The United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's had their Baltimore meeting and among other things, they voted 216–5 to condemn our country for deporting illegal aliens. As soon as I read about it, I remembered two stories from the past.
The first was from a young priest who lived in one of the worst parts of Mexico. He wrote about four young thugs who ran afoul of their gang for beating and robbing a man who was already paying the gang protection money. They acted without permission and presumably took profits for themselves. The punishment was supposed to be execution, but due to the priest's pleading it was reduced to exile. They were told to get out of Mexico and crossed the Rio Grande that night. It's a dramatic story and the priest's sympathy was for the young men, but I have wondered what happened next. Did those violent men throw themselves at the foot of the Holy Cross and go straight, or are they now victimizing Americans?
Here's another story for the bishops. One weekend afternoon, a former co-worker of mine went jogging in a park that was close to her neighborhood. At some point she realized that she was being closely followed by two men in a truck. She ran faster and they picked up speed. Finally, she came to a side trail that had two steel bollards that may have saved her life. The driver couldn't follow her without damaging his vehicle and both men, who appeared to be from some country in Latin America, were either two lazy to pursue her or simply realized that this American woman was not going to be an easy victim, chose to let her go. She ran for her life on that trail until she made it to the parking lot. From there she ran home. If my old co-worker hadn't been fast, what would have happened to her?
The USCCB wrote about a "climate of fear", but ignore the fear American women and girls have had to live under for too long. We've gotten to the point where going for a walk or going to the gas station could lead to rape and murder and our bishops just blow off as if we are nothing.
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