Migrants from Honduras are seen in Zacapa, Guatemala, Oct. 17, as they journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNS photo/Esteban Biba, EPA)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“No American institution does more for immigrants than your Christian communities … Not only as the Bishop of Rome, but also as a pastor from the South, I feel the need to thank and encourage you.” (Pope Francis: Prayer during his visit with U.S. Catholic bishops in 2015)
For nearly a half century, the U.S. bishops have celebrated National Migration Week at the beginning of each new year to raise awareness about the plight of migrants. These include immigrants, refugees, children, and the victims and survivors of human trafficking. “Building Communities of Welcome,” the theme for National Migration Week 2019, emphasizes our responsibility as Catholics to engage and welcome newcomers, and to ease their transition into a new life in the United States.
National Migration Week, Jan. 6-12, is an opportunity for all of us to engage migrants as community members, neighbors and friends, as well as to educate each other about the Catholic Church’s positions on migration. The bishops urge all U.S. Catholics to stand in loving solidarity with migrants and to encourage reforms in our broken immigration system that separates families and denies due process. The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) also supports protection, humanitarian support and durable solutions for refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
The forced displacement of people is at the highest level since World War II. According to the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2018, 68.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, resulting in more than 22 million refugees. USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services, in collaboration with local Catholic Charities across the United States, form the largest private U.S. refugee resettlement network. It has helped welcome and resettle more than a million refugees since 1975.
Historically, the U.S. has led the world in refugee resettlement. Since 1975, our country accepted more than 3.3 million refugees for permanent resettlement. But our current government has set a “cap” of 30,000 to be admitted to the U.S. in 2019, the lowest number since the resettlement program began in 1980. By comparison, the average number of refugees admitted to the U.S. from 2010 through 2016 was approximately 67,000 per year. The USCCB has urged the U.S. government to welcome at least 75,000 refugees in 2019.
Pope Francis and the U.S. bishops believe migration and refugee asylum are basic human rights. This is more than just about statistics — each migrant has a name, a face, a story. It’s about ohana — all of us being one human family.
Let us pray as one ohana during January, and throughout this year, the National Migration Week Prayer:
Loving Father,
Protect, we pray, all those forced from their homes by violence and persecution, guide them to places of shelter and safety, and grant that people migrate always by choice and not necessity.
Watch over children who migrate alone, protect them from the risks they face all by themselves, help them reach their destination safely, and reunite them with those from whom they have been separated.
Guide all migrants who seek a better life, to new opportunities, and grant them a new beginning. We beseech you to give each of us the strength and generosity to welcome the stranger and to open our homes to the newcomer, and in doing so to comfort those who are suffering.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
For more information on welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees, please visit the USCCB Justice for Immigrants website: https://justiceforimmigrants.org.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
