IN SUPPORT OF AN EQUITABLE MIGRATION POLICY

WHEREAS, the Knights of Columbus is an international lay Catholic organization with members and councils in the United States, Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, France, and South Korea; and 

WHEREAS, the Knights of Columbus was founded by immigrants and sons of immigrants in the late 19th century during a time of fierce nativist resistance to the arrival and presence of Catholic immigrants in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin”; and

WHEREAS, Catholic social teaching allows for nations to enforce reasonable limits on migration and that “political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption”; and

WHEREAS, the catechism states that migrants “are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens”; and 

WHEREAS, in his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, Pope Francis has stated that the proper attitude toward migrants is to “stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children”; and

WHEREAS, on the occasion of the 2018 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the Holy Father reminded us that those who migrate to a new country should “know and respect the laws, the culture and the traditions of the countries that take them in,” and that those communities receiving migrants should “understand the hopes and potential of the newly arrived as well as their fears and vulnerabilities”; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that as Catholics and as Knights of Columbus we will always be guided by our principle of charity in efforts to respond both humanely and equitably in matters concerning migration policy; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, that we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of Catholic social teaching that migration policy should equitably balance the legitimate rights of persons to emigrate in order to seek better lives for themselves and their children, with the duty of governments to control migration into their countries so that their policies serve the common good.