Does Nicholas Hahn Hate Immigrants?

Nicholas Hahn, editor at RealClearReligion, took to the pages of RealUnclearReligion, I mean, the American Spectator, to launch an attack on the U.S. bishops because of their activism on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform. Like many of Mr. Hahn’s forays into public debate, his latest column demonstrates, in equal parts, the willingness to misunderstand the way bishops interact with the public sphere, and, when that does not suffice, to ignore the facts entirely.

Hahn repeats the charge leveled by George Weigel that the bishops’ Mass at the border in March turned the most sacred rite of the Church into “an act of political theater,” a charge leveled on the relentlessly anti-immigrant EWTN TV show, “The World Over” with Raymond Arroyo. I responded to Mr. Weigel at the time. It is one thing to believe bishops should, like monks, withdraw from the world and abstain from highlighting any political consequences of their religious convictions. It is another to endorse the Fortnight for Freedom, called to draw attention to the issue of religious liberty, and then condemn the Mass at the border. The inconsistency is too obvious to require much comment. Not for the first time, Weigel – and now Hahn – places a political agenda in front of religious conviction.