By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Parishioners in several Midwestern states are coming together to bring help and healing after tornadoes ravaged the area April 26-28, killing at least four.

The storms – which along with tornadoes dumped heavy rain and hail on Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas – claimed four lives in Oklahoma, including that of an infant, and caused widespread destruction.

“We have experienced a pretty devastating time here in the Elkhorn area,” said Father Tom Fangman, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn, Nebraska, in an April 28 video message posted to the parish’s Facebook page.

A previous post by the parish that same day said there were “over 30 families who have come to us for help and the applications just keep rolling in.”

On April 26, the Omaha suburb was devastated by what the National Weather Service assessed to be at least one EF3 tornado, with winds ranging from 136 to 165 miles per hour. Drone footage from local television station KETV showed homes leveled to the ground, with roofs sheared and structural walls badly damaged in others. Train cars were derailed about an hour away near Lincoln, Nebraska.

One Elkhorn family’s escape is being called “miraculous.”

KETV in Omaha reported that a bedridden father, unable to shelter before the twister’s impact, was shielded by his wife and son, who lay on top of him as their roof was torn away. The man sustained non-life-threatening injuries. While the home has been reduced to rubble, two crucifixes and an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary remained intact, still affixed to the remaining walls. A GoFundMe page for the family, whose last name has been listed as Sturgeon, has been set up by one of the son’s co-workers.

St. Francis Xavier Church in hard-hit Sulphur, Oklahoma – where at least one person died and 30 were injured – withstood the storm, but a number of parishioners lost their homes, a staff member at St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Ada, of which St. Francis Xavier is a mission church, told OSV News.

The disaster is a call to serve – and to witness to the love of Christ, said St. Patrick Parish in its Facebook message.

The parish, which has set up a relief fund, is working in concert with other local groups to organize humanitarian relief, and convened an April 29 volunteer meeting in its school cafeteria.

“We need you. … We ask you to prayerfully consider how God is calling you to help and if you can be part of this,” said the parish in its post. “Lives have been turned upside down and people have nothing. Let’s be in this mess with them and help them carry their cross. And let’s show our community that life isn’t going on for everyone else but them. We are the Body of Christ.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @GinaJesseReina.

By Maureen Boyle
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Adding another distinguished medal to her already sizable collection, Katie Ledecky – the most decorated woman in swimming history – was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 3 in a White House ceremony.

A native of the Washington area and a parishioner of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland, Ledecky received the nation’s highest civilian honor, along with 18 other Americans who have “made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” according to a White House statement.

Ledecky, 27, is a three-time U.S. Olympic swimmer, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, a 21-time world champion and a 16-time world-record breaker in her sport.

“Thank you, Mr. President and everyone at the White House today for this honor and an incredibly special day!” announced Ledecky, who also shared photographs of the event on her social media pages, following the Friday afternoon ceremony held in the East Room of the White House before hundreds of guests.

Ledecky was among 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year. The group included Jesuit Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, an intervention and rehabilitation program for gang members in Los Angeles; Elizabeth Dole, a former U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of labor and president of the American Red Cross; Medgar Evers (awarded posthumously), a pioneering civil rights leader murdered in 1963; and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

“Powered by faith, family, and teamwork, Katie Ledecky is a symbol of perseverance and strength with a heart of gold that shines for the nation and for the world,” President Joe Biden said before presenting the honor to the swimmer.

A graduate of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, Ledecky plans to compete in her fourth summer Olympic Games July 26-Aug. 11 in Paris.

During the summer of 2012, Ledecky was a rising 15-year-old sophomore at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda when she was the youngest athlete on the U.S. Olympic swim team and won her first gold medal in the women’s 800-meter women’s freestyle race during the London Olympics.

Before she headed off to her inaugural Summer Games, Ledecky told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, that to calm her nerves she always prays right before a race.

“The prayer I say is the ‘Hail Mary,’” said Ledecky, adding that her faith and the sacraments give her a welcome opportunity to pause in her busy routine. “I also love going to Mass every week. It’s a great chance to reflect and connect with God. (My faith) has been a big part of my life since I was born.”

