The 10 Pregnancy-Care-Center Members of the Association for Life will collaborate in a program dubbed "The World's Largest Baby Shower" from January 12th to the 18th.

Following you will find remarks by Bishop Salvatore Cordileone on border, refugee and immigration issues based upon the document Strangers No Longer, a joint pastoral letter of the U.S. and Mexican Bishops.  This address was given on Saturday, December 20, 2003, at the ninth annual La Posada Sin Fronteras in San Ysidro, California.

On Stranger No Longer by Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, San Diego

My dear friends, we come together to celebrate the Posada, a beautiful and moving devotion by which we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, a treasured tradition which we all hold dearly in our hearts and look forward to each year.  But there is more to it than that: the Posada reminds us that the Holy Family were themselves migrants who found themselves unwelcome while away from home and in time of need.  So great is God’s love for the poor that He chose to be born into the world through such a humble family.  For us who live here along the border, then, our re-enactment of the Posada is laden with meaning far beyond mere sentimentality.  It forces us to face issues that press upon us more urgently than ever in this time and place: that of the plight of migrants and immigrants, seeking welcome in their time of need.

This very concern was what moved the bishops of the United States and Mexico to write their joint pastoral letter, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope,” issued almost one year ago.  This is a truly historical document, for never before had these two conferences of bishops collaborated on a bi-national pastoral statement; moreover, it is a document which puts together, in one place, the principles of Catholic social teaching on migration as well as making recommendations on issues related to policy and pastoral practice.

The writing of this document is just the start, for the challenge now before us is to promote mutual understanding and to arrive at better policies and pastoral strategies which can deal more effectively with the issues involved.  If this work is going to be accomplished, certain fundamental values will have to be respected, values which derive from the principles of Catholic social teachings elaborated upon in this pastoral letter.  The starting point and core principle is always the same: Genesis 1:26, which tells us that God created the man and the woman in His own image and likeness.  Here Sacred Scripture confirms what is already written in the human heart, namely, that God is the origin and destiny of every human person.  This endows the human person with an inherent and inviolable dignity and a transcendent, spiritual nature which, as a consequence, calls for respecting the sanctity of all human life, especially the most vulnerable.  God also created the human person as a social being; while the ultimate vocation of every human being is that of divine beatitude, it is within the relationships of human society that people respond to this vocation.  The interdependence of people within a society and of nations within the international community calls for a solidarity which transcends individual wants and concerns and creates a world in which all see themselves as responsible to others and in which everyone has something to give and something to receive.

Based on these fundamental values and principles the bishops propose five specific principles which, they say, “guide the Church’s view on migration issues” (n. 33):

            1) persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland;

            2) persons have the right to migrate to support themselves and their families;

            3) sovereign nations have the right to control their borders;

            4) refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection;

            5) the human dignity and human rights of undocumented migrants should be respected.

Certainly, these principles allow some room for interpretation and some latitude in application, and so they must balance each other.  For example, nations have the right to control their borders, but not to the extent that, in practical terms, they deny persons the right to migrate or make it unduly burdensome for them to do so.  Responsible solidarity means that the wealthier nations have an obligation to accept people migrating for legitimate reasons, such as political oppression or economic hardship.

When the eternal Son of God was born into the world, he was met with rejection.  He came to save, but was not welcome.  Our celebration of the Posada is to help us to be ready to welcome Christ when he comes, and it reminds us that to welcome Christ means to welcome the Christ in the stranger and the indigent.  That is how Christ comes to try to save us in our time and place.  Our response is the measure of our authenticity as his followers, of our very worthiness as human beings; indeed, it is our opportunity to attain salvation.  Let us not be like the innkeepers in Bethlehem that night of salvation 2000 years ago; rather, let us be true to what we pray in song this night: Lord, receive this humble dwelling place, not a physical structure of brick and mortar, but the humble dwelling place of my heart.