases these individuals are sacrificing themselves for each other and for their children for a half century or more. What would we do without them?

In reflecting on this, and again on the fact that I would be discussing immigrants today, I turn to an historian who wrote, "Once I thought to write a history of immigrants in America, then I discovered that the immigrants were American history," one might say are American history. Not a single person in this cathedral came over on the Mayflower. Every one of us here, everyone who is a citizen today, is a descendant, however far back, of someone who emigrated from another country and immigrated here. After the culmination of the famines in Ireland in 1850, for example, huge numbers of Irish came here, and we could so trace the origins of so many, many other nationalities.

When I therefore spoke with the priests of the archdiocese and asked that each would preach today, if possible, in his individual parish on the plight of immigrants and, most particularly, of refugees, I did so not specifically to plead that our laws would be changed or that better opportunity would be given to refugees--certainly we would love to see that happen--but that Catholics of every origin open their hearts and their minds. So often we feel put upon by refugees. So often we can look at them not only with contempt but with fear that they are taking jobs, welfare funds and so on. Often the story is quite different.

I read a portion of the letter I sent to our priests:

"I am sincerely concerned about the tremendous numbers of immigrants among us who may escape our attention, particularly if they are undocumented and fearful. Whatever we can do to remind them that they are as sacred to the Church as is every other individual, that alone might prove a real comfort. If we can prudently do more, especially by helping any of our parishioners who may be prejudiced against immigrants to remember that all of us are immigrants in one way or another, that, too, would be most helpful."

Most official publications, for example, show that the Catholic population of the Archdiocese of New York is some 2.3 million, which is truly ridiculous. It is estimated that at this very moment we have at least 300,000 Mexican immigrants in our midst. This is a brand-new phenomenon. When I came here as archbishop 15 years ago, there were very few Mexican immigrants. It is estimated that we have that same number of Haitians here, so many of them Catholic. If we're able to identify, if we're able to do a proper census, our numbers would be almost certainly 3 million to 3.5 million Catholics or more. And we must provide for them. That is a grave responsibility.

Now we have the poignancy of the immigrant, the refugee situation, highlighted because of Kosovo. There are probably few of us here who haven't seen on television the truly heartbreaking presentations of those who have been forced out of their own land and, in many cases, haven't the slightest idea of where they are going. Their property has been destroyed. They have no homes. They have been separated from one another in a great number of cases. They are refugees who, in some country, will become immigrants; please God, a great number of them here in the United States. How are they to be treated? As strangers in our midst?

In 1979 our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, made his first visit here to New York. In Yankee Stadium he said:

"We cannot stand idly by, enjoying our own riches and freedom, if, in any place, the Lazarus of the 20th century stands at our doors...And so, in the name of the solidarity that binds us all together in a common human person: the rich man and the Lazarus are both human beings, both of them equally created in the image and likeness of God...."

In 1998 in his work on labor, our Holy Father said:

"Catholics have an obligation to pressure their lawmakers to respect the rights of immigrants as well as to provide them with the welcome and assistance they need."

In 1995 our Holy Father was here again and in Newark, N.J., he reminded all of us:

"Quite close to the shores of New Jersey, there rises a universally known landmark which stands as an enduring witness to the American tradition of welcoming the stranger, and which tells us something important about the kind of nation America has aspired to be. It is the Statue of Liberty, with its celebrated poem, 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me.' Is present-day America becoming less sensitive, less caring toward the poor, the weak, the stranger, the needy? It must not! Today, as before, the United States is called to be a hospitable society, a welcoming culture. If America were to turn in on itself, would this not be the beginning of the end of what constitutes the very essence of the 'American experience'?"

Even more recently, in February 1999, the pope issued his message for World Migration Day.

"Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"The Jubilee which we are rapidly approaching is an extraordinary moment of grace and reconciliation. In a very particular way it also involves the world of migrants, because of the close similarities between their condition and that of believers: 'The whole of the Christian life,' I wrote in the Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente" ["The Coming Third Millennium"], 'is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father' (n. 49).... [We are all on that pilgrimage and we are on it together, regardless of our backgrounds.]

"By her nature, the Church is in solidarity with the world of migrants who, with their variety of languages, races, cultures and customs, remind her of her own condition as a people on pilgrimage from every part of the earth to their final homeland. This vision helps Christians to reject all nationalistic thinking and to avoid narrow ideological categories."

Our Holy Father goes on, then he adds:

"[The question of immigrants] is made more critical by the current globalization of trade and the economy, involving relations between the world's states and regions. Lest the imbalance between rich and poor nations become irreversible, with tragic consequences for all humanity, the biblical precept must be translated today into concrete and effective forms leading to an appropriate review of the poor countries' indebtedness to wealthy nations."

