A Deafening Silence

I have been paying close attention to our national debate about immigration and refugees. Doing this is sometimes painful. More painful is to learn that quite a number of the voices that are loud and prejudiced against immigrants and refugees are Catholic.

But the pain becomes more acute when it comes to the Catholics who keep silent—especially those holding positions of leadership in church and society. Too many of them choose to remain silent before the excesses of the loud and prejudiced voices—Catholic and non-Catholic—or fall short of being prophetic.

But it is not only our leaders who choose not to lend their voices to the debate. Why do so many Catholics remain silent? Perhaps because speaking of immigration and refugees in the United States of America at this historical juncture is risky business. One never knows where one’s conversation partner stands on this question. One does not know whether one will be welcomed into that conversation again.

While many Catholics seem reluctant to speak about immigration in the interest of avoiding conflict, ironically we hear about the topic everywhere on social networks and in the mass media. Yet, there is no irony without consequences. Many voices that are loud and prejudiced are feasting in the silence of those who are more moderate and better informed about our Catholic tradition regarding immigrants and refugees.

Silence has consequences. Remaining silent before the excesses of people who demonize immigrants and twist their experiences for political or social gain has consequences. Remaining silent by failing to affirm the human dignity of every immigrant and refugee has consequences. 

This is not the first time in the history of our nation that conversations about immigration and refugees have created animosity. Some episodes in the past have ended in exclusion of and violence against immigrant groups. Have we learned something from our own history? If not, then it is imperative that every catechetical program for Catholic children and adults today puts serious time into studying the consequences of biased rhetoric against immigrants. European Catholics who arrived in the U.S. about a century ago experienced such biases.

Let us not ignore the brutal mistreatment of immigrants from Africa brought to our shores under the most dehumanizing conditions. Decades of discrimination against immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean should give us pause. We must take time to learn about the consequences of remaining silent before the mistreatment and exploitation of immigrants in other societies. There are important lessons to learn from the tragic ends of refugees who were denied asylum by nations that could have welcomed them.

Silence feeds ignorance. And even when someone does speak, doing so with prejudice silences the truth. Ignorance and silence together make us complicit in sin. Did we all read the same Bible? Did we all study the same Catechism of the Catholic Church? Did we ever pay any attention to the social teachings of the church about immigration and refugees? Did we ever hear that rejecting the other is equivalent to rejecting Jesus?

I am personally invested in this conversation. I am an immigrant and have immigrant relatives. I serve in a parish community made up of thousands of immigrants. I know that many of the women and men who are renewing thousands of Catholic parishes in the U.S. are immigrants. But Catholics don’t have to be immigrants or refugees to become invested in this conversation, of course. Neither does one need to be in a parish with large numbers of immigrants to affirm the dignity of immigrant women and men.

As the conversation about immigrants and refugees continues, Catholics in the U.S. have a fourfold responsibility: prophetically decry prejudiced rhetoric, remember our own history, educate ourselves about who immigrants are and why they arrive in our country, and affirm the human dignity of every immigrant and refugee. ◽