To the editor:
The sufferings of immigrants and their children, and the agonies of those driven from their homes by war and strife — their troubles in large part the result of U.S. policies — must be recalled daily in our prayers and actions, along with those of the DACA designation, recently the focus of our Diocesan Public Policy Committee’s advocacy efforts.
The life and well being of “the stranger,” a person not native to one’s country but residing or seeking refuge there, was of deep concern to ancient Israel and found a special place in the Holiness Code of the Book of Leviticus, later so central to Jesus’ teaching. “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently f rom the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself” (Leviticus 19:33.) In Exodus we find, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22: 21-22.)
In calling for support of the Dreamers and in bearing public witness on behalf of immigrants, our Bishops are to be commended for their faithfulness to these central Scriptures and the great moral teachings of our Church, and for courageously bearing witness in behalf of our sisters and brothers in great need. In “The Faith That Does Justice,” Father John Donohue, SJ writes, “The marginal groups in society — the poor, the widows, the orphans, the aliens — become the scale of which the justice of the whole society is weighed. When they are exploited or forgotten, neither worship of God nor Knowledge of God cas result in true religion.”
Judith Kiehl
Kings Court Way
Rochester
