On this Sunday, many American Catholics heard sermons recommending that amnesty be given to lawbreaking foreigners who are here to steal American jobs. It’s part of a more aggressive campaign organized by the Bishops to press a “moral” argument for amnesty, despite the inherent ethical weakness of contending that scarce jobs should be taken from poor Americans and given to poor invasive foreigners, redistribution being part of Marxist “liberation theology”.

Remember: over 20 million Americans are unemployed, and the recently passed Senate bill would allow 30 million “immigrants” to attain legal status in the next decade, reduce wages and increase unemployment.

How then does the Catholic pro-amnesty position support morality?

It doesn’t. Catholic elites are serving their customers alone. The fact that the amnesty policy harms the most vulnerable Americans as a whole is overlooked entirely. (Catholic parishioners, on the other hand, prefer traditional sovereignty: according to a 2009 Zogby poll 64 percent preferred enforcement over amnesty.)

The Catholic church in the United States represents a foreign power, the Vatican, which is a sovereign city-state, albeit small, with a flag, bordered territory and ambassadors. The church acts against the well being of American citizens by lobbying for its lawbreakers, yet the church doesn’t pay taxes. Worse, our national government gives the Catholics millions of dollars to perform activities like refugee resettlement and advising illegals how to break immigration law more effectively.

The chart below comes from the 2010 edition of Catholic Charities at a Glance. FYI, 62% (the Government Revenue, meaning our tax dollars) of the total = $2,895,092,130.

In addition, the church has spent well over $3 million in the past year lobbying for amnesty.

Below are a few snips from the special amnesty sermons given to push the Catholic open-borders agenda:

? Green Bay Diocese supports immigration reform: “When one part of that community is suffering injustice – the whole community is suffering,” explained Rev. Andrew Cribben.

? LA’s Archbishop Gomez joins Catholic churches nationwide urging Congress to pass immigration reform: “It’s not normal for a country of immigrants to not have a good system in place to welcome immigrants,” Mexican-born Archbishop Jose Gomez said to reporters outside the cathedral.

? Atlanta Catholic church calls for immigration overhaul: “Our moral tradition based upon our Catholic social justice calls on all people of faith and good will to stand up in defense of life and human dignity,” Deacon Gerald Zukauckas said.

One of the loudmouths for amnesty is New York City’s Cardinal Dolan, who has the gall to suggest America is insufficiently welcoming in its immigration policy, even when this country admits more foreigners than the rest of the planet combined.

It’s funny how these well paid moral paragons aren’t concerned about the Americans who will be replaced by the millions of new workers freed up to work any job by the amnesty and brought in through the “increased flow” so desired by employers looking to save a nickel — 46 million in 20 years according to the CBO.

Dolan is also pretty nervy to bring up Martin Luther King in the context of compassion, when black Americans get the worst of it from the endless stream of exploitable Mexicans.

Here’s Cardinal Dolan’s recent opinion piece, exhorting the troops:

Immigration reform: A moral imperative, New York Daily News, by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, September 6, 2013

As Congress comes back into session, it has a once-in-a-generation chance to fix our broken immigration system.

We cannot let this opportunity pass. Immigration reform would help families, it would help our economy and it would improve our security. Most importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

Pope Francis recently reminded us that “the measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need.” For generations, men and women have come to America’s shores in search of a better life for themselves and their families, and we’re justly proud of our heritage as a nation that welcomes people of good will.

But today, no one can be proud of the enormous underclass of undocumented workers that’s been allowed to form — millions of our neighbors who live on the margins, have their families fractured and are easily exploited.

We can’t be proud of the hundreds of migrants who die in the American desert each year in their quest to support their families back home.

We can’t be indifferent to these profound humanitarian problems. No wonder that, around the country, Catholics and citizens of other creeds are on the front lines in providing a compassionate response, as they were with Rev. Martin Luther King a half-century ago.

Every day, our parishes and charitable organizations encounter people struggling to make a new life for themselves and their families. We meet families who run the risk of being torn apart. We meet migrants who risked dangerous desert passages to get here. We meet young immigrants who want to get an education, find a job and raise a family like countless others before them.

Those who caricature these immigrants as “takers” couldn’t be more wrong. The plain fact is that immigrants, including those who are undocumented, make great contributions to our economy. They spend their wages on goods and services and also start their own businesses, driving economic growth and employment in their communities.

Studies have shown that by and large immigrant laborers complement the American work force by filling jobs in industries such as agriculture and service. And undocumented immigrants pay over $10 billion in federal, state and local taxes per year, according to some estimates; that number would rise if immigration reform moves forward.

Support for immigrant families multiplies these benefits. Families are engines of integration into American life, helping to root immigrants in communities. Families provide support for newcomers to get started and for those already on their feet to move forward, to start a business or to put aside money for an education. When families are united here, it means that immigrants’ paychecks get spent in the U.S. economy instead of being sent out of the country. Above all, keeping families intact gives people a full stake in American life.

Helping immigrants contribute to American life is what immigration reform is all about. Answering the Gospel call to “welcome the stranger” and looking to our teachings and our on-the-ground experience, the U.S. Catholic bishops have called for various reforms: a generous, earned path to citizenship; making family reunification a priority; protecting the integrity of our borders; securing due process for immigrants and their families; improving refugee protection and asylum laws, and addressing the root causes of unauthorized immigration.

We know that there’s room for disagreement on such a complicated issue, but we hope and pray for a law that moves us forward.

Just as Americans are proud of our immigrant heritage, we’re also proud of our can-do spirit. When we see a problem, we do our best to find a solution. There’s no doubt our immigration system is broken. Now’s the time to fix it.

Dolan is archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.