LCWR Statement on Family Unity-Houe Committee Hearings

LCWR has submitted the following statement to the House Judiciary Committee. We expect Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA 19) to have it read into the record tomorrow as the committee begins hearings on comprehensive immigration reform:
 
As women of faith we, the members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), take seriously the gospel call to welcome the stranger and care for those in need. As Catholic sisters we are committed to the precepts of Catholic Social Teaching rooted in the Catholic tradition that remind us that the dignity of the person is at the core of our moral vision of society; that how we organize our society affects human dignity directly; and that any system that is deliberately cruel or inhumane needs to change. Because of these beliefs, at our 2012 national assembly, LCWR, “called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes the reunification of families and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the United States.”
 
Catholic sisters began coming to these shores 286 years ago as immigrants to serve immigrant populations. To this day they continue to minister to these aspiring citizens in schools and hospitals, in the fields and in the cities. They see the devastating effects of the brokenness of the current immigration system every day. They share the pain of mothers separated from their children and fathers who have risked their lives for love of their families.
 
The Senate framework and the principles laid out in the President’s speech in Las Vegas provide hope to our immigrant brothers and sisters and promise that the values that are the bedrock of our national identity will flourish—family unity, equal opportunity, due process, and respect for the dignity of all God’s children.
 
Read on….LCWR Statement on Family Unity