JUST A MINUTE, MR. PRESIDENT!

Mr. President, you are trying to resolve the wrong problem. Your HHS new federal rule governing mandated health care services is not just about women's services and who pays for them.

Rather, the real question is what protections and guarantees are afforded Americans and our various institutions by the Constitution. Your ill-placed focus should be frightening to all Americans.

Freedom of conscience and religious liberty are not concessions grudgingly granted by the Federal Government--either directly, or by way of exemption or exception. Our nation was founded on those basic and inalienable rights as the bedrock of who we are as Americans. Our Constitution was written precisely to reject and to avoid the dreadful English model whereby the king and the government are the granter of all rights, including religious rights--as well as the single power to withdraw, limit, or negate those rights.

As a Catholic American, I am outraged not only by your incredulous contortions to justify your untenable position, I am insulted that you would think that Americans who value and treasure our Constitutional freedoms would even question your overreaching infringement on individual freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

Your "accommodation" actually makes the entire matter far worse. Every effort must be undertaken to reverse your ill-conceived revocation of our Constitutional rights.

I encourage all Catholics and millions of others of good will in our country to challenge candidates for election to Congress and to the presidency to take a strong stance in favor of guaranteeing and protecting our nation's Constitutional rights.

I fear, Mr. President, that you are knowingly and intentionally trampling upon and reversing our Constitutional rights.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MANDATE FOR CONTRACEPTIVE/STERILIZATION COVERAGE

In probably the most expansive decision on the part of the US Federal government ever, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued an "interim final rule" to require virtually all private health plans to include coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptives, female sterilization procedures, and related "patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity."

These are listed among "preventive services for women" that all health plans will have to include without co-pays or other cost sharing--even if the insurer, the employer or other plan sponsor, or the woman herself object to such coverage.

This decision from the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] is from the highest level of Federal government, and I cannot imagine that this decision was released without the explicit knowledge and approval of President Barack Obama.

And I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic Community can muster.

For full information on this issue, please go to the website of the U.S. Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-013.cfm

For me there is no other fundamental issue as important as this one as we enter into the Presidential and Congressional campaigns. Every candidate must be pressed to declare his/her position on all of the fundamental life issues, especially the role of government to determine what conscience decision must be followed: either the person's own moral and conscience decision, or that dictated/enforced by the Federal government. For me the answer is clear: we stand with our moral principles and heritage over the centuries, not what a particular Federal government agency determines.

As Bishops we do not recommend candidates for any elected office. My vote on November 6 will be for the candidate for President of the United States and members of Congress who intend to recognize the full spectrum of rights under the many conscience clauses of morality and public policy. If any candidate refuses to acknowledge and to promote those rights, then that candidate will not receive my vote.

This is a sad moment in the life of our country where religious freedom and freedom of conscience led to the formation of this new Nation under God.

Let us all pray that the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon all elected officials of our country, and that all will make decisions based upon God's revealed truth.

GOOD NEWS for IMMIGRATION REFORM!

Ronald Brownstein reported recently on encouraging polling results about what steps our nation should take with the 11 million undocumented peoples living in our midst:

"As the debate over immigration continues to roil the Republican presidential field, a substantial majority of Americans say they would prefer to allow some or all illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found."

"When asked what should be done with the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, just 25 percent of those polled said that they should all be deported “no matter how long they have been in the U.S.”

"Another 28 percent of those surveyed said that all illegal immigrants should be allowed “to stay, provided they have broken no other laws and commit to learning English and U.S. history.”

"The largest group, at 39 percent, said that the United States should “deport some, but allow those who have been here for many years and have broken no other laws to stay here legally.”

I am greatly encouraged by these results since some 67% of Americans polled favor some form of path to legal residency for the 11 million. Only 25% believe that all should be found and deported--an impossible task, of course.

These poll numbers reflect the great American spirit, an appreciation of the contributions of all immigrants down through the centuries here, and a realization that so many of our recent immigrants share our values and want to work hard for their families and for the country.

