Catholic social teaching can be a very difficult topic, and it’s one that I still personally struggle with.

As you might have gathered from my political posts, I tend to lean more to the right than the left. The party line in the United States is that illegal immigrants are bad and worthy only of deportation. Of course, Catholic social teaching emphasizes something very different than that, asking us to care for the migrant workers.

• “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Ex 20:21)
• “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 19:9-11, cf. Num 15:30)
• “You shall have the same rule [of law] for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” (Lev 24:22)