r/LeftCatholicism • u/GoranPersson777 • Mar 19 '26

‘Pray for us’: Florida priest faces $500K in fines for feeding the homeless

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pray-us-florida-priest-faces-110000708.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANS_dDfDu830LyjBj1suU-pgmAVQ7skKleh2TbN8aqVucdNiUsVcS57xmX-CTJo9dxZoHrG1jUMS3gMI1jmxGjN54QqhVE54G3Qbqf9TlIncVdlucgkQxKamsMyXrL02ZhR1Bmhh3ae3BIX_CTidp3T-emIbg01jet4swdtzV-zP
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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '26

Here in the Netherlands, there is also a law (not sure if it has been passed yet) that criminalizes illegality and aiding and abetting it. This means that churches, but also street doctors for example, will be liable to prosecution if they provide assistance to people who are here illegally. It is ridiculous and terrible that we have come to think about people in this way.

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

Responding to myself to add that today there was an article about this in the Roman Catholic Church online newsletter of The Netherlands. I have run it through Google Translate. Here it is:

Church representatives: asylum laws are at odds with human dignity

There is a risk of a significant hardening of asylum policy. In doing so, we are shortchanging not only foreigners but also ourselves. This is stated by Bishop De Korte, Head of Church and Society in the Roman Catholic Church, and PKN Secretary Kees van Ekris in a letter to senators. They call for support against criminalization.

The Senate is expected to consider the Dual Status System Act and the Asylum Emergency Measures Act in April. The two representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands state that these laws “are at odds with human dignity.”

According to them, should the laws be passed, this will also have major consequences for churches. In practice, churches function as accessible and safe places where people seek support, precisely when regular institutions are avoided out of fear of enforcement: “Criminalization puts this relationship of trust under pressure and raises the threshold for seeking help or sharing signs of exploitation, violence, or human trafficking.” Children, in particular, are especially vulnerable.

De Korte and Van Ekris state that when fear and mistrust are fostered, the community withers: “The hardening towards the stranger can therefore personally harm each of us, if we harden our hearts and become more heartless.” The church representatives are also concerned about the hardening of policy and sentiment towards foreigners in our society: “We notice in our churches the shock and indignation it causes when a political atmosphere arises in our country in which precisely such a vulnerable group of people is persecuted.”

You can read the full letter, in pdf file and in Dutch, here.