Although the medals, records, accolades and commercial endorsements have mounted up in the ensuing years, Ledecky is very much the same humble, hometown athletic phenom she was 12 years ago.

Following the Tokyo Summer Games, Ledecky returned to Stone Ridge in the fall of 2021 to a hero’s welcome, speaking to students and answering their questions for two hours. Wearing her new, shiny gold and silver swimming medals around her neck, Ledecky spoke about her Olympic experiences and her intense swim regime, while encouraging the students to work hard and follow their own dreams.

At the time, she told the Catholic Standard she was grateful for her lifelong Catholic faith – something she especially relied on during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it remained very important in her life, especially the during the difficult challenges of the global shutdown – which led to a year’s postponement of the 2020 Summer Games. She recalled attending Mass virtually every week with her family whom she hadn’t seen in person since December 2019.

“My faith is strong, and I realized more how important that is,” she said.

Ledecky told the students her proudest moments are not the Olympic medals, but rather the happiness she found in and the gratitude she has for the communities she has been a part of and which have supported her throughout the years – including her Catholic school alma maters, Stanford University, Bethesda and the entire Washington region.

“Yes, (the medals) are heavy, but they are small relative to all the hard work from my family, my parents (David and Mary Gen), my brother (Michael),” she said. “(The medals) are a great symbol (of the work). It takes a village. I wish I could give medals to all of you.” Ledecky began swimming at age 6 at her neighborhood community pool.

During her years swimming for the Stone Ridge Gators, Ledecky set many records there, and after her initial triumph in the London Olympics in 2012, she went on to even greater success at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At the Tokyo Games, then 24-year-old Ledecky won her 10th Olympic medal for swimming, adding two gold and two silver medals to her collection. She also won the inaugural gold in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle swim, a first-time Olympic event.

At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, Ledecky won gold medals in the women’s 1500-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle and silver medals in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay and 400-meter freestyle.

Following the White House ceremony, tributes flooded Ledecky’s Facebook and Instagram pages, with many followers offering their hearty congratulations for her recent honor. Other messages included those of support, pride and gratitude from individuals all over the United States.

In one Facebook comment, a mother wrote, “You are such an inspiration for my little girl! We are so lucky to have you as a role model not only in the pool, but outside as well. Congratulations, Katie!!”

Maureen Boyle writes for the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.

By Maria Wiering
(OSV News) – Participants in the National Eucharistic Congress and related National Eucharistic Pilgrimage now have opportunities to receive plenary indulgences, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced April 9.

“It is with gratitude to the Holy Father that we receive his Apostolic Blessing upon the participants in the National Eucharistic Congress, and for the opportunity for Catholics in our country to obtain a plenary indulgence by participating in the events of the Eucharistic Revival,” he said in a USCCB statement.

According to the statement, Archbishop Broglio, who also leads the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, had requested that a plenary indulgence be available to Catholics who participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and that “he or another prelate be designated to impart the Apostolic Blessing with a Plenary Indulgence” to the faithful joining the National Eucharistic Congress.

The requests were granted in two separate decrees by the Apostolic Penitentiary, an office with the church’s central administrative body known as the Roman Curia, which grants the use of indulgences “as expressions of divine mercy,” the statement said. Both decrees were approved by Pope Francis.
The congress and preceding pilgrimage are efforts of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops that began in 2022 to inspire greater understanding of and love for Jesus in the Eucharist. Held in Indianapolis July 17-21 at Lucas Oil Stadium, the congress aims to bring together tens of thousands of Catholics for liturgies, devotions and well-known Catholic speakers.

Beginning the weekend of May 17-18, 24 young adults in four groups are traveling thousands of miles to the congress from starting points in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas. Pilgrims in this National Eucharistic Pilgrimage plan to travel – often by foot – with the Eucharist in a monstrance, with stops along the routes for Mass and Eucharistic adoration at local parishes and national shrines. The “perpetual pilgrims” anticipate thousands of Catholics from across the country will join them at pilgrimage events or journey with them for segments of the routes.

