On occasion I teach a course called Catholics in Political Life and I have fun asking my students the question, “Is the Catholic Church politically conservative or liberal?” The American Catholic Church’s push for immigration reform, as spelled out in a message from Cardinal Sean O’Malley is a reminder that the Church can take some fairly liberal positions.
Cardinal O’Malley wrote that reform is necessary because “Moral ideas about dignity and justice call for changes in the current policies.” We find liberality toward immigrants spelled out in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on policy issues of concern in presidential election years. The Church has opposed torture, racism and genocide, and has an admirable contribution to just war theory. It has called for the alleviation of poverty and the rights of workers. It has recognized that each person has rights to food and shelter, education and employment, good health care and adequate housing, and freedom of conscience. It expresses that each society must meet a basic moral test of care for the vulnerable and poor.
On the more conservative side of the ledger are the Catholic Church’s well-known positions on abortion, same-sex marriage, and physician assisted suicide. Abortion in particular has come to dominate the policy pronouncements of the Catholic hierarchy over the years.
In some presidential years dueling Catholic groups have engaged in a battle of the voters guides. Conservative groups stress abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, stem cell research, and cloning. Liberal groups emphasize social justice teachings.
The Catholic Church in America has always been a church of immigrants. Will its position move adherents to push their congresspersons for reform? It is hard to say. The Church has lost a lot of clout in this state as the commonwealth’s liberality on marriage and abortion indicate. On the other hand when the Church ramped up opposition to same-sex marriage in 2003-04, Catholic attitudes did darken toward gay marriage. It is coming off a big win in defeating the Death with Dignity referendum last year, too.
But Catholic laity may take a dimmer view of undocumented immigrants than do other residents. In 2006 a Boston Globe poll asked if voters would favor a proposal to offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who had graduated from Massachusetts public high schools. The bishops supported the policy. Yet Catholics opposed in-state tuition by three to one while All Other respondents opposed by 58 percent to 42 percent. A statistically significant relationship existed between religion and support or opposition for in-state tuition.
Still, the bishops have plighted their troth (so to speak) to the Republican Party. A few years ago Cardinal O’Malley even said that it ‘bordered on scandal’ for Catholics to vote Democratic. Thus the immigration letter is a reminder of the liberality of the Church on many issues.
