The Role of the Catholic Church in Immigrant Integration
J. Kevin Appleby Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Some analysts in the immigration debate claim that the Catholic Church's advocacy on behalf of immigrants springs from a self-interest to increase the number of Catholics in the United States, since a majority of the immigrants coming to the United States at the current time are Catholic. They suggest that more immigrants will increase the number of Catholics in the pews, and therefore there will be more resources for the Church.
There are a couple problems with these assertions. One is the assumption that the Catholic Church in the United States is in dire need of more adherents when the number of American Catholics is approaching 70 million, an all-time high. The other flaw in the argument is that it belies the reality of the situation—that immigrants, including the undocumented, are already present in the country for a variety of reasons, the least of which is their recruitment by the US Catholic Church. The fact of the matter is that immigrants come to the United States either to work or to join their family.
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