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chair of the board of directors of the National Eucharistic Congress, told OSV News that the “tradition of giving an indulgence for pilgrimages and important celebrations is ancient.”

“We are grateful to the Holy Father through the Apostolic Penitentiary that offers this blessing to those who are seeking to grow in greater purity of heart through the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress,” he said. “These events will be great moments of conversion which this indulgence points to as we seek to be free from the effects of our sins. We are grateful for the Holy Father’s blessing on these events.

He added, “Pope Francis himself said that (the) ‘National Eucharistic Congress marks a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States’ and he prayed that the National Eucharistic Congress would guide men and women throughout our country to the Lord who, by his presence among us, rekindles hope and renews life.”

According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints.”

One may obtain indulgences for other people, but can only apply them to the souls in purgatory. One may also obtain the indulgence for oneself. But one cannot apply an indulgence to another living person; that person (unlike someone in purgatory) can still obtain one for himself or herself.

The plenary indulgence for National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is granted to anyone who participates in the pilgrimage between May 17 and July 16, as well as to elders, people with infirmities and “all those who cannot leave their homes for a serious reason and who participate in spirit with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, uniting their prayers, pains, or inconveniences with Christ and the pilgrimage,” the USCCB statement said. To receive the indulgence, an individual must fulfill the usual conditions: sacramental confession, Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father.

In granting the indulgence, the Apostolic Penitentiary requests that all priests with appropriate faculties “present themselves willingly and generously in administering the Sacrament of Penance” to pilgrimage participants, according to the statement.

The second decree of the papal blessing with plenary indulgence for the National Eucharistic Congress empowers Archbishop Broglio or another prelate assigned by him to impart it, following Mass, to the faithful participating in the congress. As is the case with the previous indulgence, Catholics must be truly repentant of their sins, be motivated by charity, and meet the usual conditions of sacramental confession, Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father.

However, Catholics who “due to reasonable circumstances and with pious intention” cannot be physically at the congress may also receive the indulgence if they have participated in Mass and received the blessing through media communications.

“Through the efforts of the revival over the last two years, we have been building up to the pilgrimage and congress that will offer Catholics a chance to experience a profound, personal revival of faith in the Eucharist,” said Archbishop Broglio. “Pope Francis continues to encourage and support us as we seek to share Christ’s love with a world that is desperately in need of Him.”

The National Eucharistic Revival continues after the congress through 2025 with a “Year of Missionary Sending.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

(Editor’s note: The Southern route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage (St. Juan Diego route) will be traveling through the Diocese of Biloxi between June 10-14. Visit https://www.biloxidiocese.org/eucharist and click on the button “Eucharistic Revival Procession (Across the Coast)” to view a schedule of events.)

By Maria del Pilar Guzman
(OSV News) – When Eduardo Lopez de Casas was abused by a priest during his school years, he could not bring himself to tell his mother what was happening, fearing it would ruin her faith in the Catholic Church. Having grown up hearing about her mother’s upbringing – and how she came to find solace in her faith after becoming an orphan at an early age in Mexico City – Lopez de Casas “did not want, ever, to come in between my mother’s faith because it was so strong.”

Lopez de Casas’ mother passed away in 2021, never hearing of her son’s plight with the abuse he had suffered at the hands of a man who was supposed to offer him guidance.

Now the vice president of the board of directors for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Lopez de Casas shared his story in the January webinar “Courageous Conversations: How Immigrant Voices Are Silenced in Church Abuse,” part of a speaker series hosted by Awake, a survivor support and advocacy organization that works to support survivors and educate Catholics on the issue of sexual abuse within the church.

The independent nonprofit was established in 2019 in Milwaukee by a small group of Catholics and recently broadened its focus. Its mission? To “awaken our community to the full reality of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, work for transformation, and foster healing for all those who’ve been wounded,” Catherine Owers, Awake’s community engagement specialist, told OSV News in March.

