Fourth of July is a time to reflect upon our mission as Americans and as Catholics. As Catholic Americans our mission is the same as it was 2000 years ago when our church was founded, same as it was over 200 years ago when our nation was founded and the same as it was 100 years ago when our many of our own ancestors arrived from Europe and Canada.
It is a mission that can be found in the words inscribed upon the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Lady Liberty, given to the United States by the grateful people of France, was often the first American landmark viewed by millions of newcomers coming to America in late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time our nation did not find ways to turn as many of them back as possible but rather welcomed as many as possible to the United States. The contribution of these immigrants seized the great opportunity of their new homeland to help build the free and prosperous country we enjoy today as Americans.
However, these new arrivals were not universally welcomed to the United States – many were met with suspicion, ridicule and often contempt. In an 1889 New York Times editorial, the writer worried that immigrants, specifically the French-Canadians, would work for lower wages, have higher fertility rates, and practice the “backward” Catholic religion. Sadly the echoes of this contemptuous editorial can still be heard today on radio, television and read in our nation’s newspapers as the immigration “problem” is hotly debated. So divisive is the debate that our nation’s political leaders cannot even seem to work together to solve the problems surrounding immigration in the 21st century.
President Obama’s recent order to increase the number of immigrants who may qualify for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is but one very small step to address the immigration challenge. Mr. Obama and the political leaders of both parties need to work together - not in partisan pandering - to enact comprehensive and humane reform of our nation’s broken immigration system. Only then can we legally and rightly remain true to the ideals of Lady Liberty in welcoming the tired, the poor and those yearning to be truly free into our nation.
Next week we celebrate the Fourth of July but we also celebrate a document – the Declaration of Independence – which founded our nation not on military might or economic strength, but on moral principles about the human person. What makes the United States unique isn’t baseball, hot dogs or apple pie but that our nation recognizes the truth that people “are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Respect for human dignity must remain the hallmark of our free society if we are to remain true to our founders vision of our nation.
Independence Day 2012 calls Catholics and all Americans to rediscover the power of the founding moral principles that created our United States 236 years ago. The U.S. Catholic bishops remind us in their recent statement on religious liberty that “We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens.” This Fourth of July, let us all take a moment to give thanks to God that we are free to be Catholic precisely because we are Americans.
