How do you tell people who have thought (and taught, and been taught) one way for years and years that there is another way to think that may be at odds, maybe even diametrically opposed to, the way they've thought and taught?

It's a question that parish liturgists, to name one group, have been asking for four decades. And it's a question that those involved in the effort to establish humane immigration reform laws are dealing with today. Many who have immigrated here legally, and/or their children, grandchildren, etc., want to know why in years past they had to follow the law, and today people can come to the U.S. illegally, get who-knows-how-many benefits (jobs, education, health care), and now may not need to worry about getting arrested, if the "pro-illegal" crowd has its way.

It's a fair question, although the people leading humane immigration reform effort --- including the U.S. bishops --- stress that they, too, realize the need for laws that are fair to everyone, not just the undocumented, and that none of the proposals they favor involve "Here's your instant citizenship"-type amnesty. Rather, the bishops favor "earned amnesty," a series of steps that require those seeking to become legal permanent residents (LPR) to earn that status by working over a six-year period before qualifying, the payment of a fine, and the ability to speak English.

"Under this scenario," states the information sheet provided by the U.S. bishops' Office of Migration & Refugee Policy, "undocumented workers would not 'jump the line' over those who have played by the rules." (See www.usccb.org/mrs/mrp/shtml for more information on what the U.S. bishops advocate.)

That information, however, will not alone satisfy many. And in fact, the sad truth is that all the marches, all the speeches, all the homilies, all the editorials in support of humane immigration reform won't make a bit of difference without the mindful realization and heartfelt acceptance that what we are talking about involves life --- life created by God, life with inherent value and dignity that no human law could or should ever deny.

So yes, immigration reform is a pro-life issue, just as abortion is. Both are social justice issues; both are civil rights issues (abortion, as George Weigel has said, accurately and repeatedly, is the single greatest civil rights issue of our time). We cannot talk about life without talking about justice and rights.

Which makes both, of course, political issues. And if we as a church are going to get involved in one, we cannot stay out of the other. That is a basic understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, something which we as church have failed to effectively convey to our faithful.

That does not mean we cannot have laws that preserve some sort of civil order (and, one would hope, civility). But when we talk about giving to Caesar and giving to God --- a point stressed by many letter writers to this newspaper, some more civilly than others --- we ought to try and understand what is Caesar's and what is God's. If we are talking about life, then our Catholic teaching reminds us that no Caesar in the history of mankind has given life in the same way as God, father of our Lord Jesus.

Life --- born or unborn, old or new, native or immigrant, friend or enemy, family or stranger --- is our most precious gift. If we look at one another and see only a nationality, only a religion, only a gender, only an age, only a citizenship, then we have failed to follow what Jesus taught us.

We certainly have not taken to heart the words he spoke to his disciples shortly before he left this earth --- the words that spoke of feeding, clothing, visiting and comforting "the least" of his brothers and sisters, without first checking for documentation. That is a lesson that has not changed one iota in 2,000 years. It is a lesson that cannot be taught often enough.

---Mike Nelson