Owers said the Courageous Conversations episode speaks directly to the first part of the mission statement – awaken our community to the full reality of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church – as many people, when they think about abuse in the church and survivors of abuse, “they have this classic image of an older man, usually an older white man, who has abused the child, (such as) a priest and maybe the child was serving as an altar boy.”

While that is true in many cases, there are other kinds of survivors, Owers affirmed.

“People of color, women, survivors who have experienced abuse as adults, maybe not by priests but by other religious leaders, by religious sisters, by lay ministers,” Owers said, adding, “So, having these conversations, where we’re really highlighting the diversity of stories, I think it’s just so tremendously important.”

Aside from Lopez de Casas, the webinar also gave voice to Aimee Torres, a Filipino filmmaker from Los Angeles who was harmed by a priest when she was a child, and Susan Bigelow Reynolds, assistant professor of Catholic Studies in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.

Reynolds, whose essay “’I Will Surely Have You Deported’: Undocumenting Clergy Sexual Abuse in Immigrant Communities” was published in the journal Religion and American Culture in 2023, said that, for her research, she examined the case of Peter Edward Garcia. A priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from the 1960s through the 1980s, Garcia targeted the children of undocumented immigrants for sexual abuse, threatening them with deportation if they ever told on him.

“(Garcia) served for a time as the head of Hispanic outreach in the archdiocese, which gave him a really unique, trusted status, particularly for recently arrived families,” Reynolds shared during the webinar. He would then “use families’ undocumented status to threaten these children effectively, children and teenagers … who feel an obvious and understandable sense of loyalty and fidelity to their families, into silence, to scare them not to report their violence,” she added.

Garcia was accused of abusing at least 12 minors in a period of 20 years. He was laicized in 2006 and died in 2009, according to records from bishop-accountability.org.

Reynolds pointed to power abuse and clericalism as chief contributors to the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church as, because of these, perpetrators enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution due to their position in the church.

However, clericalism does not operate in a vacuum, Reynolds said.

“Clericalism gains traction, gains force and power by trading on other structures of domination based on race and ethnicity and class and legal status and gender and age,” she said.

Torres can see the power dynamics at play in her experience of abuse. Growing up in a predominantly Catholic family of Filipino immigrants, she witnessed how priests held revered status within her community and how they were viewed as “little kings.” Inevitably conditioned by her culture, she did not report the abuse she suffered at the hands of a priest, a close friend of an aunt, between the ages of 8 and 12, until she was 17.

“The priest that abused me; he used his power as a priest over me because I felt, at the time, that I was doing something wrong,” Torres said. “At that point, you feel so small over somebody like this,” she added.

Because immigrants experience unique challenges associated with economic hardships, language and discrimination, among others, they become more vulnerable to potential acts of abuse.

Even before the death of her father at a young age, Torres’ mother, dealing with financial pressures, worked “full-time and lacked resources for child care,” leaving Torres and her sister in the care of her aunt.

“The priest that abused me, he would come over every Sunday after Mass at his parish and stay over at her (aunt’s) house, and that’s where the abuse happened,” she shared.

For Lopez de Casas, it was the language barrier that became the ultimate obstacle when he tried to report his first instances of abuse at school (this was before being abused by a priest). Wanting to know what was happening to their son, Lopez de Casas’ parents met with the school principal, counselors, and teachers. Not speaking English, they resorted to a translator.

However, “from the very beginning, even though I was very young, I did learn immediately at these meetings that, whenever I would say something, they would translate my statements to my mom, but they were very whitewashed … they would do it in a way that made me look bad and made the predators look sane,” he said.

This shaped how he would report – or not – future instances of abuse.
Responding to Reynolds’ call at the end of the webinar to look “harder for the stories” of immigrants who have suffered abuse within the church “and bring them to light,” Owers said Awake continues to work toward bridging “the gap between survivors and concerned Catholics who want to learn more.”

In an earlier interview with OSV News, Sara Larson, Awake’s executive director, said she has seen “so many survivors work so hard to disentangle their abuser and the things he or she said or did or the way that spirituality was used – disentangle that from their own spiritual life, their own understanding of God and, for some, their own relationship with the church.”

