May 10, 2006
Just a few days ago we brought you this story about Belgian priests allowing illegal Muslim immigrants to occupy their churches. The immigrants are seeking legal status in Belgium, and the Churches are providing sanctuary - though in the process they are being taken over and remade such that they now resemble tent cities and mosques.
However the story was not nearly complete, as the government of Belgium claimed that the illegal immigrants were not fleeing persecution, were in no danger of being deported, nor had the vast majority of them even applied for legal asylum.
The entire affair was actually a sort of second act from the first round of live-in's that took place in the year 2000. The Churches provided the same sanctuary, and the government was eventually forced to give in a grant amnesty to some 50,000 illegal immigrants.
But as the story is playing out right now, the Belgian authorities are prepared to fight back - even despite the new development, as the Papal Nuncio to Belgium has voiced approval of the church occupations.
Monsignor Karl-Josef Rauber, the Papal Nuncio (i.e. the Vatican’s Ambassador) to Belgium, supports the occupations of Belgian churches by illegal immigrants. “The Church has always sided with the weak,” the Nuncio says in today’s issue of the leftist newspaper De Morgen. With his statement the Nuncio comes out in support of the embattled Belgian Catholic Bishops. Hans Geybels, the spokesman of Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the Primate of Belgium, said the Nuncio’s support is “a positive signal.”
During the past weeks the Belgian Bishops have allowed hundreds of squatters – so-called “sans-papiers” or “people without papers [=staying permits]” – to occupy over 20 Belgian churches and turn them into dormitories and Muslim places of prayer. The immigrants demand that they be allowed to stay in Belgium permanently.
Since the late 1990’s individual Belgian Catholic priests have been opening their churches and chapels to immigrants who by Belgian law are subject to expulsion. From the beginning the church occupation (or “church asylum”) movement shocked many conservative Catholics, who complained about the desecration of churches by men and women sharing beds in church, lighting fires and cooking on the floors, installing radios and televisions, removing altars and tabernacles, covering images of Saints and displaying banners with the name of Allah (see pictures here).
As we stated before, while the Church's promise of sanctuary is highly honorable, no good will come of this. In fact the Church is well on it's way to making an enemy of Belgium. The people are clearly against this type of overt action for immigration reform, and the tax on Belgium's already burdened social welfare system will be severe. The story of sanctuary and potential aslyum is creating a huge influx of migrants. And the government is now threatening legal action against the Church.
Of course, all of this is going on while conservative Catholics in Belgium are sorely distressed that the Church has decided to take this overt stand, regardless of the potential for national chaos, yet not stand up for the unborn, the euthanized, or their own parishoners.
And so, our question to the Vatican - humbly submitted - as this story grows ever more complicated, is this: What are you doing?
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Comments
More up-to-date pictures and comments on Belgian Church occupations
Posted by: Gillibrand | May 18, 2006 08:07 AM