Co-Opting St Patrick To Shill For Immigration Law Breakers

Well why not?  Liberal Catholics doing the bidding of progressives and George Soros have no compunctions about grabbing onto whatever straw they can to make their immoral case for border-crashing illegals.  Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, North Ireland is a direct successor to St. Patrick himself.  He had the audacity to call his sainted predecessor an "unlearned refugee and an undocumented migrant".

The liberties he takes with the facts of St Patrick's life are grossly inaccurate, if not downright dishonest.  Patrick never sneaked into Ireland as a refugee and migrant.  He was brought to Ireland by Irish as a slave, very much against his will.  He could only be called a "refugee" when he fled his masters - and returned home.  When he did return years later to spread the Faith, he certainly was no refugee and there is no reason whatsoever to believe that he broke any law in so doing.

Not to be outdone in fact-twisting is Chuck Short, former Secretary for Justice and Service at the Archdiocese of Washington.  He has a piece in the March issue of the Parish Times (page 1 that continues to page 34) that does the same gross injustice not only to St. Patrick but to all faithful Catholics who call for law and order as we assimilate immigrants into our society.

"The Irish who we celebrate this weekend"  This is a direct quote, something I would never write for two reasons.  First, the grammar is terrible.  It should read "the Irish WHOM we celebrate this weekend"  When referring to the object of a verb, "whom" should be used.  The second, and far more important reason is that we are celebrating St. Patrick on March 17, not the Irish (By the way, if it makes a difference, I am of predominantly Irish descent.)  This insistence on adulterating feast days with ethnic gee-gaw only serves to distract from the Faith.

The current surge in anti-immigrant sentiment is an affront to this sacred history of American Catholicism as well as our American values.  Notice they typical deliberate obfuscation of the differences between those who literally crash our borders versus those who respect our laws and customs and follow the law in so doing.  Such obfuscation is not only blatantly dishonest but it is the sin of slander against faithful Catholics who do not believe that we should be rewarding the sinful conduct of illegals in this country.   I and others will continue to call progressives like Chuck Short on the carpet when they pull dishonest stunts like that.  They will not be allowed to define the terms for addressing this matter of illegal immigration.