Awake has a “desire to be really survivor-centered,” and to “make sure that when people are engaging with abuse survivors, that they’re ready for that and have the training and an approach that’s not going to cause additional harm,” she said.

“(Survivors) are out there, and they are part of our community,” Owers said.

“We also want to continue to connect with church leaders and provide resources for them to help the church become safer, more accountable, and more compassionate,” she added.

(Maria del Pilar Guzman writes for OSV News from Boston. Notes: To reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline, call 800-656-HOPE (4673)

For more information about Awake, visit: https://www.awakecommunity.org/)

By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – A new study of U.S. Catholics suggests that Mass attendance and political affiliation are associated with their views of Pope Francis and Catholic teaching on key moral issues.
The findings were released by the Pew Research Center April 12 from a study that surveyed close to 12,700 respondents, 2,019 of whom self-identified as Catholic.

The sample was designed to be representative of the nation’s self-identified Catholics, who constitute 20% of the U.S. population, about 52 million U.S. Catholic adults out of the nation’s 262 million adults counted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2023.

Most (57%) of the nation’s Catholics are white, while 33% are Hispanic, followed by Asian (4%), Black (2%) and Catholics of other races (3%). Racial and ethnic distribution of Catholics varies in the U.S., with greater numbers of U.S. Hispanic Catholics living in the South and West, where they respectively represent 40% and 55% of the Catholic population in those regions.

A majority of U.S. Catholics (58%) are age 50 and above, as compared to 48% of all U.S. adults in Pew’s survey.

Hispanic Catholics tend to be significantly younger than white Catholics, with 57% of Hispanic Catholics under 50 as compared to 32% of white Catholics.

Regionally, 29% of U.S. Catholics live in the nation’s South; 26% in the Northeast; 24% in the West; and 21% in the Midwest.

Pew found that nearly three in 10 (28%) of U.S. Catholics reported attending Mass weekly or more often, similar to results reported by a recent Gallup poll in which 21% of U.S. Catholics said they attend weekly and 9% almost every week.

Daily prayer was reported by 52% of U.S. Catholics, while 46% described religion as “very important” in their lives. According to Pew, 20% of U.S. Catholics reported weekly Mass attendance, daily prayer and a regard for religion as “very important” in their life.

Politically, a majority of Catholic registered voters (52%) identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and 44% with the Democratic Party.

The data showed that 75% of U.S. Catholics regarded the pope favorably, which is down from 83% in 2021, and 90% in early 2015.

The report said that 89% of U.S. Catholics who are or lean Democrat approve of the pope, while just 7% disapprove of him. In contrast, just 63% of U.S. Catholics who are or lean Republican give the pope a thumbs-up, while 35% view him unfavorably. Those unfavorable views among Catholics who are or lean Republican are higher than 2018, the year a new wave of sex abuse scandals, including abuse accusations involving former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, broke out.

“The partisan gap in views of Pope Francis is now as large as it’s ever been in our surveys,” said the report.
Despite the church’s teaching against abortion, some six in 10 U.S. Catholics support legalized abortion in all or most cases, with Hispanic Catholics (63%) slightly more approving of keeping abortion legal in all or most cases than white Catholics (59%).

Those opinions about abortion “tend to align” with U.S. Catholics’ political preferences, noted Pew, with 78% of Catholics who are or lean Democrat favoring legalized abortion in most or all cases less than 84% of U.S. adults who are or lean Democrat; and 43% of Catholics who are or lean Republican slightly favoring abortion compared to 40% of U.S. adults who are or lean Republican.

The survey also assessed U.S. Catholics’ views on contraception, sexuality and the priesthood, and found “big differences between Mass-attending Catholics and those who don’t (attend)” on those issues.

“Catholics who attend Mass regularly (once a week or more) are far more inclined than those who go less often to say the church should take a traditional or conservative approach on questions about the priesthood and sexuality,” said the report.

Most weekly Mass attendees said the church should not recognize same-sex marriages (65%) or allow women to be ordained as priests (56%).

