As I mentioned in last Friday's post, the family drove to the Pittsburgh area to visit some dear friends. I wasn't inclined to post blog entries while there. We returned Tuesday (arriving home VERY early Wednesday) and my first post upon arriving was of a video made during a detour taken during the drive home.
A fun time was had by all.
While there, we attended Mass Sunday at St. Anne's located in the Castle Shannon community. The church is lovely - newer and much larger than our church here. The particular Mass we attended was celebrated, not by the pastor or the parochial vicar, but rather an older priest who fills in on occasion.
Sad to say, this fill-in priest took the opportunity to make a political statement during his homily. He gave us his thoughts on the controversial immigration law recently passed in Arizona. Like many opponents of this law, the priest does not have a complete grasp of the bill in question. Most of his views on the subject seem to be based on misinformation. We've heard his arguments before; he followed the liberal playbook, calling the bill racist and discriminatory because it would allow police officers to stop people at random and demand proof of citizenship. The new Arizona immigration law does not do that.
The law does require Arizona police to ask for immigration documents from a suspect if the person is being questioned regarding a different offense. People cannot be stopped at random and when stopped, the officers must have a "reasonable suspicion" that the suspect is in the country illegally.
In his homily, the priest went on to say that he hoped the bill would not be passed into law and that, surely it would be found to be in violation of the Constitution. The priest was unaware that the bill had already been passed by the Arizona legislature and signed into law by the Governor. That is proof enough for me that this priest is ill prepared to comment on current news events.
In one way, it's encouraging that a priest would take a stand on political issues and ask for those sitting in the pews to take action. However, I wish this priest knew what the heck he was talking about before going on a rant.
2 comments:
I thought homilies were supposed to be scirptural, liturgical and catechetical, it would have been fine if he went through what the Church really teaches on illegal immigration
As usual Joe, you've hit the nail on the head.
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