A Win for Catholic Social Teaching
Immigrant & Refugee
Ministry Coordinator
~ Just a few weeks ago in the Post-Dispatch, Tony Messenger reported, “ICE Releases Pregnant St. Louis Immigrant. It’s a Win for Human Dignity.” The release of Yurgen Calix, an asylum seeker, gives me a glimmer of hope and a reminder of the power of Catholic Social Teaching. The principles of CST call us to special concern for Yurgen:
- Solidarity – IRM’s Accompaniment volunteers Jim Baum and Andrea Veras, along with Fr. Mitch Doyen, stood with Yurgen, prayed with her, and comforted her as she courageously entered the ICE office, knowing that she would likely be detained.
- Rights and Responsibilities – Yurgen’s lawyer Kris Walentik of Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry continues to fight tirelessly with every legal means to assure that her client’s right to live without fear of persecution is honored. The state has a responsibility to provide for public health and safety, even of those who are in prison. By violating its own directive by detaining pregnant women, ICE has egregiously failed to fulfill this duty.
- Call to Family, Community, and Participation – We Catholics believe that the family is the basic building block of our society; however, immigrant families are being split apart every day in our community. Yurgen has been reunited with her 3 children and has been freed from the isolation of imprisonment.
- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable – Yurgen, a single-mother who is pregnant and comes from an indigenous community, fears returning to her home country due to credible threats of violence. She is certainly vulnerable. The US Bishops tell us, “Those who flee wars and persecution should be protected by the global community. This requires, at a minimum, that migrants have a right to claim refugee status without incarceration and to have their claims fully considered by a competent authority” (Strangers No Longer, 37). Yurgen deserves special import rather than imprisonment.
- Life and Dignity of the Human Person – Yurgen, regardless of her status, has the right to live in dignified conditions. Her unborn child has the right to life. In jail, they have both been denied much needed medical attention and nutrition. It is quite possible that those who worked for Yurgen’s release saved the lives of both of these precious children of God. Undeniably, they removed them from the indignity they experienced in jail.
This is a win for Yurgen for now as she continues to fight for asylum. It’s a win for human dignity, a win inspired by Catholic Social Teaching. Let us hope and pray that many more of our immigrant neighbors enjoy such a victory.
Messenger: ICE releases pregnant St. Louis immigrant. It’s a win for human dignity.
PDF version of the article: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:va6c2:50b19cda-0fe7-43e7-8919-55913160a302