A majority of U.S. Catholics (69%) across the political divide – including 53% of weekly Mass attending Catholics – said the church should “allow priests to get married.”

The Pew survey question on this point, however, does not accurately distinguish between the normative practice in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches of ordaining married men to the priesthood on the one hand, and the churches’ ancient prohibition on priests attempting marriage after ordination.

Although the Latin Church, which most Catholics belong to, only ordains celibate men with few exceptions, and could legitimately change its discipline on the ordination of married men to align with the Eastern Catholic or Orthodox churches – none of these churches allows priests to marry unless they are returned first to the lay state, rendering them no longer in a position of spiritual power over a lay woman whose full and free consent is necessary for sacramental marriage.

U.S. Catholics who do not attend Mass on a weekly basis favored recognition of same-sex marriages (61%) and women’s ordination (71%).

Broadly, 83% of U.S. Catholics surveyed said the church should permit the use of contraception, 75% said the church should permit reception of holy Communion by unmarried couples living together and 54% said the church should recognize same-sex marriage.

Among Catholics who opposed deviating from church teaching on contraception, priestly celibacy, women’s ordination, holy Communion for unmarried cohabiting couples and recognition of same-sex marriages, 59% said they attend Mass at least once a week, and 72% identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.

For those Catholics who said the church should permit the above practices, 56% reported seldom or never attending Mass, and 57% identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party.

Pew research associate Patricia Tevington told OSV News the report, for which she was one of three primary researchers, is intended to serve as “a descriptive source of information,” rather than a causal analysis of the nation’s Catholics and their characteristics.

“We try to just tell you what’s going on,” said Teverington. “If we can rule out explanations that might be obvious, we try to do so, but generally we just … give you the facts.”

The data has been released publicly and can be downloaded from Pew’s website, she said, so that other researchers “are able to run deeper analyses … and make more causal arguments” about the results.

Still, Teverington said that the effects of political divides and weekly Mass attendance can be detected in the data.

“Political partisanship has definitely been … increasing over time,” she said. “And people (who) attend Mass weekly or more are definitely different than folks that attend less often.”

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.)

By Marietha Góngora V., Maria-Pia Negro Chin, and Andrea Acosta

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Continuing to minister to migrants at the border and beyond while advocating for policies that uphold people’s dignity is a way the U.S. Catholic Church follows God’s call, said experts during an April 11 migration conference at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

Hosted by CUA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the conference’s theme was “Responding to Changing Realities at the U.S. Border and Beyond.” It included panels with academics and experts with hands-on experience ministering to migrants.

After his opening prayer, Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjívar of Washington referenced the recently released Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration “Dignitas Infinita,” saying that migrants have their “dignity denied in their home countries but also their lives are put at risk” because they often engage in a dangerous journey for the sake of their families.

But, said William Canny, executive director of the department of Migration and Refugee Services at USCCB, the human dignity of all migrants should not be denied or forgotten.

Drawing from “Strangers No Longer: Together in a Journey of Hope,” the 2003 joint document by the bishops of the U.S. and Mexico, which addressed the need to manage migration more humanely and emphasized pastoral care to newcomers, he said: “We are guided by these principles: People have a right to stay and find opportunities in their own country. They have the right to migrate and support themselves and their families when they cannot stay. Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders, we would say humanely. Refugees and asylum-seekers should be given protection, wealthy countries perhaps have a greater responsibility to do that. Human dignity and human rights of undocumented migrants should always be respected.”

The first panel at CUA’s migration conference delved into migrants’ experiences at the border and beyond, including the root causes of migration, what migrant families face, and how the church responds during their journey and once they arrive in the U.S.

Sister Tracey Horan, a Sister of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, who is associate director of education and advocacy at the Kino Border Initiative, a binational Catholic organization located in Nogales, talked about migration to the border of the U.S. as an act of desperation. She said that while in 2017, their migrant center would see men migrating for economic reasons, they are increasingly seeing more families — with 83% of people reporting violence and persecution as their primary reason to migrate in 2023.

Those arriving at the southern border come from countries like Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, as well as China, and Russia.

