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“Promoting a Church and a World for All” – National Migration Week 2020 January 7th, 2020
Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock
This week the U.S Catholic Church is celebrating National Migration Week, an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the conditions confronting migrants, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) holders, Refugees, migrant children, recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and victims and survivors of Human Trafficking.
The theme for this year’s observance is “Promoting a Church and a World for All,” which reflects the need for Catholics to be inclusive and welcoming to all our brothers and sisters. During this National Migration Week, we are all invited to celebrate the immigrant heritage story of the Church and continue to show solidarity with immigrants and refugees as our brothers and sisters.
- Learn more about how you can join and stand in solidarity and support vulnerable migrant and refugees in need: https://justiceforimmigrants.org/take-action/national-migration-week/
National Migration Week ends on January 11th, which happens to be Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Migrants are particularly vulnerable to being taken advantage of by traffickers.
Learn about the connection between migration and trafficking through this education module developed by US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking.
A Stranger and You Welcomed Me December 28th, 2015
National Migration Week 2016
“A Stranger and You Welcomed Me”
National Migration Week will be observed January 3 to 9. The theme for the 2016 observance is, “A Stranger and You Welcomed Me.” Oblate JPIC is inviting you to use this opportunity to pray, raise awareness and educate your communities on the issue of immigration and Catholic Social Teaching.
Prayer Resource
Leader
We are a community called and gathered by you, God. Your son, Jesus, lived your love in a community of apostles and disciples and invited them to look after one another. We ask you to help us not to forget that we all are called to imitate the example of your Son among ourselves.
Reader
The Church hears the suffering cry of all who are uprooted from their own land, of families forcefully separated, of those who, in the rapid changes of our day, are unable to find a stable home anywhere. She senses the anguish of those without rights, without any security, at the mercy of every kind of exploitation, and she supports them in their unhappiness. [We are called to work] so that every person’s dignity is respected, the immigrant is welcomed as a brother or sister, and all humanity forms a united family, which knows how to appreciate with discernment the different cultures, which comprise it.
(Pope John Paul II Message for World Migration Day 2000)
Prayer (Leader)
Loving God,
We pray that you provide your divine protection to all migrants, particularly those who are driven from their homes due to war or violence, who are uprooted due to environmental degradation and climate change, or whose material poverty pushes them to find opportunities elsewhere.
Show us how we might reach out to these vulnerable populations and help them to begin a new life in a new home. Open our hearts, so that we may provide hospitality for all who come in search of refuge. Give us the courage to welcome every stranger, as Christ in our midst. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
(Prayer from USCCB National Migration Week 2016)
Conclude (All)
God,
We pray for all people. We pray for those who leave their countries of origin in search for a better life for their families. Help us to stand strong in our actions of solidarity and prayers. Give courage to our elected leaders to do the right thing of enacting laws that protects all immigrant families.You always make something new in each one of us.
With your help, let us build a better world for all people.We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
Specific resources for National Migration Week 2016 can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/national-migration-week/
Prayer for Boundary Crossers – International Migrants Day (December 18) December 6th, 2012
International Migrants Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to migrants and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. Our colleagues in Rome at the Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (USG/UISG Secretariat) have made available a prayer resource for the occasion.
For copies of the prayer in 18 languages go to: http://jpicformation.wikispaces.com/EN_18Dec
Missionary Oblates responding to the needs of the homeless in Chula Vista December 31st, 2010
Fr Ricardo Lopez OMI shares his experience of working with the homeless and migrants in Chula Vista, California in this recent video.
New Protections for Migrant Domestic Workers Adopted at the UN December 6th, 2010
A high-level UN body has approved formal jurisprudence that elaborates the rights and practical recommendations for the protection of migrant domestic workers worldwide. In a vote on December 2, the UN Committee on Migrant Workers adopted the guidance in the form of a “General Comment” that interprets the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, one of the nine core international human rights treaties.
According to the International Catholic Migrant Commission (ICMC), “Domestic work accounts for as much as 10% of total employment in some countries, yet almost every country of the world excludes domestic work from its national labour laws and protections. Working in private homes, the workers are almost entirely unseen and unprotected. Estimates suggest that well over half of all domestic workers in many countries are migrant. As noted in the General Comment, “migrant domestic workers are at heightened risk of certain forms of exploitation and abuse.” Women, who are the vast majority of domestic workers worldwide, and child domestic workers are exceptionally vulnerable.”
