The Undocumented Catholic Underground

There have been reports about the impact of roundups of illegal immigrants on the Catholic denomination. It has been hurting the numbers. Today a small window into that subculture appeared. It is quite emotional and illustrates that the round ups have a significant impact on parishes in areas with large immigrant populations. 

I wrote a few days ago about parishes with smaller numbers showing up at mass because feds find it easier to arrest them. The link, however, is about the underground care illegal families provide for each other in parishes where many members are undocumented.

The link tells of women who are working feverishly to meet the needs of undocumented families. There is childcare, hunger, translation needs, transportation and a host of other things that volunteers help families with. This is mostly the work of women. These women in the link complain, however, that clergy take credit for the care "the church provides" while it is actually not the church providing help but these women themselves. One said those volunteers are hardly noticed by the male clergy. 

This card Trump has been playing since he came on the political scene in 2016, that immigrants without complete papers are dangerous and a threat to our society, may have a shelf life. These many thousands of people left abruptly. Businesses and families were hit by the unexpected and are now stunned. We have not seen the long-term impact. It will surely show up in time.

There are several other Trump policies that do not, at this moment, seem to have made a large impact. The time for the impact may not have arrived. For example, Proctor and Gamble is only today raising the price of some products such as Pampers. While the products themselves are mostly manufactured here the packaging and some machines come from other countries and that is why prices have been raised.

My guess is it will take about six months the impact of lost workers and tariffs to do the damage that appears inevitable.