MINNEAPOLIS _ A Muslim organization is calling on the Minnesota Catholic Conference to repudiate a sermon by a Rice County priest in which he describes Islam as the "greatest threat in the world" both to the United States and Christianity itself.
The Rev. Nick VanDenBroeke, pastor of the 100-year-old Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale, made the remark during a 15-minute homily on Jan. 5, declared Immigration Sunday by Minnesota's Catholic bishops. In the sermon, he described the way he believes parishioners should address their concerns about immigration.
After City Pages published an article about the sermon Wednesday, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Minnesota) issued a statement condemning VanDenBroeke's remarks and seeking a response from the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the state's six dioceses.
"We urge leaders of the Catholic Church in Minnesota to repudiate these hate-filled and un-Christian remarks as unrepresentative of the faith they hold dear," CAIR-Minnesota's Executive Director, Jaylani Hussein, said in a statement.
VanDenBroeke was unavailable Wednesday for comment and did not respond immediately to an email.
The Lonsdale parish operates in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where a spokesman said Wednesday that church officials would respond as soon as someone had reviewed the matter. A spokeswoman for the Catholic Conference said their response would be coming from the archdiocese.
VanDenBroeke's homily was recorded and posted on the church's website. He noted the sermon was being offered on Immigration Sunday, a day first celebrated in 2009 to show the commitment of parishes statewide to welcoming migrants and refugees into their communities.
VanDenBroeke said he wanted to talk about illegal immigration in particular. He said that while the church is not a political organization, it's superior to politics and so the parishioners' religion must inform and guide them when they vote. He said the church's guidance on immigration is not a black-and-white issue like abortion or same-sex marriage, which he said are never acceptable.
As Catholics, VanDenBroeke said, parishioners must remember that immigrants are humans deserving of compassion. But he added that sovereign nations have the right and responsibility to control their borders to protect their citizens and lands.
The church teaches that its members must "welcome others in the name of Christ," he said, especially the poor, the sick, the handicapped, and even "those we don't like." Even so, he said, "A nation has a right to protect its ideas and its ideals."
Two-thirds of the way into the sermon, VanDenBroeke waded into his views on Muslims.
"Both as Americans and as Christians we do not need to pretend that everyone who seeks to enter America needs to be treated the same," he said. "I believe it is essential to consider the religion and worldview of the immigrants or refugees.
"More specifically, we should not be allowing large numbers of Muslims (seeking) asylum or immigration into our country. Islam is the greatest threat in the world both to Christianity and to America."
VanDenBroeke urged his parishioners to oppose Muslim immigration to protect the country, "not only as a Christian nation but also as the land of the free."
He closed by saying that the young immigrants known as "Dreamers," who were brought to the United States as children, should have a path to citizenship.
"In many ways we need them in our community and in our church," VanDenBroeke said.
Then he offered what he called a personal view: "I think we could easily fix the immigration question very quickly in our nation if we wanted to, if we build a wall and close the border to be able to ... curb the question of illegal immigration in the future and at the same time provide a path to legal citizenship for those who have been living here, who can prove they're not criminals, they're living good and peaceful lives, they're willing to work and pay taxes and be responsible."