Immigration reform has now surfaced far more visibly in the past two months with the Presidential election campaigns underway. The presence of 11 million people living in the shadows of our society and contributing to our society cannot be ignored--not morally, ethically, or politically.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from the draconian Arizona immigration law, and hopefully, its decision will help bring more clarity to the discussion in the coming months.

All of us need to press our members of the U.S. Congress to discuss this issue, and to challenge them to respect and work for the position of the 67% majority who favor an earned path towards legal residency.

Let's keep our discussion focused upon the human dignity of our immigrant brothers and sisters, their hard work for their families and all of us, and for our need for workers in so many employment opportunities as the economy improves and as Baby Boomers retire.

Our position as Catholics is based on God's mandates to Moses, as well as the urging by Jesus Christ to see him in all peoples, especially in the strangers in our midst.

Let's keep up our prayers and broad efforts to help influence the current public discussion around this issue, and let's thank the 67% for their enlightened reasoning.






[The United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from Dec. 1 to 4; it interviewed 1,008 adults by landline and cell phone. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.]

WHY DO WE ALWAYS BLAME IMMIGRANTS?

As election year campaigns ramp up again, we are already hearing the mounting attacks against the immigrant peoples living in our midst. In our rush to find scapegoats for all that ails our country we so quickly blame the current wave of immigrants.

As candidates for President debate various national issues it’s amazing that one of the new electability standard is whether an unauthorized worker was ever on one’s property doing any kind of work. It seems that being untouched by an immigrant in any way is the new litmus test to serve in elected office.

But why did the current wave of immigrants come here? For the same reasons every group of immigrants came: to find a better life for themselves and their families, to become better educated, and to contribute to making the American dream come true for everyone. We have 11 million unauthorized immigrants for one reason: we need them to do all of the monotonous, dirty, and hard work that the rest of us don’t want to do, regardless of the salary.

As one Alabama sweet potato farmer said recently, “If you all stop eating, the immigrants will leave.” He and countless others have tried to attract documented people to do the dirty, long, and difficult work in the fields. And as this farmer pointed out, “They last about an hour, sometimes two hours. Then they just leave."

Every time our national economy is increasing and unemployment falls down to 5% or less, we need every immigrant to take those jobs which are often behind-the-scenes, but essential to make our country run. Agriculture, the poultry and meat industries, hotels and motels, construction, clothing makers, restaurants, tourism, home care workers—these are just a few places where the millions of workers will be found.

Just look back a few years and you’ll find the same pattern over and over:immigrants come when they are needed, and once jobs are scarce, we blame them and try to distance ourselves from them. But that’s an impossible task. It would be far more helpful to our national discussion if we could set aside the harsh rhetoric blaming immigrants, and begin to address this issue in a rational and civil way.

You and I need and use the labor and services our unauthorized immigrants do day after day. These are real people with names and faces. Our brothers and sisters are not “those people” in some global and demeaning fashion.

I long to hear candidates for elected office buck the trend and point to our immigrant roots and history. Please remind us that we have so many unauthorized immigrants because our immigration laws have not balanced our need for workers at the lowest paying jobs with the availability of workers to do those jobs. Our broken immigration system was not caused by the immigrants.

It would be so helpful to our national discussion if candidates for elected office would set aside hurtful rhetoric against immigrants, acknowledge our dependence upon these workers in the lowest paying and more difficult service jobs, and offer ways in which we can bring these people out of the shadows and bring them into the mainstream of our nation’s life.

If we review our history as a nation and recognize the various waves of immigrants who built up our country, and if we look down the road into future years as we witness millions of baby-boomers retiring, we begin to get a better understanding of how today’s immigrants living in our midst without legal documents can be the key to our future labor needs.

