The crisis in Ceuta and Archbishop John C. Westera on the construction of the mosque in Albuquerque shows a tension that the Western Church can no longer sweep under the carpet. It is the Christian's work to be merciful to circumstantial people. But the state, the frontier and the order of civilization cannot be regarded as an obstacle to good intentions.
Ceuta showed the scale of the pressure
The Spanish Ceuta, a European exclave in North Africa, has become a place of crisis in fresh days, which shows well what migration force on the border is. Vatican News gave behind president Ceuta Juan Jesús Vivasthat about 60,000 migrants entered the city from Morocco within 24 hours and at least 34 people died during the crossing. That's a number of about 70% of the city's fixed population.
Polish Catholic media, citing KAI, wrote about an even larger scale: around 72 000 people on 30 and 31 JulyAbout 70,000 of which were to leave the exclave. The same account indicates at least 78 fatalities, mainly due to drowning. Regardless of the discrepancy in the dispatches, 1 thing is clear: we are talking about a scale that for a tiny town means paralysis, fear of the inhabitants and the state's fitness test.
The National diary has already described how Ceuta was under migration pressure. and why this case goes beyond Spain's local problem. If the external border of Europe can be filled with tens of thousands of people in a short time, it is not just a humanitarian drama. It is besides a question of sovereignty, public order and security.
Aid will not replace border policy
The Diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta announced that weekend collections in Ceuta parishes would be spent on the most urgent needs of migrants. Measures are to be hit by diocesan relief structures for migrants and San Antonio. Local church authorities besides declared cooperation with the public administration.
Such aid to a circumstantial man is understandable. A Catholic cannot look at hunger, exhaustion, and death indifferently. The problem begins where the humanitarian language displaces the language of state responsibility. due to the fact that if the Church speaks only of help, and is silent about the mechanisms of pressure, the smuggling of people and interests of 3rd countries, then it leaves society without a full picture.
That is why the voice of Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, was important. Hierarch said migration could be utilized as a force tool. According to KAI's account, he besides wrote that demography becomes a weapon. This is simply a language closer to realism than sentimental journalism. The life of migrants cannot be a card in a political game. But the answer to this game cannot be to disarm the border and pretend that any crisis can be solved by a parish fundraiser.
Albuquerque and dialog boundaries
The second signal came from the US. Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, fresh Mexico spoke after a dispute surrounding the planned construction of the mosque and the community center in the northern part of Albuquerque. How He Reported OSV News, Bernalillo region Planning Commission on 1 July rejected the cancellation of investment opponents, and the local debate was strained.
CAIR, an American Muslim organization, welcomed the Archbishop's position, stressing that He defended Muslim rights to build a mosque. Wester appealed to spiritual freedom and argued that Muslims besides have a constitutionally protected right to worship.
The rule of spiritual freedom itself is not a problem. The Church cannot request freedom for Catholics and refuse it to another communities where the law is clear and equal to all. The problem lies elsewhere. Western Catholics are proceeding increasingly strong calls for openness to another religions today, and much weaker calls to defend their own tradition, family, schools and public space against ideological pressure. That gives emergence to legitimate secular questions.
Order is at stake, not prejudice.
You gotta call it precise. The criticism of migration policy is not contempt for migrants. The defence of Europe's Christian character is not a call to take people's dignity. Opposition to the naivety of the elite is not spiritual hatred. This is simply a dispute over whether Western nations inactive have the right to require the state to defend borders, its own culture and public order.
For Poland this lesson is simple. Our country must aid erstwhile simple humanity requires it, but it cannot surrender its border policy to non-governmental organisations, media emotions or church rhetoric separated from effects. Borders, safety and social order are a common good. Without them too, mercy becomes helpless.
The Church has the right and work to remind of the dignity of all man. However, it should not become a convenient language for a policy that shifts the cost of its own helplessness to average citizens. This is very acute in Ceuta: compassion without realism does not defend migrants, residents or countries.
Source: To Things, Vatican News, KAI/Sunday Guest, OSV News, CAIR.
Source: To Things
