Illegal immigration issue focus of Phoenix Red Mass

The afternoon of Jan. 14, Phoenix radio news had an item about a New Jersey liberal senator who said certain words about extending unemployment benefits. Hold that thought.

A few hours later, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, head of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, had a cheery smile and firm handshake for this writer, whom he knows, as Olmsted greeted people leaving historic St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix after the evening’s annual Red Mass.

Who wouldn’t feel welcomed by Olmsted’s smile and interest in each person? And he’d just invited everyone to step next door now for tasty snacks, desserts and drinks. This is a host who knows how to host.

The Mass is held for public officials every year to mark the beginning of the lawmaking season at the Arizona State Capitol. The name Red Mass, which could suggest blood, fire or rubies, comes not from political sympathies but the color of the robes that doctors of the law historically wore.

The religious celebration serves to remind attorneys and other legal figures in attendance about the moral responsibilities of their office and their obligation to serve the public in an upstanding manner. As the Phoenix Red Mass concludes each year, the lawyers in the congregation are asked to rise and renew their professional oath before the altar.

This may sound somber and excessively grave, but hang on there.

Taking one’s job this seriously shouldn’t hurt a bit in our society that, like many other societies, suffers betrayals and breaches of the public trust. Who wouldn’t cheer that these public servants are reminded of accountability – the way we all should be in our lives?

It may sound abstract to be told that Lawyer X shouldn’t dishonor his profession. But what about the day when Lawyer X tries to frame you in court because someone paid him off to ruin you? You’d like to think he already had the moral foundation to refuse the bribe.

The Gospel reading at this year’s Red Mass was Matthew 25: 31-46, one of the Bible’s vivid passages with words from Jesus about eternal reward and punishment.

Catholics take these words as a powerful reminder that Jesus wasn’t a smiley-face preacher. They look to passages in the Bible where His words, even quite frighteningly, warn of the need to reform one’s life or face dire consequences.

They don’t believe He came to Earth to face His own temptations from the devil and suffering if He was only telling people that no matter what they do, everything’s cool, everything’s great, they’re all on the red carpet toward heaven. But He also brought a strong message of mercy and forgiveness.

In the Gospel reading at this Red Mass, Jesus says that when He separates the good people from the evil ones on the day of judgment, the good will go off to eternal reward, while the evil will be plunged into everlasting punishment.

And how does He distinguish between them? The good fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, and showed other acts of mercy and charity. The evil, simply, did not.

Jesus doesn’t say the evil ones had unrepentantly connived to slaughter people and destroy their homes – although those certainly would be wicked acts. He just says they didn’t perform worthy deeds.

If you don’t believe in life after death, the Red Mass isn’t going to force you to. But if you think maybe there’s continuing existence beyond the grave, it won’t hurt to be stocking up on those deeds of mercy.

It’s necessary to be reminded from time to time that the Super Bowl isn’t the most important event on Earth, nor will this year’s winner seem very important 15 years from now. But the day of judgment, once arrived, ushers in everlasting results. Meaning forever and ever.

So this is a discussion of basic moral rules. Catholics make a distinction between non-negotiable morality and what are called “prudential” judgments, although just about anyone else probably internalizes the same concepts.

Should a boss be allowed to clamp people into actual slavery and refuse to give them anything for their work except the food to keep them plodding along for another day? Here’s a non-negotiable moral rule. The boss has no right to treat humans as beasts of burden.

On the other hand, should there be a legally mandated minimum wage of $9 an hour? That’s a matter of prudential judgment, and the Church usually knows it has no authority or right to mandate a certain answer to this political question. That’s for lay people with well-formed consciences to try to work out in the daily world.

However, the Diocese of Phoenix took the occasion of the Red Mass on Jan. 14 to have a retired Catholic bishop from New Mexico, Ricardo Ramirez, preach a homily in favor of “comprehensive immigration reform” to what amounted to a captive audience of public officials.

Ramirez’s manner was the soft-spoken gentleman, not an overbearing man making harsh condemnations. He concluded the homily about making reform by telling the congregation that “when a hummingbird flutters its wings, the whole world feels the breeze… Keep fluttering those wings.”

During his talk, Ramirez told the congregation that when civil laws “violate human dignity … then those laws must be declared unjust… As moral leaders, we bishops often challenge lawmakers,” and they now unanimously “call for the reform of our immigration laws.”

Had Ramirez just declared long-standing U.S. immigration law to be so flawed as to violate human dignity itself, even though millions of legal immigrants have abided by it? Standing up in the pulpit over everyone’s head, he wasn’t asking people to raise their hands to get into a debate.

The bishops have a certain approach to the issue, which deserves debate indeed. Their answer is a legislative bill as big as a telephone book, crafted with the guidance of Barack Obama’s White House – the “Gang of Eight” bill with, a person has every reason to fear, the same sort of snares, traps and burdens that massive Obamacare finally was exposed to contain.

As it happened, on the same day of the Red Mass, radio news reported that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said unemployment benefits should be extended because there simply aren’t enough jobs in the U.S. for willing people looking for work.

Menendez is one of the politicians who devised what’s called the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill to make millions upon millions of aliens into new U.S. citizens.

This New Jersey senator would acknowledge that the U.S. economy is in such serious shape, but he still proposes, as soon as possible, that the U.S. officially assume legal responsibility for their welfare – and often their families, too — by granting them citizenship? There surely are other avenues to provide assistance, but the bishops have chosen their own answer.

They may do so as an exercise of “prudential” judgment – although some people may suggest that the U.S. has more than enough serious “non-negotiable” moral challenges to keep the bishops busy for decades.

Be that as it may, the Diocese of Phoenix saw fit to invite to its Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the people who make and administer civil and criminal laws in order to recommend its “prudential” view to them on one of the most contentious issues of the day.

It mustn’t be contentious to help others. It continues to be contentious that one very debatable political solution is preached in church as the answer for public officers.

About Dexter Duggan Religion & Politics 10 Articles
Dexter Duggan has been a weekly writer for The Wanderer, a Catholic newspaper, since 1997.