“The Mourning Tree” by Kathy Hatch
Oil on canvas 16″ x 20″
artforour.org
Benefitting O.U.R. saving children from child trafficking all over the world
I love my Catholic Church and my Catholic Faith. These are the cornerstones of my life. I was hesitant to do this podcast because I did not want to be the one who openly criticizes the practices of the beloved home of my belief. I am Catholic. That is not just what I am that is who I am to my very core. I started serving God in several ministries of my Church in 1997 as I still do. I will continue serving in whatever capacity that God calls me to for as long as I am alive and perhaps God willing beyond that time. I pray that I am convicted of being a follower of Christ within the tenets and doctrines of Holy Mother Church when I meet my maker on Judgment Day.
That said, I must also say that in my training both biblically and spiritually as a Catholic Christian I am compelled to be honest and forthright when I see and learn of incompatible issues and practices within the Faith that defies reason and are inherently short-sighted. After all, all of us have suffered from the many scandals in the Church, particularly the child victims of sexual abuse. The entirety of mankind was forever scarred by that embarrassing stain on the Church. Many people lost their Faith! Those times made many question the validity of Catholic Truth which by the way, has not changed regardless of the very few Judas’ that acted within her fold. Catholics still live with the shame of that time. We learned to tell the truth to ourselves about ourselves so we could allow God to correct us as a Church. We changed how we did things to keep us all honest. The Holy Spirit has not left the Church and it never will. We still cling to the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love! So let us look at the Truth by way of these virtues.
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still “enemies.”100 The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.101
The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: “charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”102
1826 “If I . . . have not charity,” says the Apostle, “I am nothing.” Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, “if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing.”103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.”104
~The Catechism Of The Catholic Church
Charity, therefore, is the virtue of Love!
What is true love though if we must dance with the devil to achieve it? Can true charity co-mingle with an evil agenda and plan? Is it possible? Is it permissible to have a coordinated interchange with the very people who are marketing human beings as chattel? There has got to be a better way, a more loving way to be charitable to the refugee than having to cooperate with criminals and a depraved government-sanctioned invasion of the United States of America. When the guise of charity has become a wheel in the mechanism of human smuggling and trafficking is it still charity? Or it, God help us all, misplaced help with the intention of being charitable? I beg of our Catholic Bishops in America and the Church as a whole to find the smarter way to love without sacrificing the good faith of the very people who entrust the Church to honor their personhood and indeed their souls. Love does not lead people to slaughter. The Bishops of Texas and indeed all of the border states each need to make a personal visit to the eye of this tornado and ask the tough questions like,” Where are these children going now?” And they must demand to know and hold these facilities accountable. That would be true Love.
There is so much hard evidence of human smuggling /trafficking at our Southern border that it is staggeringly obvious! At this point, trafficking is at the largest scale in magnitude that has ever been witnessed before in the world. The U.S. is the largest consumer of trafficking. It is not a theory; it is a somber fact! Smugglers no longer fear arrests by the border patrol agents because the agents have been told by the higher-ups (the Biden Administration) not to arrest them. We are witnessing a well-oiled machine coordinated to admit as many men, women, and particularly children into the interior of the United States of America as possible. And as fast as possible! Where many if not most of these illegal immigrants particularly the children will be exploited at best and sold at the very worst. Some of the women and children do not survive the arduous journey. Many refugees have succumbed to the elements of the wilderness and the desert. Many are abandoned raped and killed by the very smugglers(criminals) they trusted to get them to the U.S. Their decomposed bodies can be found along the many routes taken by the coyotes.
One-third of the children that are captured and placed into U.S.-run facilities show signs of sexual abuse. Right now the number of sexually abused is in the tens of thousands. But at the present rate of entry not including the “got aways” the number of sexually abused children entering this country will number in the millions. That is child sex trafficking en masse! Where these abuses happened are varied. They most likely occurred during their journey to this country. Some have been molested in facilities here in Texas. They are investigating a series of rapes at a holding facility in San Antonio.
My returning guest today is Timothy Enlow, a security specialist, who works at the border providing protection for others also investigating the dramatic increase in border crossings since Biden has taken office. What he has seen is shocking and unnerving. Listen or watch as he shares about the methodically coordinated effort of the U.S. government, the cartels, MS-13, and unfortunately Catholic Charities to quickly process illegal immigrants into this country. To this, I must pose a question. When it is painfully obvious that human smugglers/ traffickers have a system in place with the blessing of the U.S. government to race, vulnerable women and children, across that border at great risk of being indecently exploited, is it morally right to be a part of that system? That machinery used for slavery or at a minimum indentured servitude? Even if you are feeding those on this journey, knowing what we certainly now know, is this charity? It’s like working on a slave ship and saying “Well I was in charge of the food!”. Is this love? I’m not so certain that it is!
Biden put us all in this position. We’ve had problems at the border for generations. It only improved there when President Donald Trump changed the rules of engagement between the Border Patrol and the smugglers. Activity there definitely slowed down for that short while. As a result, there were fewer women and children getting raped and murdered. Biden then gave an open invitation to the world to come here to the U.S. “You should come!” Biden said! That was a green start flag to the criminals who would abuse this invite as a race to the border dragging along with them unaccompanied minors. All claiming to be families. They don’t check DNA anymore under Biden only for Covid. And they all coordinate still to pass them through like cattle for slaughter. They are all working together. Biden, the cartels, MS-13, and unfortunately Catholic Charities. I’m praying for my Church! May God have mercy on our souls!
Let me know what you think!
KAThysRight 