Because migrants seeking protection from violence can’t just walk up to the port of entry, people can wait in Mexico for months, Sister Tracey told OSV News. “We’re trying to accompany people as they’re facing these really tough choices about how to sustain their families as they’re stuck in limbo and how to access an orderly pathway to getting protection in the U.S.”

Holy Cross Sister Sharlet Ann Wagner, director of the Newcomer Network at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, described the situation migrants face once they enter the U.S. and said that many community-based organizations are overwhelmed. For example, she said that her agency in Washington has 35 professionals in the legal department and can’t keep up with the demand.

This was later echoed by Michelle Sardone, deputy director of programs at Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. She warned that despite organizations’ efforts to provide immigration legal services, many migrants face the immigration system without legal representation. “At the end of last year, the backlog of cases in immigration court was 3.2 million, and of those cases, only 30% have representation,” she said.

But accompanying new migrants also is an opportunity to follow Jesus’ teachings and be prophetic, said Sister Sharlet Ann, even when current rhetoric demonizes migrants or treats them as a political tool. “It is a privilege to walk with them,” she said of the migrants they serve.

Moreover, she added, the United States needs workers who contribute to local economies, stressing that they are ready and willing to work. She added that although local governments face the unexpected need to respond to an increase in population, responding to migrants is an investment.

Citing Congressional Budget Office projections, she said the labor force will increase by 5.2 million workers by 2033. Because of immigrants entering the workforce, she said, CBO estimates that gross domestic product will increase by about $7 trillion and revenues will grow by $1 trillion between 2023 and 2034.

The panel also addressed misinformation — primarily spread through social media — which creates confusion for migrants but amplifies anti-immigrant rhetoric. Misleading information and increased politicization of the issue have made discussing the Catholic response to migration controversial.

Oblate Father Leo Perez, USCCB’s director for National Collections for Church in Latin America, said that the times he preaches about what the Gospel says about migrants, he knows he has “to be ready to be attacked right outside the church by people who think you’re politicizing the Eucharist.” But, having met migrants on the move while visiting Latin America and seen what they go through, the priest said he stores up energy to face this.

When talking about migration, sharing the testimonies of people is crucial because “it helps us see the human side, the people and not numbers,” said Sister Tracey, echoing a widespread sentiment of panelists and attendees.

CUA’s president, Peter K. Kilpatrick, told OSV News, “it’s critically important to discuss immigration, really at all times, but especially in this year of our national election for our next president.”

“This conversation, I hope, will sensitize our hearts, too, and help us discern better where we invest all of our time and energy to be of service to our neighbor,” he said of the conference.

During her presentation for the panel, “Why do Catholics respond to the call to stand with immigrants?,” CUA professor Julia Young quickly summarized the century-long history of Catholic migration advocacy at the U.S.-Mexico border. She focused on five moments of Latin American migration since 1910 — the Mexican revolution and later the Cristero War, the Bracero program for Mexican workers, Cuban migration to Miami and Puerto Ricans moving to New York and New Jersey — pointing out the ways Catholic leaders helped reunite families, offered legal services, assisted unaccompanied minors, face racism and nativism, and advocated for those who came.

The church was doing “what so many people in this room are doing now,” she said.

Jesuit Father David Hollenbach, a research professor at Georgetown University, talked about the biblical basis for caring for migrants. In the Old Testament, the call to love the stranger is listed 36 times, he said, and this call is echoed in the Gospel of Matthew.

Meanwhile, Todd Scribner, Migration and Refugee Services’ director of education, talked about the church responding to the needs of Catholic migrants at the beginning of the 20th century — and how mid-century shifts, including the number of people migrating to flee communism — affected the way it cared about migrants as a person, regardless of their faith.

Panelists also stressed that many of the Catholic schools and hospitals that are now part of American life were initially founded to serve Catholic immigrants, often amid anti-migrant and anti-Catholic sentiment before they integrated into U.S. society.

“In the past, there was a lot of nativism,” Young told OSV News. Narratives first described migrants from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe as different and dangerous people who “can never be assimilated,” she said, likening it to some charged rhetoric portraying newcomers as “a crisis.”