In the past I raised a question about immigration, "Who Is My Neighbor?" This is what I wrote in Catholic New York.

"Few classes of immigrants to these shores, except those who arrived aboard the Mayflower, have escaped contempt. Who doesn't know the labels given in the past to Italians, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Irish, Jews, Filipinos, Hispanics, Chinese, Japanese and countless others, each in turn. Even a passing acquaintance with the early history of New York City gets the blood boiling in anyone with a shred of decency. Are we again in grave danger of repeating some of our historic outrages toward immigrants?" [It seems to me, too frequently we are.]

The greatest number of immigrants among us today are, of course, Hispanics, Latinos. But they are being seconded now by those coming from the East, the Filipinos, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Chinese, the Japanese. Why do they come? They come for a whole variety of reasons. But it is for each of us to look at each individual as sacred, made in the image and likeness of Almighty God.

We have Masses in this archdiocese every Sunday in 30 different languages. This shows what a polyglot we truly are. Should we say to those who speak only Portuguese from Brazil, "No, we can not provide for you. Go back home"? Should we say to those who speak only Japanese or Vietnamese or Korean, those who speak only Spanish, "We can not provide for you"? Of course not. We are one body, one body in Christ. The Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. What does Catholic mean? It means, of course, universal, with no distinctions.

Often it is suggested that immigrants cost us so much, they raise our taxes so severely, they take our jobs. Hence I wrote in my column.

"More than 85 percent of immigrants come to the United States legally, 72 percent of them to join close family members. Immigrants, in fact, pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Legal and undocumented immigrants combined pay some $70.3 billion per year in taxes, while receiving $42.9 billion in such services as education and public assistance.

"Perhaps most shocking of all for those repelled by the alleged laziness of immigrants and their being a burden on the welfare rolls is that working-age immigrants use welfare at a lower ratio, 3.9 percent, than Americans born here, at 4.2 percent. Do immigrants automatically destroy neighborhoods? The National Immigration Forum asserts the contrary about New York. 'City planners say immigrants brought indirect urban renewal, and that without immigration New York would have about 1 million fewer people and the kind of derelict, abandoned neighborhoods plaguing (certain) other major centers....' [These have been in many, many cases vastly improved because of immigrants.]...

"Would it be too much to ask in the name of basic human decency, that perhaps a year from now [during the Jubilee Year, when no particular major elections are taking place] that responsible authorities at each level of government significantly delay or even suspend the application of the more draconian measures in recently approved legislation?"

Would it destroy this country if, for the Jubilee Year, we granted amnesty to all refugees here? Would it be possible for the Jubilee Year to give everyone green cards so that people could enjoy a decent level of income instead of the some $8,000-income received by those without green cards--far, far below the starvation level?

It seems to me that today's Gospel [Lk. 24:13-35] is particularly appropriate for our reflection on immigrants and refugees. It is a very beautiful Gospel about the disciples who were going from Jerusalem to the little town of Emmaus. They were profoundly sad, melancholy, grieving over the crucifixion and death of Christ, the shattering of all their hopes. Then Christ joined them. But we are told in the Gospel, "They were restrained from recognizing him." That is a very, very poignant point.

Then Christ explained to them what had happened, and how his crucifixion and death were a fulfillment of all of the prophecies, those same prophecies that said that he would rise again. We are told once more in a very special line, "By now they were near the village to which they were going, and he acted as if he were going farther. But they pressed him." He waited until they invited him to come in and break bread with them; only for that reason did he do so. When he did, we are told, "They recognized him in the breaking of the bread."

We have so many, many people who want to come to our shores for bread, for survival. We have others who want to come to live in freedom, particularly religious freedom. I spoke of the Mexicans. When I had a Mass in this cathedral for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe I saw here the largest crowd that I have ever seen. They were standing outside all over the place. We had to keep the doors open because the cathedral was so packed. Yet a great number of them came at risk of deportation because they are not what we would call "lawful" immigrants and they do not have green cards. But they were so hungry for the Eucharistic sacrifice that they risked deportation.

Our Lord himself was turned away. We're told there was no room for him to be born except in a stable. He would not even join with the disciples to break bread with them unless they invited him. This is the day I pray that all of us will open our minds and our hearts whether or not we are in a position to do anything concrete about improving the lot of so many of our refugees and immigrants, that at least we open our minds and our hearts and we recognize that in welcoming any single one of them we are welcoming Jesus, the Lord himself.

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