“Dilexi Te:” Treating the Poor As Slaves.
One of the most blasphemous lines in Dilexi Te comes under the chapter heading titled, “Accompanying migrants.” It reads: “Mary and Joseph flee with the child Jesus to Egypt. Christ himself, who ‘came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him’ (Jn 1:11), lived among us as a stranger. For this reason, the Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord…” The author then misappropriates the Holy Family to argue for open-borders. Clearly, the Bible and the Catholic Church have always opposed chaos on national borders, as the true God is a God of order. But manipulating the Holy Family’s desperate [...]