Citizens Dedicated To Preserving Our Constitutional Republic

Last Sunday's Sermon

Source; https://patriotcommandcenter.org/profiles/blogs/last-sunday-s-sermon

“Can borders be controlled? Yes, each country has a right to control its borders, who enters and who leaves, and countries that are in danger — of terrorism or the like — have more right to control them more.” --Pope Francis

The inextricable relationship between borders and national identity, culture, and sovereignty was for so long understood that few popes ever spoke on the relationship between borders and immigration before the World Wars. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote on borders and immigration in his 13th century masterwork the Summa Theologica. Relying on analysis of Sacred Scripture, Aquinas explained that while nations are called to exercise charity to foreigners, each nation’s chief responsibility is to its own people, with the dual aims of preserving national unity and the common good.

A nation’s relations with foreigners, Aquinas explained, may be: “twofold: peaceful, and hostile: and in directing both kinds of relation the Law contained suitable precepts.” That is to say, God’s Law demands nations respond differently to peaceful and hostile foreigners. Aquinas declared that a nation has the right to reject or repel immigrants it deems “hostile.” Furthermore, in order for immigrants to be adopted into a country, they must first adopt that country’s culture and way of life, stating: “The reason for this was that if foreigners were allowed to meddle with the affairs of a nation as soon as they settled down in its midst, many dangers might occur, since the foreigners not yet having the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people.”

Centuries later, especially in the wake of World War II, immigration escalated exponentially, prompting Catholic leaders to speak on the subject in order to inform the consciences of the faithful. Pope Pius XII was one of the 1st pontiffs to directly and clearly address the issue of immigration, laying particular emphasis on not only the common good of a nation but the common good of the whole human race. Witnessing countless masses of refugees displaced by the near-global conflict, Pius XII asked Americans: “Is the policy concerning immigration as liberal as the natural resources of a country so abundantly blessed by the Creator would allow and as the needs of other countries seem to require?” In his 1952 Apostolic Exhortation Exsul Familia Nazarethana, Pius XII wrote: "Since land everywhere offers the possibility of supporting a large number of people, the sovereignty of the State, although it must be respected, cannot be exaggerated to the point that access to this land is, for inadequate or unjustified reasons, denied to needy and decent people from other nations, provided of course, that the public wealth, considered very carefully, does not forbid this.

The pontiff was speaking of immigration of necessity — not of want, not of whim, but of necessity — the sort of immigration Aquinas would classify as “peaceful.” Families displaced by war and violence still seek shelter in nations blessed by God with abundant riches, and while every nation has a duty to its own people, it has also a duty to mankind as a whole.

But today hundreds of thousands of fighting-age males are not necessarily fleeing war — and if they were, they would leaving behind their women and children while they refuse to fight. Asylum claims are a scam, are too readily accepted by the derelict our government. Even fleeing economic impoverishment is not asylum nor always necessary: America’s success is not predicated simply on its geography and topography, but on the will, imagination, and fiery spirit of its people; if America can produce a culture of success and prosperity, so also can other nations, if they are not readily abandoned by their own people.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of this principle in his 2013 Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, saying: “[E]ven before the right to migrate, there is need to reaffirm the right not to emigrate, that is, to remain in one’s homeland.” That is to say, a right to emigrate, to leave one’s own country and attempt to enter another’s, may be mitigated or nullified if one does not avail oneself of the right to simply remain in one’s own country.

There is the further problem of what Aquinas would classify as “hostile” immigrants. America’s southern border is being flooded with gang members and cartel agents, drug-smugglers carrying inordinately lethal doses of fentanyl, potential and even confirmed terrorists from across the Atlantic. And yet the biden regiem’s obscenely lax policies and practical weaponization of “parole” procedures have admitted millions of illegal immigrants into the nation — nearly three-quarters of a million through “parole” procedures in 2023 alone!

