Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, January 21, 1988
STATEMENT
Dr. King's Holiday
The national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., which became a part of our
calendar only after years of lobbying by blacks,
and which has been more accepted than embrac
ed by the whole of society, proves its worth and
validity again this year.
Last year the seasonal focus in January upon
relations between blacks and whites in America
produced the drama in Forsyth County where
one young man refused to be intimidated out of
having a “brotherhood march” and the results
were explosive. Tens of thousands ended up
marching when the first brave people had faced
racial taunts and threats from white
supremacists, some from other areas and states.
This year a roving reporter’s questions provok
ed an unedited viewpoint from Jimmy “the
Greek” Snyder about blacks and whites in
sports. Fired by CBS, Snyder’s remarks have
been analyzed by black leaders and columnists
who say, mainly, that he voiced in public an ig
norant and degrading viewpoint that,
nonetheless, could be heard privately and
detected in underlying attitudes about sports
and black achievement.
These January events are off to the side of the
main celebration marking Dr. King’s birthday.
Embarrassing signs of continued racial separa
tion in housing in the United States and of con
tinued suspicion, ignorance and lack of full
dignity and respect between blacks and whites
in areas of cooperation and competition like
sports, these events show where we really are to
day in a couple of critical arenas.
Certainly where we are is better than where we
were when the civil rights movement began.
But we still greatly need the inspired and faith-
filled leadership and restless discontent with the
“status quo” that Dr. King exemplified.
He faced where we really were at the time; he
also saw that there was freedom not only for
blacks, but also for whites, in a society which ac
cepted the full dignity and humanity of each per
son, regardless of their race. The vision over
came great fear.
He found that vision in Scripture, where it still
remains to reinspire us to believe that there is
freedom for all people in recognizing the dignity
and worth of each individual.
--GRK
Laurie Hansen
Breaking The Immigration Law
WASHINGTON (NC) - Tired of working through the
system to try to change what they see as unjust aspects of
U.S. immigration law, a growing number of Catholic
Church workers are deciding to go around it.
Just as parishes and religious congregations risked pro
secution by becoming sanctuaries for Central American
refugees fleeing their homelands, church leaders in Los
Angeles, New York and Chicago have announced in recent
months they will knowingly violate federal law and hire im
migrants without regard to legal status.
In addition, they advocate that other employers follow
suit.
To help the estimated 88 percent of Los Angeles area il
legal aliens who will not qualify for legalization under
terms of the 1986 immigration reform law, “we are asking
employers to take a risk,” said Jesuit Father Michael Ken
nedy, one of 53 Los Angeles priests, nuns and lay people
urging employers to violate the law.
“We don’t take lightly this idea of committing civil
disobedience,” said Divine Word Father James Liebner, a
member of Chicago’s Hispanic Caucus, a group of Chicago
parish leaders that has similarly urged employers to hire il
legal aliens.
He said members of the Hispanic Caucus back the efforts
of concerned citizens who lobby Congress to change unfair
legislation, “but in the meantime we’re not going to turn
our backs on the poor.”
By hiring illegal aliens, employers subject themselves to
fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 for each illegal alien
hired. The 1986 immigration reform law allows for criminal
penalties, including six-month jail sentences, for “a pattern
or practice of violations” by an employer.
The sanctions are called for in the 1986 Immigration
Reform and Control Act, the same law that grants amnesty
to immigrants who can prove they have resided illegally in
the United States since before Jan. 1, 1982.
History has shown, said Father Liebner, that Congress is
capable of making unjust laws. “If it weren’t for people
raising their voices, we’d still have prohibition of women’s
right to vote and the owning of slaves,” he argues.
Darlene Cuccinello, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan-
based Intercommunity Center for Justice and Peace, said
members of religious orders have been working for seven
years to try to get just immigration legislation on the books.
“I think we can honestly say we’ve exhausted all legal
avenues ... if we wait for passage of Moakley-DeConcini (a
bill to grant temporary legal status to Salvadorans and
Nicaraguans) we could be waiting years,” she said.
Her organization has begun to hold workshops at which
representatives of religious orders can reflect on the effects
of employer sanctions and question experts, including
lawyers, on what sort of prosecution they should expect to
face if they choose to make the hiring of illegal aliens a
policy of hospitals, schools and other institutions they
operate.
Not everyone, of course, agrees with this approach.
Chicago Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, for example,
issued his own statement the same day the Hispanic Caucus
called on employers to violate the law. While he too ex
pressed sharp criticism of current immigration law, he
urged appealing for changes by working “through
democratic processes.”
Not surprisingly, the branch of the federal government
responsible for enforcing employer sanctions has frowned
on the church groups' efforts.
In a Jan. 14 interview, Verne Jervis, spokesman for the
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in
Washington, called it "irresponsible for anyone to publicly
advocate violation of American law.”
He predicted that the church workers' statements would
have no effect on employers' decisions to comply with the
law. “Why should anyone listen to them?" he asked. Thus
far, he said, INS is pleased with employer cooperation.
