Dear Friends,
The hard work of a democracy is not the election process, it is what happens between elections in the ongoing interchange between the citizens and those who were elected. Your work as a citizen in a democracy did not end on Tuesday. You simply chose those who will represent you in the discussions about laws and policies. Your work is just beginning. You need to be in an ongoing relationship with your elected officials.
The election this past week was not a good one for the pro-life work of the church. Here in Nebraska, the death penalty was reinstated. In Colorado, a law was passed allowing for physician assisted suicide. And, neither of the presidential candidates had a pro-life record. Whether or not pro-life issues remain important will be up to the citizens keeping the issues before our elected officials. There is not a good track record between pro-life promises made during an election by candidates and those promises being fulfilled.
The work ahead of us is challenging. Upcoming discussions about health-care, immigration, criminal justice reform, race relations, religious freedom, and the environment all have religious and ethical dimensions. The rhetoric during the campaign did not often represent the views of a disciple of Jesus as Pope Francis made clear. We need to help elected officials understand the moral dimension in each of these issues.
For example, Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles had a special prayer service this week with those members of his archdiocese who are fearful following the election. Here is what he said:
“We stand in the presence of God who is our Father in heaven and we are his children. And that means we are all brothers and sisters…This is our true identity — every one of us. We are not liberals or conservatives. Before everything else, we are children of God. In the past couple days since the election — we have children in our schools who are scared. They think the government is going to come and deport their parents, any day now.
Right now — all across this city, and in cities all across this country — there are children who are going to bed scared. There are men and women who can’t sleep because they are trying to figure out what to do next. Trying to figure what to do when the government comes to take them away from their kids and their loved ones.
This should not be happening in America. We are not this kind of people. We are better than this. My brothers and sisters, we have allowed this issue of immigration to consume us, as a nation. Our immigration system has been broken for a long time. Our leaders could have come together and solved this problem — at any time in the last 15 or 20 years. More than 2 million people have been deported in the last eight years. Nobody seems to care. Except that little girl who comes home at night — and she knows her father isn’t there anymore. We are better people than this. We should not accept that this is the best we can hope for — in our politics or in ourselves.
And so this is where we are at. Tonight in America — children are afraid; men and women are worried and anxious, thinking about where they can run and hide. This is happening tonight, in America.
The answer is not angry words or violence in the streets. It never solves anything; it only inflames things more. We need to be people of peace, people of compassion. Love not hate. Mercy not revenge. These are the tools to rebuild our nation and renew the American dream.
Tonight we promise our brothers and sisters who are undocumented — we will never leave you alone. In good times and in bad, we are with you. You are family. We are brothers and sisters.”
Peace,
Fr. Damian