Then there is the very nature of illegal immigration. Aquinas stressed the importance of respect for a nation’s laws and assimilation for its culture. So also did Pope Pius XII when he said that an immigrant: “must be conscious of what he owes the people that welcomes him and tries to facilitate his progressive adaptation to his new way of life.” By the very mode of entry sought by illegal immigrants, they are flouting and violating the very 1st set of American laws they encounter. How can they be expected to respect the remainder of the nation’s laws or assimilate to the American way of life (which is being rapidly eroded by the immigration crisis) if they will not even attempt to enter the nation legally?

In order to prevent the undermining and eventual destruction of a nation’s laws, culture, and way of life, stringent immigration regulation is necessary. Recognizing this as both a reality and a good, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws, and to assist in carrying civic burdens."

There are, of course, other factors to consider with immigration, such as the natural resources and economic state of the country receiving immigrants — the Catechism again explains: “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.” This is why Pope St. John Paul II stated, in his 2001 Message for the World Day of Peace" “The challenge is to combine the welcome due to every human being, especially when in need, with a reckoning of what is necessary for both the local inhabitants and the new arrivals to live a dignified and peaceful life.”

The regulation of one’s borders, then, is most certainly a principle not only permitted but advocated by the Catholic Church, going back centuries and centuries. Although the circumstances of the modern world have changed what immigration looks like and even how it’s discussed, Catholic teaching addresses the unchanging moral dimension of the issue.

“There is no reason biden needs to wait on Republicans to try to constrain him into enforcing the law; he could start enforcing it himself. Or to be more specific, he doesn’t have to wait for Republicans to limit his power to parole illegal immigrants into the country; he could instantly start paroling fewer people on his own. biden’s border crisis, which he initiated immediately upon taking office and has allowed to reach historic levels the subsequent 3yrs, is the starkest example in recent memory of a president engaging in wholly avoidable political self-harm.”—Rich Lowry

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has released more than 2.3 million migrants into the US the southern border under the biden regime. That’s only the ones they’ve caught! The figures from the Dept of Homeland Security for the 1st time, illustrate the extent of the volume of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce types who need low- and semi-skilled workers may be thrilled to be awash in prospective cheap, under-the-table labor, but the rest of us paying the huge tab, in money, safety, healthcare, education, housing, veteran services, culture, etc. aren’t sharing in that feeling of happiness. We have borders for a reason, and people are supposed to ask permission before they enter.

biden’s refusal to enforce the border is in clear defiance of federal law, which REQUIRES immigration officials to detain asylum applicants who are not “clearly admissible.” The horde of 3rd-worlders pouring into our country are economic migrants, which is not grounds for asylum at all, much less “clearly admissible.” The law says they must be detained until they are removed. biden is detaining none of them, meaning biden's regime has broken federal law at least 6 million times so far.

Gov. Abbott of Texas has defended his state with Operation Lone Star, installing razor wire along the state’s 1,254-mile border with Mexico, and deploying thousands of Texas state troopers and National Guardsmen there. In response, biden ordered federal officials to cut down the razor wire, so that he may continue hauling millions of illegals into the country — again, breaking written law.

Texas is experiencing an invasion of several million people per year coming from 150 countries. Given the cartels, drugs, violent criminals, and third world masses storming cities like Eagle Pass every day, the magnitude of today’s invasion is greater than any scenario our Founders could have envisioned when they implied that a state can downright employ ships and troops to conduct war. According to our Constitution, the supreme law of the land, Gov. Abbott is completely within his rights to spurn such a manifestly unconstitutional court ruling. This, he did yesterday, issuing a statement explaining that the biden regime’s refusal to detain illegals — as required by federal law — has triggered Article 1, Section 10, clause 3 of the United States Constitution(1), permitting Texas to go to war to stop an invasion. Texas is well within its rights to follow the law, despite orders from the President and Supreme Court that he violate it.

Also note that biden ignores the Supreme Court when it acts Constitutionally, for example, by forgiving student loans after the Supreme Court said he can't! If the law is not what is plainly written but is whatever the President and his agents decide, what's left of the law? What's the point of the whole legislative process? How does this not differ from dictatorial rule? How isn't that a real threat to democracy? And why do left-wing/democrats support, vote for, and want more tyranny?

