This won't inpire confidence in the Catholic Church

among nativists/WNs, paleos. These three groups should not be lumped together but to the unthinking liberal they're all prejudiced bigots. For them, there can be no reasonable principled opposition to immigration of those not willing to assimilate to Anglo-American culture, multiculturalism, or demographic replacement.

Pope Lauds Welcome of Immigrants Given by Church in US
Pope tells U.S. bishops to build church unity
Pope says immigrants could revitalize US Church
Pope praises U.S. bishops’ fight for immigration reforms by alessandro speciale


The text of the address:
Zenit: Papal Address to US Bishops
Pope: Eastern Churches embody "spiritual richness"

I greet all of you with fraternal affection in the Lord. Our meeting today concludes the series of quinquennial visits of the Bishops of the United States of America ad limina Apostolorum. As you know, over these past six months I have wished to reflect with you and your Brother Bishops on a number of pressing spiritual and cultural challenges facing the Church in your country as it takes up the task of the new evangelization.


I am particularly pleased that this, our final meeting, takes place in the presence of the Bishops of the various Eastern Churches present in the United States, since you and your faithful embody in a unique way the ethnic, cultural and spiritual richness of the American Catholic community, past and present. Historically, the Church in America has struggled to recognize and incorporate this diversity, and has succeeded, not without difficulty, in forging a communion in Christ and in the apostolic faith which mirrors the catholicity which is an indefectible mark of the Church. In this communion, which finds its source and model in the mystery of the Triune God (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), unity and diversity are constantly reconciled and enhanced, as a sign and sacrament of the ultimate vocation and destiny of the entire human family.


Throughout our meetings, you and your Brother Bishops have spoken insistently of the importance of preserving, fostering and advancing this gift of Catholic unity as an essential condition for the fulfilment of the Church’s mission in your country. In this concluding talk, I would like simply to touch on two specific points which have recurred in our discussions and which, with you, I consider crucial for the exercise of your ministry of guiding Christ’s flock forward amid the difficulties and opportunities of the present moment.

I would begin by praising your unremitting efforts, in the best traditions of the Church in America, to respond to the ongoing phenomenon of immigration in your country. The Catholic community in the United States continues, with great generosity, to welcome waves of new immigrants, to provide them with pastoral care and charitable assistance, and to support ways of regularizing their situation, especially with regard to the unification of families. A particular sign of this is the long-standing commitment of the American Bishops to immigration reform. This is clearly a difficult and complex issue from the civil and political, as well as the social and economic, but above all from the human point of view. It is thus of profound concern to the Church, since it involves ensuring the just treatment and the defence of the human dignity of immigrants.


In our day too, the Church in America is called to embrace, incorporate and cultivate the rich patrimony of faith and culture present in America’s many immigrant groups, including not only those of your own rites, but also the swelling numbers of Hispanic, Asian and African Catholics. The demanding pastoral task of fostering a communion of cultures within your local Churches must be considered of particular importance in the exercise of your ministry at the service of unity (cf. Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, 63). This diaconia of communion entails more than simply respecting linguistic diversity, promoting sound traditions, and providing much-needed social programs and services. It also calls for a commitment to ongoing preaching, catechesis and pastoral activity aimed at inspiring in all the faithful a deeper sense of their communion in the apostolic faith and their responsibility for the Church’s mission in the United States. Nor can the significance of this challenge be underestimated: the immense promise and the vibrant energies of a new generation of Catholics are waiting to be tapped for the renewal of the Church’s life and the rebuilding of the fabric of American society.


This commitment to fostering Catholic unity is necessary not only for meeting the positive challenges of the new evangelization but also countering the forces of disgregation within the Church which increasingly represent a grave obstacle to her mission in the United States. I appreciate the efforts being made to encourage the faithful, individually and in the variety of ecclesial associations, to move forward together, speaking with one voice in addressing the urgent problems of the present moment. Here I would repeat the heartfelt plea that I made to America’s Catholics during my Pastoral Visit: “We can only move forward if we turn our gaze together to Christ” and thus embrace “that true spiritual renewal desired by the Council, a renewal which can only strengthen the Church in that holiness and unity indispensable for the effective proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world” (Homily in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, 19 April 2008).

The pope would use the diversity of liturgical rites in the United States to show the way to multicultural society? But liturgical culture pertains to God, not to civil society directly. Arguably, in the past one could have a diversity of liturgical cultures while preserving one popular culture (the political culture of a people), even if that was Yankee Uhmerican culture. Can one have a plurality of popular cultures, and still maintain unity of community or a people? I don't think so -- grace builds on nature, it does not destroy it, and being part of the one Church of Christ will not take away the distinctions that exist between peoples (who choose to be distinct). It has not done so in the world at large, and one should not suppose that it will do so within a "polity." If there is a socio-political problem, then it must be addressed at that level. What then, of assimilating immigrants to the native people?

One way to interpolate this text charitably with regards to assimilation: There is no traditional culture any more (or in the big cities), just a culture of death propagated through the mass media, and so culture must be rebuilt as people discover one another and form new civic friendships and bonds.
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Do the pope and the American bishops over-estimate the quality of immigrant Catholics? How many of them are as poorly catechized as Uhmericans? I think they would err to put their hopes for a renewal of the Church in "new blood" coming from elsewhere.