Cut the Hypocrisy Congressman Attacks Catholic Church over Immigration Stance, LA Archdiocese Fires Back, California Catholic Daily, June 7, 2010

" Cut the Hypocrisy"
Congressman Attacks Catholic Church over Immigration Stance, LA Archdiocese Fires Back

California Catholic Daily
June 7, 2010

http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=68deed27-d1f8-4e60-a9fd-3366a937dbef

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, lashed out at the Catholic Church last week after confronting a diplomat from Mexico at St. Catherine of Alexandria parish in Avalon on Catalina Island. Rohrabacher was upset by the position taken by several California prelates on the problem of illegal immigration, telling the Torrance Daily Breeze that foreign governments and organizations like the Church "need to cut the hypocrisy."

"The (Catholic church) wants us to believe that illegals swarming into our country deserve benefits and special treatment," Rohrabacher told the Daily Breeze. "The Catholic church should sell its many, many assets in this state and give these people food and health care, and educate them." The congressman specifically singled out Los Angeles Archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Breeze reported. The cardinal, Rohrabacher told the newspaper, is "pointing his fingers and acting holier than thou, when his church is not providing the services that it could."

The remarks provoked a harsh response from Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who described Rohrabacher's comments to the Breeze as "emotional and ill-informed."

The archdiocese, Tamberg told the newspaper, provides millions of dollars of social services to people through Catholic Charities, regardless of their immigration status, and furnishes an education to 150,000 students a year.

"Mr. Rohrabacher is completely ignorant of these issues, and it sounds like he got carried away with hyperbole rather than trying to solve the problem," Tamberg told the Breeze.

"The church, he added, is not in favor of illegal immigration," the Breeze reported. "The church is in favor of a temporary worker program that would allow immigrants to work in the United States and return home."

Rohrabacher took a helicopter to Santa Catalina Island "to speak out against the Mexican Consulate's decision to set up a one day satellite consular services on Catalina Island," said a media advisory issued by his congressional press office. "The consulate recently distributed flyers targeting the growing illegal alien population on the island, advertising the distribution of matricula ID cards by the consulate on Thursday, June 3, 2010."

"These identification cards have drawn heated criticism because they are issued to illegal aliens who cannot access U.S.-issued identity documents," said the media advisory. "Because consular ID cards are only needed by people who aren't legally in the U.S. in the first place, communities and businesses that accept the cards as valid ID are undermining immigration enforcement and compromising U.S. security… The Mexican government continues to successfully lobby many state and local governments and businesses, particularly in CA, to accept the IDs for establishing identity, opening bank accounts, various social service uses, check cashing, and airline travel."

The consulate originally planned to issue the ID cards at the Catalina Island Country Club, but the country club backed out "after Rep. Rohrabacher's office notified the resort that in order for any services by a foreign government to be conducted on their property, State Department approval was necessary," said the congressman's media advisory. The consulate then moved the location to St. Catherine's.

According to the media advisory, Rohrabacher went to the church at 10 a.m. on June 3, where he briefly spoke with a representative of the Mexican Consulate, then left.

St. Catherine's pastor, Fr. Paul Siebenand, told the Los Angeles Times, "It was only by a series of flukes that they wound up meeting in our church. They came to me on Wednesday and said they couldn't be at the country club anymore and asked if they could use the church. I said, 'Well, I guess. There's nothing else going on.' They said they were going to help anyone Hispanic with their papers."