“The history of our migration shows us that migrants can and do become American and also enrich the culture in the United States,” she said.

During a keynote address, Kilpatrick interviewed Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas. The bishop talked about the enduring solidarity of the community of El Paso amid restrictive policies in the state, migrants’ contributions to society, the response of cities receiving busloads of migrants “being sent there in a way intended to overwhelm resources,” the need for an all-hands-on-deck approach amid a surge in migration and the call for a consistent ethic of life.

He also said the virtue of hospitality “sums up fundamental aspects of being a Christian” because “our whole salvation is based on a hospitable God who is willing to reach out to us.”

From a practical standpoint, he continued, responding to the needs of migrants “who are forced to the sidelines because of our unwillingness to welcome them and integrate them as our Holy Father calls us to” is “fundamental for a healthy nation.”

“This is a key moment, and we will either thrive or not thrive as a nation in the future, as a place of peace, justice, and harmony. … Unless we respond to this challenge,” he said.

During an afternoon panel, experts then discussed Catholic institutions’ role in shaping immigration policy.

Christy Williams, director of social policy and government affairs at Catholic Charities USA, explained that its centers around the country help combat food insecurity, housing and shelter, and disaster relief. Thus, they engage with Congress “to advocate for policies and legislation that prioritize the needs of the poor, ensure that those legislation policies are humane, honor the dignity of people, and ensure that their rights are respected.”

This includes advocating for expanded legal pathways to enter the U.S. because restrictive policies “have really negatively impacted migrants and cut them off from access to vital protections at the border,” Williams said.

That is why it’s important that “federal agencies that administer immigration in this country have the resources they need,” which will, in turn, mean that “people are not waiting two or three years for a work permit or wait 10 years before they can have their case heard before the immigration judge.”

Celina Marquez, a USCCB policy adviser, said that in addition to working with government agencies to welcome and provide services to refugees, asylum-seekers, and unaccompanied children, MRS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement assists “with various forms of advocacy” on a federal level while keeping a finger on the pulse of state legislatures that can affect vulnerable migrant populations. These include work authorizations for asylum-seekers, more safety measures for migrant children and promoting family unity, as well as addressing root causes of migration.

“We are always focused on advocating for comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform so that the migrant population that is currently in the country, whether they are undocumented or here under a temporary form of status like TPS, have a pathway to status and also for those who are outside the country and hoping to come in” so they have a safer way to migrate, she said.

Meanwhile, Giulia McPherson, vice president of advocacy and operations for Jesuit Refugee Service/USA,explained that JRS, which works in more than 55 countries, receives State Department funds for about 14 countries. Those funds help displaced people with access to education, livelihood and mental health support. “We are focusing a lot of our advocacy to make sure that the U.S. government continues to support those overseas refugee assistance programs,” she said.

David Cronin, senior policy and legislative specialist for Catholic Relief Services, said CRS’s advocacy efforts ensure that “taxpayer dollars are allocated to support humanitarian aid and address the root causes of migration.” This allows organizations like CRS to accompany people in vulnerable situations and give them tools and resources so they can thrive where they live and are not forced to leave their homes.

“I just hope that during this conversation, you keep in mind the people that are impacted by the policies,” he said. “They desperately need hope, resources and support.”

Before the final prayer, six experts shared different recommendations for people to engage in action, which included stressing the importance of Catholic education for migrants to be integrated into mainstream society and highlighted the resources their organizations provide.

Cheryl Aguilar, founding director of Hope Center for Wellness, which works with parents of migrant children who have been separated from their families, echoed their call to encourage others to create support groups, be good neighbors, understand the causes of migration and volunteer.

“Whether we are legal service providers, legal professionals, students or whoever we are in this room, there is always something we can do,” she said.

(Marietha Góngora V. writes for OSV News from Washington. Maria-Pia Negro Chin is Spanish editor for OSV News. Andrea Acosta is a reporter for El Pregonero, the Spanish language newspaper and website for Archdiocese of Washington.)