Catholic bishops have accelerated their anti-American Open Borders crusade to fluff up their scandal-scarred morality cred in the Main Stream Media and to nudge “immigrants” (legality immaterial) to attend the church that supports ethnic separatism and disdains assimilation. Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley and several bishops celebrated a photo-op Mass near the border today (April 1) to underline their dedication to “immigrants.” These conspirators in cassocks were also scheduled to tour a local shelter and visit with the Border Patrol.

.@CardinalSean gives Communion to a worshipper on the Mexican side of the border fence at #BorderMass pic.twitter.com/mqHvzEHaOA — Archdio. of Boston (@bostoncatholic) April 1, 2014

[Cardinal O'Malley celebrates Mass along Mexico border, By Brian Skoloff, The Associated Press, April 1, 2014]

(Even the hide-bound hierarchy is hooked in to Twitter, using the #BorderMass hashtag for its event. O’Malley has the handle @CardinalSean.)

They emphasized the suffering of the illegal invaders—with no recognition that successful invaders steal jobs that should by law go to Americans; and no mention of America’s 20+ million unemployed.

O’Malley et al.’s deeply selfish and solipsistic view of morality: Hispanic foreigners (Catholic) should be cut extra slack—even though their law-breaking hurts innocent Americans.

Why is the American taxpayer supposed to support law-breaking just because the perps are poor foreigners? We have plenty of homegrown folks in poverty.

Why isn’t wealthy Mexico (#14 in world GDP) taken to task for its rotten treatment of its own poor?

Cardinal O’Malley posted his homily on his Facebook page—the same old demand that America taxpayers support the world’s (Catholic) unfortunates:

Pope Francis encourages us to go to the periphery to seek our neighbor in places of pain and darkness. We are here to discover our own identity as God’s children so that we can discover who our neighbor is, who is our brother and sister. As a nation of immigrants we should feel a sense of identification with other immigrant groups seeking to enter our country. The United States is a nation of immigrants. Only the indigenous Native Americans are not from somewhere else. So the word of God reminds us today that our God wants justice for the orphan and the widow and our God loves the foreigners, the aliens and reminds us that we were aliens in Egypt.

Yeah. Remember that the Catholic Church gets millions of taxpayer dollars to perform tasks like refugee resettlement, so large-scale immigration benefits it financially.

O’Malley’s Mass took place right next to the border fence, so there were photos of yearning faces behind bars (a popular theme).

Busloads of apple-cheeked kiddies from Catholic schools were brought in. Religious songs in both English and Spanish were sung. (As someone who loves religious music of all sorts, I found the music to be uninspired and boring.)

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has spent millions of dollars to promote amnesty. One obvious motive: to push priest sex abuse out of the public mind, even though the scandal continues to bubble along with little let-up. A Google News search for Catholic Priest Sex Abuse on March 31, covering just one month, got 6,830 results. The stories include trials going on, compensation paid to victims, and (depressing to see) new charges.

But the criminal sex behavior of pervert priests is now largely a local story—much like illegal alien crime—probably due to reporters getting tired of it, rather than any resolution being reached.

One exception: a recent intense 90-minute report from PBS Frontline: Secrets of the Vatican (February 25, 2014). (The link is to a video; there’s a transcript here). The interviews with now-grown victims of pedophile sex abuse were particularly disturbing. The documentary also painted a picture of a substantial homosexual presence within the Vatican itself:

VATICAN GUIDE: [through interpreter] A large part of the hierarchy is homosexual. Certainly, at the top levels of the church, in the Curia, and many important people, such as bishops and archbishops, are gay. NARRATOR: He’s a Vatican guide who says he’s had relationships with several priests. VATICAN GUIDE: [through interpreter] Here in Rome, it’s very easy to meet a gay priest, on a bus, in a church, and important churches like St. Peter’s. It’s even easier when you go to gay clubs and gay bars. You see them in the bars, and then at the altar the following Sunday. NARRATOR: The world he is describing was captured by reporter Carmelo Abbate, who began a two-year investigation when a gay friend told him he’d just had sex with a priest. CARMELO ABBATE, Author, Sex and the Vatican: [through interpreter] The priest went on to say, “Actually on Saturday, there will be a party here in Rome, in a club in Testaccio, with me and lots of other priests. We’ve also booked two escorts from Turin, from Piemonte, who will be the entertainers at the party. If you like, you’re invited. I’d love you to join us.”

But, despite the continuing sex scandals in US Catholic churches, the American MSM embraced the new pope, Francis, as a moral paragon when he visited the Italian island of Lampedusa to welcome African illegal aliens to Europe.

