Transcripts from CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight last night: Cardinal Roger Mahoney teaches the illegal alien lobby how to talk about amnesty.

LOU DOBBS, HOST: Tonight, the Bush administration and top lawmakers hold what are called make-or-break talks on so-called comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Will the Senate put the interest of the pro-amnesty lobby ahead of the national interest again?
We’ll have complete coverage for you.

Also tonight, disturbing new evidence that one of the country’s most powerful Catholics, Cardinal Roger Mahony, is hell bent on ignoring the principle of separation of church and state. The cardinal giving pro-illegal alien supporters a tutorial on how to sell their amnesty agenda….

The archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, has been giving advice to pro-amnesty, open borders advocates.

Christine Romans has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Cardinal Roger Mahony on the language of illegal immigration.

CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY, LOS ANGELES: I have learned that certain words are not to be used. Never use the “A” word, “amnesty”. But rather, find other words that don’t convey the power of what we are about.

ROMANS: The “we” here is the Catholic Church and the National Council of La Raza, to whom he was speaking. What they’re about, so- called comprehensive immigration reform.

MAHONY: We need and will get a comprehensive legislation passed.

ROMANS: And Cardinal Mahony has an urgent timeline.

MAHONY: Legislation must be passed by both houses and signed in to law by the time we get to the August recess.

ROMANS: Political observers say for Mahony, religious and politics are absolutely inseparable.

DAN HOFRENNING, ST. OLAF COLLEGE: The only thing he really cannot do is advocate for a particular candidate in an election or get involved in a specific campaign. Religious leaders are free to take stands on a particular pieces of legislation.

ROMANS: Mahony’s office did not return calls seeking comment, but in a recent speech, he said his lobbying for amnesty is justified by the bible. “As a Christian, there are no prior commitments that can overrule, or trump, this biblical tradition of compassion for the stranger, the alien, the worker.”

Indeed, Mahony says the church as a moral obligation to change American law, because he says, “Our current immigration laws are, in a word, unjust.”

(END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: His position on reforming those laws Says the church as a moral obligation to change the law. Because our immigration laws is incredibly specific. Illegal aliens, he says, can “earn their green cards” through several years of work, paying a fine, taking English in civics classes, and getting in line behind those already here, Lou. Very specific recommendations.