I believe deeply that once the average American understands all the parameters of the role of today’s immigrants for our nation, they will open their hearts and minds to them and help find a way to bring dignity and respect to them. I firmly believe this because every poll taken supports this approach. When Americans are asked if they favor massive searches and deportations for all unauthorized immigrants, or whether they favor an earned path to legal residency, the vast majority always choose the earned path to legal residency.

The polls taken by by USA Today, the Pew Research Institute, and the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, even those people who agree with the new strict State laws also believe that it is totally impractical to locate, detain, and deport some 11 million people from our country.

The American spirit of welcome for immigrants seems to trump harsh and unrealistic solutions in dealing with undocumented people here.

CALIFORNIA DREAM ACT: A FEW STEPS FORWARD

Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law the second half of the California Dream Act. Now undocumented students in California have the right to attend State colleges and universities at in-State tuition rates, and to apply for certain Cal-Grants for tuition assistance.

I commend Assemblyman Gil Cedillo for carrying these two pieces of legislation, and Governor Brown for signing them.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we are still left with the same difficult problem: those undocumented students who graduate from California colleges and universiites do not have any legal status, no Social Security number, and no ability to apply for a job anywhere. They are still stranded in the terrible abyss of our broken immigration system.

And what a tragic loss. Those fine young men and women are eager and anxious to get a full education, to become employed, to pay taxes, to help build up our communities and our economy, but they are denied that crucial next step.

Only the U.S. Congress can grant them a path to legal residency after graduation. And apparently no one in Washington DC has any interest or will to even think about such a step: not the House, not the Senate, and not the President.

So, eager and talented young people will continue to be offered up on the altar of anti-immigrant rhetoric, and their hopes and dreams for a better America all but snuffed out.

As a nation we owe these young adults much better. And we owe our nation better. These young people are the hope for the future, and to derail them in their young lives is a national tragedy.

But we don't give up hope, nor do we lessen our efforts. Our broken immigration system needs desperate repair, and in the meantime, millions of people in our country live in fear that somehow they may be questioned about their legal status.

I continue to proclaim a message of hope to all of our immigrant peoples, and to do my part to create coalations of Americans who understand the import role of immigrants in our long history and our future as a nation. We shall win out eventually over the rhetoric of those opposed to our immigrant brothers and sisters.

"IF YOU STOP EATING, THE IMMIGRANTS WILL LEAVE"

That was the advice from an Alabama sweet potato grower in light of the state's tough new immigration law. Farmers and food processors all across Alabama are predicting losses in the many millions of dollars.

The sentiment among Alabama's farmers is summed by by this one grower, making reference to the Hispanic farm workers who have done most of the harvesting in all of the major crops:

“These people will do work that local people won’t do, you know?” said Baldwin County farmer, Joel Sirmon. “They’re hard workers ... don’t cause no problem. We’ve had to advertise for labor, and we’ve got U.S. citizens in here. They work an hour or two, but they can’t do what the migrant workers do.”

Sirmon said many of his workers started leaving at the beginning of September. Now, with the passing of the immigration law, his situation will only get worse.

“We have fifteen in the packing house and nobody showed up this morning, so I don’t know if that’s because of the law or what, you know?” he said.

Many Americans look to simplistic solutions to try to deal with our broken immigration system, but they don't understand the much larger picture. Our country has a dreadful labor inbalance, especially in industries such as agriculture, hotels and motels, restaurants, construction, and many service industries.

Laws such as those passed in Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia aim to eliminate undocumented peoples in a way that demeans their human value and their needed hands and energies to perform jobs that other Americans refuse to take.

The Fresno Bee stated last year in an editorial:

"Some experts predict that the system will always be broken because too many people don't want change -- even if they say they do. Farmers get cheap labor, illegal immigrants get jobs, consumers pay less for services. No one wants to make difficult reforms that would disrupt this balance."

The Alabama sweet potato farmer got it right, but few of us are willing to listen: "If you stop eating, the immigrants will leave." We have gotten used to the relatively low food prices we pay as Americans; low because our food production is subsidized by immigrant workers.

