Compassion for immigrants
When Jesus was hanging on the cross He thirsted for water but was instead given vinegar. Recently, Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone wrote an open letter to everyone in the diocese. He spoke of demonstrating compassion to immigrants to this country. Bishop Guglielmone mentioned that his own parents had emigrated from Italy to the United States.
My grandparents were also immigrants from Italy – and I find myself empathizing with the people who are entering this country in modern times. Like my grandparents, they come in the hopes of a better life in the United States.
How many of us would be willing to cross a desert to escape oppression? How many of us would risk our lives to prevent our families from starving?
In all of the talk of immigration reform – we must never forget that these men, women and children are our brothers and sisters; and that given the same set of circumstances, many of us would, in desperation, cross the border in search of a better life.
Many of these poor people never arrive. They become dehydrated and die of thirst in the desert. Or, if they do arrive safely, they are horribly exploited by others. Each of these people is telling us that he thirsts for our compassion. We should give to others what we would want if we were in their place. Sincerely, Rachel Godwin
Rachel Godwin, Columbia
Applauding Seafarers Mission volunteers
In the last few days I have been surprised and impressed by the large numbers of people from St Benedict parish who read through The Catholic Miscellany when the newspaper comes into their homes. Many parishioners told me night how they were informed and impressed by the content of Christina Lee Knauss’s story on the Seafarers Mission in Charleston.
There was much, wonderful information tightly packed into limited newspaper space. The story is a great broadcast to our Catholic community about the Seafarers Mission.
There is a dedicated group of Catholic volunteers, each unique and each special who spend many hours volunteering in a mission that they enjoy so much. In our group are people who speak a foreign language and converse with the seafarers in their native language. One of the Catholic volunteers is a veteran sea captain who sends us emails from all around the world when he is in command of his vessel and then volunteers when he comes home to his family in the Charleston area. I don’t feel comfortable singling out volunteers because some people will be missed, but the two examples show the uniqueness of the volunteers.
We hope and pray each day when we are at the port that a seafarer may see the face of Christ in a volunteer and it will bring the seafarer closer to God.
Thank you for the story and all the news that you pack into the Miscellany each week.
Gene McLaughlin, Mount Pleasant
Another take on the sequester
In regard to Stephen Kent’s article in the May 30 Miscellany about sequestration and the poor, there is a lot of misconception, spin, and contortion concerning the sequester and the $85 billion worth of meritless spending cuts unleashed on the American Public. Small compared to a $17 trillion debt.
Did the sequester include the removal of 9542 million funding to Planned Parenthood, which has just ecstatically announced that they performed 333, 964 abortions in 2011? Dad it include trimming the Farm Bill, etc.? No. It was a political tool meant to intimidate a Congress seeking to reduce spending. The president personally approved the document for Harry Reid to use, on July 11
2011, one-and-a-half years before the sequester took effect. No White House visitors but
White House parties? Cut Air Traffic Control? Why not! Of course the projected $100 million the president will spend on his coming trip to the sub-Saharan region, with family, has nothing to do with the sequester.
The Catholic Social Principle of Subsidiarity states:
What individuals can accomplish by their own initiatives and efforts should not be taken from them by a higher authority. A greater and higher social institution must not take over the duties of a subordinate organization and deprive it of its competence. Ifs purpose is to intervene in a subsidiary fashion, (offering help) when individuals or smaller institutions find that a task is beyond them.
You, me, all of us, must take care of our brothers the poor. The church of the poor must come from the individual and not the government. When the government takes over, it becomes a political tool resulting in totally wrong consequences, usually benefitting the Politicians running for office.
In 2012, there were 2,200 federal subsidy programs. Between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S. household, below the poverty line, received $168 per day government support. Problem? The median household income in America’s $s0,054,o r $137.13 per day, or $24 an hour, for 40 hours. Being on welfare earns you $29.40 an hour.
Ten states now have more people on welfare than working. ls socialism next ?
Leonard Bibbo, Hilton Head Island
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