1. “No State shall …engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay… And, by the way,, Article 4, Section 4 states: “The United States shall…protect each of them against invasion…”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/abbott-texas-has-constitutional-righ...

Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bukr2WWrZvk

https://www.dailywire.com/news/border-patrol-union-backs-texas-nati...

https://www.theblaze.com/news/list-of-states-signaling-support-for-...

https://www.dailywire.com/news/25-republican-governors-band-togethe...

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-promises-shut-down-border-co...

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/281...

Broken cutters, broken saws,

Broken buckles, broken laws,

Broken bodies, broken bones,

Broken voices on broken phones

Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',

Everything is broken

Every time you leave and go off someplace

Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs,

Broken treaties, broken vows,

Broken pipes, broken tools,

People bending broken rules

Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,

Everything is broken

                                      Bob Dylan

biden's democrat Party is the established order. Trump is the rebel, he embodies rejection, even disdain, for the establishment. As in 2016, he is lapping his challengers with his contempt for the Washington establishment. Americans are angry. For years now, Americans have seen that nothing much works as it should. ny times' bret stephens explains that: “brokenness has become the defining feature of much of American life: broken families, broken public schools, broken small towns and inner cities, broken universities, broken health care, broken media, broken churches, broken borders, broken government.”

Trump’s popularity is a flashing red warning of that system failure. Trump sees what the other candidates do not: Americans hate Big Brother. The brokenness of government is the least of it. The government tells us what to do, and how to do it, without doing its own job very well. Immigration is out of control. The workplace is a thicket of rules. Have you finished your dei and anti-harassment training? Is your paperwork in order? Don’t be yourself: you wouldn’t want someone to feel “unsafe.” Washington is bad theater, like watching phoniness on a continual loop. Did you hear the one about how Ivy League universities are beacons of free speech? woke teachers teach hate and agenda not information, knowledge, wisdom and learning. School have lost authority over the classroom, doctors and nurses spend half the day filling out forms, you risk your job by telling a joke in the workplace. Washington is useless, like a perpetual motion machine. It can't even give a permit for a transmission line everybody agrees is needed.

Oh, and never forget that most Americans are bigots, the beneficiaries of white privilege—even if you’re working yourself to the bone with 2 jobs, and still have trouble making ends meet. Institutions can’t function without trust at the top—trust in consistent standards, values and common purpose. Why would you trust to lead the rebuilding of government for the benefit of everyone by the very same ideologues who broke it?

Suffocation + Sanctimony + ineptitude = Time for a change

America has a vast reservoir of the human spirit. But it's dammed up inside the massive legal concrete-like gate of Washington. Open the gate and release Americans’ energy and ingenuity in all parts of our society. Area by area, we'll replace dense rulebooks with simpler frameworks, like the Constitution, that are activated by human responsibility. Let Americans be Americans. Give Americans the freedom to do what’s right. Give back to our communities the responsibility to do things in our own ways. Judge us by how we do, but don't tell us how to do it. Accountability must work both ways: Give us back the power to hold the people in government accountable. Nothing works unless a person makes it work. Decades of dense red tape must be replaced by simple frameworks that people can understand and be accountable for. No institution works unless the people in charge are trusted to maintain common standards of right and good, on the solid foundation of human responsibility.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2024/01/24/kjp-gaslighting-...

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/19/fani-willis-gave-big-...

https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/opinion/nathan-wade-and-fani-willis-a...

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/amid-allegations-that-she-mismanag...

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/flashback-trump-prosecutor-accused...

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/doj-evidence-jan-6/2024/01/19/id/...

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-committee-jan-6-deleted-encr...

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/the_final_four_cas...

better treatment than Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkFX8fCVg_8

https://www.dailywire.com/news/investigators-uncover-bowman-decepti...

https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/19/corrupt-media-use-misinformati...

https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/18/like-trump-or-not-republicans-...