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Welcoming immigrants, from Genesis to Pope Leo XIV

Welcoming immigrants, from Genesis to Pope Leo XIV

If you are thinking seriously about immigration, or about the Lord's command to welcome strangers, you should take the time to see what I offer. Regarding the OT, NT, Fathers, history of the Catholic Church, and Magisterial teaching, I offer insights that you will not find elsewhere (yet). If you are serious about Catholic thought, you may be familiar with Prof. Peter Kreeft, from Boston College. He's been teaching for decades, and it doesn't happen often that he reads someone's work and changes his mind about a major issue. My writing is an exception, he says. My work changed his thinking about immigration. I'm not a scholar. But I think that I have built a resource that any Christian who cares about immigrants might find useful. It's seven short and accessible books, about immigration from Genesis through scripture and Catholic tradition to Pope Leo.  The books in the McGivney’s Guests series are available in paperback (prices vary), Kindle ($3 apiece), or in ...
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Pope Pius XII Pentecost 1941 Radio Message

  Pope Pius XII’s Pentecost 1941 Radio Message   This is the full text of Pope Pius XII’s Radio Message of June 1, 1941, on the 50th anniversary of Leo XIII’s Encyclical letter Rerum Novarum. The message is published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS) 33 (1941). The allocution is there in three languages: the original Italian is on pages 195-205; the French version is on pages 205-216; the English version is on pages 216-227. This message is quoted Pope Pius XII’s 1952 Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia Nazarethana. Pope John XXIII refers to it in his 1961 encyclical Mater et Magistra, on the 60 th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, in his summary of the development of the development of Pope Leo XIII’s teaching.   Pope John Paul II refers to it in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, on the 100 th anniversary, in his summary.       Discourse of His Holiness Pius XII to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope ...
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I called you for victory ... but who's "you"? Reflection, Baptism of the Lord Year A

  Pro-life / pro-immigration reflection on the reading for Sunday, January 11, 2025, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. (Year A)   The first reading is from Isaiah 42, including verses 6-7: “I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, “I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”   The reading is stunningly rich, but perhaps we can note three tiny details.   The Lord says, I formed you. Pro-lifers, with good reason, take this to heart. We were formed by God, beginning with an explosion of life in our mothers’ wombs. Don’t hold me to these numbers; these are approximations to begin with, now showing up in my memory which is broken instrument, clunky to begin and getting worse every year: but I think that a human experiences cell division for the entire b...
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Every kind of stranger (reflection, Feast of the Holy Family, Year A)

  December 29, 2025: Feast of the Holy Family (Year A)   The Gospel reading at Mass today is about the flight into Egypt. There’s a controversy about how to understand it.   Pope Pius XII, in 1952, declared that the Holy Family, in this flight into Egypt, became the model and patron all migrants and refugees, everywhere, regardless of why they are on the road. Oddly, some of the people who agree that the US should deport millions of people fuss about linking the flight to Egypt to refugee status in general. In fact, a new argument has surfaced: the Holy Family visited Egypt but then went home when there was no longer any danger; so they are not the model and patron for refugees, but rather the model for the civic-minded and obedient visitors. They had the good sense and proper deference to the law to self-deport.   May I back off a bit, and recall that Jesus said that we should welcome immigrants and be made welcome in heaven, or alternatively we can refu...
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Son of David (reflection Christmas Vigil Mass, Year A)

 hm. unfinished
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Communicating with reality: Emmanuel (reflection Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A)

  Communicating with reality: Emmanuel Reflections from a consistent ethic of hospitality: pro-life, pro-immigration. Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A).   The Responsorial Psalm today is taken from Isaiah 7:10-14, about God’s promise of one to come: Emmanuel. Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.   Grandmom: Look, Becca. This is a picture of your mom, when she was seven. You look so much like her! Becca, age four: “That’s not Mom. That’s me.” Grandmom: No, that’s your mom, when she was younger. Becca: No, it’s me, when I was older. Reality intrudes. We struggle with it, but reality is stubborn.   We didn’t say we wanted a baby! She can’t be pregnant! What do you mean, she can’t be pregnant? Do you maybe sort of remember anything about where this child may have come from? Well, I kiss...
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