The Moral Bishop Tobin Preaches To The American Oysters

Since so many of us, including me,
were on vacation last month, I bet most Americans
missed a news story that reminded me of the
Lewis Carroll poem, from his famous Alice book,


Through the looking glass and what Alice found there
(1872), “The Walrus and The Carpenter”.

No, not the

most famous verse—

"The time has come," the Walrus
said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and
sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings."

Rather I found the final verse
pertinent to the remarks made on August 20 by

Rhode Island Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin.

I`ll remind
you of that verse shortly. But first let me tell you the
lead-in to the news story and

Bishop Tobin`s comments.

Seems that US Immigration and
Enforcement (ICE) has been enforcing the law more
vigorously lately. Whether this is a
politically-motivated attempt to wedge-issue the Open
Border stance of (alas!) my own Democratic Party (I
hasten to note that McCain is no better) remains moot.
But, most conspicuously in recent raids on a

meat packing plant in

Postville, Iowa, at a

factory with defense contracts in Massachusetts, and
at

Howard Industries in

Mississippi, there have been since the beginning of
the year more than 5,000 illegal aliens arrested in work
site immigration enforcement raids. More than 1,000 of
these face criminal charges.

This is certainly good news for
American workers and I applaud ICE.

However, Bishop Tobin in a letter to
ICE condemned the raids, saying they were
"unjust,
unnecessary and counterproductive". He then urged
the ICE agents to consider the morality of their
actions. [RI
bishop wants US to halt mass immigration raids,
By Ray Henry, Associated Press, August 21, 2008

The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) has also often spoken out against those
raids.

I guess this is where Lewis
Carroll`s verse about the Walrus and Carpenter struck me
as apt. After opining on their relations with a large
group of oysters they had collected on the beach and
cajoled with sweet talk, these worthies, akin to the
USCCB—is that the Walrus?—and Bishop Tobin–is he the
Carpenter?—enjoy their repast.

As the final verse reads:

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You`ve had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?`
But answer came there none–
And this was scarcely odd, because
They`d eaten every one.

In short, so many

American Catholic citizens, like the oysters, have
been
told by the USCCB and its

Bishops countrywide that there is no problem with
mass immigration. So, these leaders have said in effect:

"Just line up and listen to the Catholic connection
on morality. Don`t worry about the laws of the
government which were ordained by democratic actions. We
of the hierarchy know best. Of course, dear Oysters,
putting more under-educated, under-paid, over-worked
illegal immigrants out of work would be too
too
depressing."

So these worthies would rather see
American citizens and their national patrimony—their
jobs,
educational
facilities, etc—continue to be eaten like the
oysters until it
will be too late to

know what happened.

Speaking of morality, on which Tobin
has opined so vigorously as it

related to our civil laws on immigration, it is
perhaps worth mentioning that the AP has just reported:

"The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence will pay $1.3
million to four people who said they were abused by
priests." [August 30,2008]

That same AP story stated:

"Bishop Thomas Tobin and the
Providence
diocese did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the
agreement."

The AP also noted:

"In 2002, the diocese reached a $14.25 million
settlement with 37 alleged victims of sexual abuse in
Rhode Island
who filed lawsuits. The cases involved allegations
against 11 priests and a nun."

Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.