Outrageously, Seattle Bishop Eusebio Elizondo—himself a Mexican immigrant—claimed:

The U.S.-Mexico border is our Lampedusa. Migrants in this hemisphere try to reach it, but often die in the attempt. [Cardinal O'Malley, bishops to celebrate Mass at U.S.-Mexico Border, By Christopher S. Pineo, Boston Pilot, March 28, 2014]

In contrast, a 2009 Zogby poll showed 64 percent of non-elite American Catholic parishioners preferred immigration enforcement to the hierarchy’s open-borders policy. A 2013 Pulse Opinion Research survey noted that 67 percent of American Catholics thought the government was not doing enough to fight illegal immigration.

With such a chasm between hierarchy and laity, in addition to the priest sex scandal, is it surprising that a substantial number of Catholic church-goers have dropped out? One in ten Americans is an ex-Catholic. [7 reasons Catholics leave church (in Trenton, #1 is sex abuse crisis) By Dan Merica, CNN, March 30th, 2012]

One-third of Americans raised Catholic no longer identify as such.[America’s Former Catholics, Pew Research, June 13, 2012]

President Obama’s visit with the Pope on March 27 provided a fine photo op for both parties. Different narratives have appeared of what was said in their private meeting.[ Two versions of Obama-Pope Francis discussion: Agreements, but some divergences, By Barbie Latza Nadeau, Yahoo News, March 27, 2014]But we can be sure they agreed on opening the US border to more Hispanics.

The following day, the Washington Post burbled: Catholic leaders hope message from pope and U.S. bishops will revive immigration reform.

American Catholic leaders are hoping that President Obama’s meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday will strengthen his resolve to soften U.S. policy on deportations, and that the pontiff’s call for compassion toward migrants will also bolster the prospects for immigration reform, now stalled in Congress. Church officials have staged several high-profile events to reinforce the pope’s message. On Wednesday, a delegation led by Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez brought the young daughter of a man facing deportation to meet the pope at the Vatican…. [By Pamela Constable, March 27, 2014]

Wait, aren’t illegals supposed to be suffering in the shadows? How do they afford a trip to Europe? Picking strawberries must be better paying than we are led to think.

Jersey Vargas, the little girl (pictured right) with the deportable dad, triggered numerous MSM sob stories (plus a skeptical blog by me.

Promptly, the drunk-driving illegal alien dad was released on $5000 bond. [Girl talks to pope on immigration, then dad freed, By Amy Taxin, March 29, 2014]

But, curiously, it turned out that little Jersey hadn’t seen her father for two years—although he was arrested and jailed only last September after a DUI arrest. [Jersey Vargas reunited with dad after asking Pope Francis to save him from deportation, By Snejana Farberov, Daily Mail, March 29,2014]

Maybe Mario just wasn’t that into fatherhood. But no MSM reporter apparently asked about the discrepancy. So the Vargas family reunification was all sweetness and light—a photographer’s dream, just as the bishops planned.

Theoretically, Mario could still be deported for his DUI crime. But, since he is now a celeb alien and not an axe-murderer, it’s unlikely. Criminal family values are highly regarded by the Obama administration.

Despite the Catholic hierarchy’s group swoon for immigration, actual immigration policy has real drawbacks for them. For example, it also imports Muslims, who are beginning to be troublesome.

One symptom: the recent sale of a magnificent Syracuse cathedral to a Muslim refugee group—who will turn it into a mosque. Surrealistically, the largest resettlement contractor, bringing the most Muslims, is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Do the Bishops not understand that Muslims regard such a takeover as surrender—a battle won for Islam in the long march toward a worldwide caliphate?

The Vatican could more seriously engage itself against Islam, the millennial enemy of Christianity and Western civilization. But, sadly, the current Pope is less realistic about Islam than his predecessor, Pope Benedict. Francis claimed last year that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.”

Baloney: the Koran has over 100 verses urging violence against non-believers.

Of course, other churches are awful on immigration—see 'Open Heart' Methodists—Empty-Headed Immigration Activists, Immigration Enthusiast Evangelicals Squirming After Soros, Treason Lobby Funding Revealed, Southern Baptist Treason: The Dow Blog Deals With The Theology, articles about Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services generally, Know Thine Enemy: The "Collaborators" Of The Religious Left.

But it would be nice if the Catholic Church wasn’t now working so hard to betray America—a country that has been especially generous to it.

Brenda Walker lives in northern California and publishes the blog LimitsToGrowth.org.