National Migration Week and World Day of Migrants and Refugees

For nearly a century, the Catholic Church has celebrated the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR), and for nearly a half century the Catholic Church in the United States has celebrated National Migration Week, which is an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking.

Do we care, or have we inadvertently fallen into the trap of what Pope Francis calls the “globalization of indifference?” – Artisans of Hope In Our Blessed and Broken World, Society of the Sacred Heart

For nearly a century, the Catholic Church has celebrated the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR), and for nearly a half century the Catholic Church in the United States has celebrated National Migration Week, which is an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking. 

National Migration Week 2021 takes place September 20-26, and will climax with the Vatican’s celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR), which always falls on the last Sunday of September. The primary theme for this year’s WDMR is “Towards an ever wider ‘we.’” In his letter announcing this year’s theme, Pope Francis emphasizes that “‘this focus calls on us to ensure that ‘after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those,’ but only ‘us’’ (Fratelli tutti, no. 35). And this universal us must become a reality first of all within the Church which is called to cultivate communion in diversity.”

We invite you to take some time during the upcoming National Migration Week and World Day of Migrants and Refugees to reflect on how we can better welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants living in our midst. How can we counter the globalization of indifference that affects us all, to some degree or another? What policies can we promote that will affirm the dignity of migrants and better secure the common good? How do we work more fully to promote a Church for all?