INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (The Criterion) –The Indiana Catholic bishops call the faithful “to welcome others as Christ himself” in a pastoral letter on the treatment of immigrants.
In a document issued on Jan. 12 entitled “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: Meeting Christ in New Neighbors,” the pastoral is the first of its kind issued collectively by the Indiana bishops in recent times.
The joint letter is signed by Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, Lafayette Bishop William L. Higi, Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John M. D’Arcy, Gary Bishop Dale J. Melczek and Evansville Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger.
Typically, statements from the bishops are done though the Indiana Catholic Conference, the church official public policy voice. However, the pastoral letter is a unique move by the bishops giving the statement a distinctive teaching authority which carries more significance and weight that of shepherds addressing the faithful.
“We Catholic bishops of Indiana recommit ourselves and our dioceses to welcoming others as Christ himself,” the pastoral says. “Together with all our sisters and brothers throughout the state of Indiana, we embrace an authentic and enduring form of Hoosier hospitality that goes beyond superficial slogans to the heart of what it means to be a community of faith that welcomes all who wish to share our way of life.”
In the letter, the Indiana bishops remind the faithful of Pope Benedict XVI�s first encyclical, Deus caritas est (God is love), saying “there is an intimate and unbreakable connection between love of God and love of neighbor. In loving our neighbor, we meet the person of Christ.”
The pastoral defines a neighbor “not simply as someone who is familiar and close at hand, [nor] someone who shares my ethnic, social or racial characteristics.”
Rather, as the gospels define neighbor, “Our neighbor is anyone who is in need � including those who are homeless, hungry, sick or in prison. A neighbor may well be a complete stranger whose background, experience or social standing is very different from ours,” the bishops say.
Tags: Homelessness