Others argue that while it might be nice to allow all im
migrants the chance to live in the United States, a nation
has to control its borders.
But attempting to control the borders is futile unless U.S.
foreign policy addresses the economic crises facing Mexico
and the violence in Central America that drive immigrants
to the United States, said Pablo Sedillo, director of the
Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs of the U.S. Catholic Con
ference.
A recent move by the U.S. Treasury to ameliorate some
of Mexico’s debt woes was a start, he said.
“As long as we have the war situation in Nicaragua, El
Salvador and Guatemala, Mexico is going to be the port of
entry for Central American immigration to the U.S.,” he
contends.
Ernesto, a 28-year-old Salvadoran resident of
Washington, agrees. "Anyone who is opposed to more
Salvadorans coming in should be opposed to U.S. funding of
the war in El Salvador," he said in a Jan. 13 interview.
Fleeing violence in his homeland, the young man crossed
the U.S. border in May 1982, five months too late to qualify
for legalization under terms of the immigration reform law.
He lost his job cleaning hospital rooms in November when
his employer told him he feared INS would impose sanc
tions.
Since then he has been turned down for job after job.
Friends have taken him and his wife into their apartment
while Ernesto continues to pound the pavement in search of
a way to pay the bills. “If there were peace in my country,
I'd be the first Salvadoran to rush home,” he says.
Knowledge that there are thousands in similar cir
cumstances is what church workers say prompts them to
put their faith on the line.
The Week In Review
NAMES AND PLACES — Archbishop Daniel E. Pilar-
czyk of Cincinnati has cautioned that a 1985 book written by
a priest of his archdiocese may prove “a source of serious
confusion for some.” In a brief note printed Jan. 8 in the
Catholic Telegraph, archdiocesan newspaper, the arch
bishop said that “some questions have recently arisen
about the authority and purpose of the book, ‘Essential
Catholicism,’ by Father Thomas Bokenkotter.” The book
does not bear an imprimatur, the archbishop said, refer
ring to official church permission to publish or print a book.
“It is not intended to be a textbook for students of Catholic
doctrine and should not be used as such. Moreover,” he con
cluded, “the way in which the book deals with the Catholic
tradition could be a source of serious confusion for some.”
Father Bokenkotter, a church historian and parish priest,
refrained from comment. “I don’t want to make a comment
right now. I’ll explain it to you someday,” he said in a brief
telephone conversation. He also wrote “A Concise History
of the Catholic Church.” “Essential Catholicism:
Dynamics of Faith and Belief,” discusses, in 438 pages,
such topics as church authority, the Second Vatican Coun
cil, papal infallibility, the saints, liturgy and sacraments,
church social justice and other topics. In a preface, the
author warns readers to exercise caution. “Caveat emptor! <
This book is not for the Catholic obsessed with orthodoxy, or
for the one who wants an uncomplicated version of the main
doctrines of the church,” he said. “It is for the Catholic who
wants to think through his-her faith.”
AROUND THE NATION — Constantino J. Ferriola Jr., a
permanent deacon and co-director of the diaconate office in
the diocese of Orlando, Fla., has been named executive
director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for the Permanent
Diaconate. He succeeds Samuel M. Taub, a deacon of the
Diocese of Arlington, Va., and director of the secretariat
since 1984. Taub, who coordinated Pope John Paul II’s
meeting with the permanent deacons and their wives in
Detroit last September, will return to the Arlington diocese
for reassignment. Ferriola was ordained to the diaconate in
1980.
INTERNATIONALLY - More than 5,000
Czechoslovakians have signed a petition calling for full
restoration of religious liberty in the communist country,
Vatican Radio reported. The 31-point petition urges the
state to end its restrictions on the appointment of bishops
and pastors, enrollment of seminarian students, activities
by religious orders, association by lay Catholics, religious
instruction, and religious television and radio transmis
sions. The detailed document has obtained the public sup
port of Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek of Prague, Vatican
Radio said Jan. 16. “Our fundamental request is the separa
tion of church and state. From this it follows that the state
should not interfere in the organization or the activity of the
church,” the petition says. It proposes establishing a
church-state commission, including Cardinal Tomasek, to
deal with the points raised. The petition also proposes state
restoration of church goods and property, and permission
for the country’s believers to travel outside the country on
religious pilgrimages.
rho<1Cicc»rDicV
ML
( LSPSl 574880 C ,iiK4k \hI«Ikho»'i>I \itmi.i
Business Office
680 West Peachtree, N.W
Atlanta. Georgia 30308
Phone: 888-7832
U S A S12 00
Canada $12 50
Foreign $14 00
Published By The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Gretchen R. Reiser Editor
Rita Mclnerney Associate Editor
DEADLINE: All material for publication must be received by
MONDAY NOON tor Thursday s paper
Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
601 East Sixth Street. Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Send all editorial correspondence to THE GEORGIA
BULLETIN 680 West Peachtree Street N.W
Atlanta. Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro. Ga 30830
Published Weekly except the second and last weeks
In June, July and August and the last week in December
at 601 East Sixth St , Waynesboro. Ga 30830