The serious mistake of the Episcopal Conference in supporting an irresponsible measure by Sánchez

The Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has decided to support a highly questionable and irresponsible measure by the government of Pedro Sánchez.

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Yesterday, the government announced a mass regularization of 500,000 undocumented immigrants by royal decree, bypassing Congress, in a concession to the far-left Podemos party. The measure will even benefit undocumented immigrants who have only been in Spain for five months, and many have already warned of one of its immediate consequences: creating a pull factor for illegal immigration that will openly benefit the criminal organizations that profit from it.

Interestingly, today the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) published a statement supporting this measure. Let us recall that on this matter, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (2241):

"Civil authorities, mindful of the common good of those under their care, may subordinate the exercise of the right of immigration to various legal conditions, especially concerning the duties of emigrants towards the country of adoption."

The statement from the CEE seems to overlook this point in the Catechism, adopting highly questionable political positions that, therefore, give Catholics the full right to challenge them. The CEE claims this measure is "an act of social justice." What kind of justice is it to reward those who enter a country illegally, granting them the same benefits as those who have entered legally? Such a measure is an affront to many people who have followed the necessary steps to enter and settle in Spain in accordance with the law.

Javier Benegas very aptly points this out: "Mass regularizations do not establish fair criteria; much less neutral ones. On the contrary, they discriminate against those who have arrived legally, enduring a bureaucratic ordeal that, as those who have tried know all too well, can last for years and consume money, patience, and even mental health. The implicit message is devastating: complying with the rules is expensive; circumventing them is very profitable."

To give you an idea, what the EEC is proposing is as if the state were to grant the same pension to those who have contributed to Social Security for 30 years as to those who chose to work off the books and without contributing. This would not be an act of social justice: it would be a clear injustice against those who have acted within the law. The same applies to immigration. With its statement, the CEE supports granting the same benefit to those who have respected immigration laws and to those who have broken them. This is a blatant injustice.

On the other hand, the CEE considers that this mass regularization offers a "response to those who cannot access ordinary channels." This is like saying that a pension should be granted to those who did not contribute because "they cannot access ordinary channels." The CEE's statement is categorically false: many immigrants arrive in Spain legally from various countries. They do so after complying with the procedures established by law, which, among other things, seek to safeguard the common good mentioned in the Catechism, since an immigration process not only affects the people who move from one country to another, but also the inhabitants of the host country.

However, the CEE completely disregards the most basic criteria for regulating immigration to prevent it from becoming a problem. In the points included in its statement, the EEC intends to regularize those who cannot prove a minimum period of residence in Spain, those who lack documentation proving their identity and origin, and minors who have left their country of origin and should be returned to their families. This would lead to very dangerous situations and would allow the regularization of potential criminals who have simply disposed of their documents to evade justice.

The most astonishing aspect of the Episcopal Conference's statement is that the communiqué published on its website includes a video with statements from its president, Luis Argüello, in which he defends this mass regularization outside of Congress as a matter of "democratic health." I had to rewatch it several times because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Is "democratic health" allowing a government without a parliamentary majority to deprive Parliament of its legislative function and the necessary public debate on a measure that seriously affects our country? Is "democratic health" rewarding those who have broken the law and granting them the same benefit as those who respected it, thus violating such a basic principle of democracy as the principle that the law must be equal for all?

The CEE support for this measure is not only regrettable, but also based on highly questionable arguments, such as those we have just reviewed. With this, the organization that brings together the Spanish bishops seems to have miscalculated the future consequences of its stance on this measure. What moral authority can an organization that blesses such an injustice and whitewashes an affront to Parliament possibly claim going forward? How can our bishops expect to fulfill their pastoral mission, which consists of guiding society toward good and justice, while they applaud the government for adopting an authoritarian, unjust, discriminatory measure that benefits illegal immigration mafias?

It is necessary to emphasize this last point. That regrettable statement from the CEE would ultimately result in Spain being unable to regulate the immigration arriving at its borders, as the Catechism indicates, resorting to irresponsible arguments that one would expect from an extreme left that doesn't care about generating serious social problems and instability in Spain, but which one does not expect from our bishops. If illegal immigrants continue to arrive in Spain in the coming months, how long will it take the CEE to support another mass regularization like this one? The arguments used in their statement suggest that it no longer makes sense for Spain to have borders and that we should let everyone who arrives pass through, forgetting that we are the guardians of one of the external borders of the European Union and that what arrives in Spain will affect many other countries.

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Image: Conferencia Episcopal Española.