As a nation built generation after generation by immigrants, we need to seek common ground through civil discourse to understand our need for workers in all types of jobs, and to seek fair and workable solutions to meet these needs. Undocumented workers aren't a problem to be fixed by rounding them up and deporting them; they are the backbone of thousands of businesses across the country. They deserve and need our respect, our understanding, and our resolve to fix an inadequate immigration system.

MESSAGE OF HOPE TO OUR IMMIGRANT BROTHERS & SISTERS

Hardly a day goes by without some new attack upon our immigrant brothers and sisters living and working among us.

Whether it be States such as Arizona or Alabama enacting harsh and focused laws to discourage and to terrify immigrant families by denying their basic human dignity and vast contributions to our society, or, media commentators continuing to blame immigrants for the nation's economic woes, our immigrants are suffering deeply.

Most of our immigrant families are "blended" families, meaning that some members have legal documents and some others do not. Every family is going to take every avenue to stay together—not to be separated by deportation. But that effort is lived out in fear and terror that in an instant a family member will be plucked off the streets and placed in detention.

Immigrant brothers and sisters: Take heart, have courage! Since the 1700s the Catholic Church in this country has welcomed each and every wave of immigrants who have come to our shores. We have stood with you, we have provided spiritual and pastoral care, and we established schools to educate your children. We have seen too many times the prejudice that greeted you, and the denial of dignity and rights which followed.

But do not be afraid. Every successive group of immigrants before you has felt the sting of insult and unwelcome by some in our country. However, your dedication and commitment to our country continue to benefit the nation. More than that, your resolve and sacrifices have helped create the great country in which we all live.

The Bishops of the USA and of Mexico issued a joint Pastoral Letter in early 2003 entitled "Strangers No Longer--Together on the Journey of Hope" to recall the Church's history of spiritual and pastoral outreach to immigrants over the centuries. This latest Letter reaffirms all of the past initiatives taken by the Church, and pledges our continuing efforts over the coming years.

Although it is not my role to speak on behalf of the U.S. Bishops, nonetheless, I do wish to reaffirm my personal commitment to stand and walk with you--all of our immigrants across the country in the spirit of past declarations by the Bishops' Conference. In particular:

+ Families awaiting reunification processes: Do not give up, and do not be afraid; realize that your Church continues to advocate for a family to be united with all its members, as well as to assist you in the process;

+ Parents afraid of workplace raids by ICE: Please maintain your prayerful patience when you leave for work, and thank God when you return home; focus on your family members and be sustained by all the good you are doing for them;

+ Children at home anxiously waiting for your parents to return: Say a prayer each morning for their safe journey to and from work, and thank God when they return to you in the evening; thank them for their hard work for you and for your brothers and sisters;

+Those of you in our midst who do not have jobs: Do not give up; there are many groups in the Church and in our communities dedicated to help you find a job; say a prayer to St. Joseph the Worker, the earthly father of Jesus, to assist you in finding a job;

+Immigrants in process to obtain a green card or to obtain legal residency: Continue to be hopeful, seek the assistance of our many immigrants’ rights groups who can assist you with the legal processes;

+Students in high school and college without proper papers: You are known as our “Dreamer students”, and we have great hopes for your future. Continue with your studies, and explain your own personal journey to those who are working to create a path for you towards legal residency; become involved in groups helping to pass the Dream Act and other legislation to protect you and to give you a future;

+For all immigrants living and working in our midst: Be proud to be living in the United States, and get to know your new country well. Remember that we are a nation of millions of immigrants who came before you. Be inspired by their hard work and sacrifices to help make our nation strong, safe, and hope-filled for your children. Learn English, as well as the positive values of our society. Work hard towards full citizenship, and participate in our many democratic processes—especially voting in all elections.

The Catholic Church is standing and walking with you on your journeys forward. No matter how strident and hateful the words against you, you are not alone. Please count on us; we respect your dignity as brothers and sisters, and we will fight for your basic human rights; we will never abandon you.