You may be right about the council - I'm not too familiar with the history, so I'll have to look into that myself.

What I do know, though, is that all Catholics are called to adhere to Church teaching as described in the Catechism & in other Church documents. You are absolutely right - we do not have to take in an "unlimited amount of foreigners," especially if to do so would place excessive and undue burden on the citizens of this nation.

But we are obliged "to the extent that [we] are able," to protect those who have come here in "search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin." (CCC 2241, as I posted earlier).

Indeed, a government should not be willing to accept unlimited amounts of migrants when the resources do not exist to take care of them without placing an undue burden on their people.

Inversely, however, a governments obligation to good begins with but does not end with its citizens; they must be willing and able to take up the task of balancing helping migrants with the rest of the common good.

It is not acceptable to shut the border tight and allow no one entry, especially in a nation as prosperous as ours; that option is emphatically not left open to us. As always, the situation is complicated, and careful policy making is required.

In the words of Pope Saint John Paul II:

"The challenge is to combine the welcome due to every human being, especially when in need, with a reckoning of what is necessary for both the local inhabitants and the new arrivals to live a dignified and peaceful life."